Time will certainly tell. If we had seen a much bigger backlash I would’ve agreed with you. Right now I’m not sure whether this is a giant step backward, a small step backward, or (in the long run) not a real change at all.
Unless something big changes in the next year or two I’m having a hard time seeing it as any sort of progress.
After all the GOP had decided to be much more inclusive and welcoming after getting trounced in 2012. Last year America taught them that was the wrong lesson.
I really hope this is a “last gasp“ kind of thing but my pessimism says it isn’t.
From my perspective, the backlash has already been more significant than expected.
But, the embrace of racism, anti-Semitism, historical revisionism, anti-scientific and neo-fascist ideologies seem to be both an expression of generational counterculture rejecting the status quo of "liberal" and "politically correct" thought, and a reactionary movement by the right-wing political establishment trying to maintain relevance in the face of changing ethnic, religious and gender dynamics in the US. I suspect real societal change will take much more than a year or two, or even a swing of the political pendulum from Red Team back to Blue Team. It might take generations, maybe long enough for children to reject the ideals of their alt-right and neoreactionary parents, the way the yuppies rejected the hippies, and the hippies rejected the beatniks.
Unless something big changes in the next year or two I’m having a hard time seeing it as any sort of progress.
After all the GOP had decided to be much more inclusive and welcoming after getting trounced in 2012. Last year America taught them that was the wrong lesson.
I really hope this is a “last gasp“ kind of thing but my pessimism says it isn’t.
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