Actions like this create such a huge problem when trying to convince conservatives that Donald Trump is a unique and unprecedented danger.
It’s one thing when I, a progressive, say that I did not like the most recent Republican president. My conservative neighbors expect me to say that, and therefore ignore the criticism. But it’s not just me saying that; it’s also Mike Pence, John Bolton, John Kelly, Bill Barr, and Chris Christie. That is a unique level of criticism leveled at their own party’s president. But my conservative neighbors don’t know that.
Trump has been called “dangerous” by his own:
- Vice President,
- Secretary of Defense,
- Chief of Staff,
- Attorney General,
- and other advisors,
yet your typical Republican voter will insist that it’s just people on the left disliking a Republican president, just like any other Republican president.
Someone may comment that we all live in our own echo chambers, but the damn near impenetrable conservative bubble has no equivalence on the left. If conservative media doesn’t want their audience to know something, conservatives will not know it.
Disagreement is completely different from what I was talking about. People on the left are aware of the fact that those individuals claimed self defense; most disagree that it should have counted as self-defense. The fact that you saw their opinions in the first place – and they saw yours – shows that. If you think their opinion is wrong, or if they are too unwelcoming to your opinion, that’s a separate issue. I’m not even talking about the merits of either argument here, I’m talking about the fact that people on the left at least tend to know what point they are disagreeing with. Non-conservative news outlets will at least report “George Zimmerman Claims Self-Defense,” or “Popular Progressive Politician Receives Criticism from Own Party.” Right-leaning news outlets outright shelter their audiences from such information.
In my experience of trying to reach out to conservatives, as our culture of respectful disagreement expects me to, I am constantly blown away by the fact that a typical conservative has no idea what the objection to their worldview even is. Trump got elected almost eight years ago at this point, and they will still drop something like, “So what exactly do you people not like about him?”
There are levels to echo chambers. America’s Republican voters are sheltered in an iron dome, where dissenting ideas don’t even get in at all.