(11-15-2016 08:28 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Do I think Donald Trump is racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, or misogynist? I don't know.
Do I think any significant number of Donald Trump's supporters are racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, or misogynist? Absolutely not.
Do I think there was a concerted effort by democrats to paint Trump and his supporters in those terms in an attempt to marginalize their legitimate issues? Absolutely so.

You may disagree. If so, we will just have to agree to disagree.

I think you're starting to realize the state of political discourse today, if you haven't already realized it. The problem is that, as it's been said, while conservatives tend to see their ideological opponents as wrong and misguided, liberals tend to see their opposition as stupid and evil. To the left, there can be no honest disagreements, because the right is fundamentally dishonest due to its opposition to liberal views. Therefore, any opposition must be rooted in some sort of bigotry, whether it be racism/sexism/xenophobia/"Islamophobia"/Bailiff apologia/whatever; the one thing opposition couldn't be is principled.

Appeals to bigotry are especially perfidious because of the slippery nature of the offense. As Justice Potter Stewart wrote about pornography, you can't define it, but you know it when you see it. However, that makes bigotry as much a function of the observer as the observed, and in my experience accusations of bigotry tell us as much about the accuser as they do about the accused. That's why the community standard concept has been used in regard to pornography; let the community decide what's acceptable following the principle of subsidiarity.

Unfortunately, it seems that a good portion of the left isn't willing to do that. Because its opposition is (to them) immoral, it must be crushed, in all aspects of life, and driven out of the public square of ideas. It's argument by epithet, and it formed the basis of Hillary Clinton's campaign. As you pointed out, Trump at least advanced policies during his campaign, ones that you may have found disagreeable, but nonetheless substantive policies. Clinton did little of that beyond a vague "Stay the course!" meme, focusing instead on how disreputable Trump (and by extension his supporters) are. It was a campaign of little substance, making bad-faith arguments because it presumed that its opposition was necessarily operating in bad faith. What's scary is that a slight plurality of the voters actually bought into that. Hurling insults is always easier than thinking, and the fact that the Democratic Party has essentially gone all-in on that philosophy for its campaigns can have only deleterious effects on the body politic and on society.