Smug contempt feeds painful polarization
Oct 24, 2019, 9:01 AM
(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
A critically acclaimed new Broadway play highlights the bitter contempt that the left seems to feel toward all supporters of President Trump. Tracy Letts’ “Linda Vista” portrays an angry single guy going through mid-life crisis who, according to reviewer Ben Brantley, has “a gift for stating home truths that nobody else dares utter.” When he contemptuously describes Trump voters, he declaims “you cannot be friends with these people” and the theatre bursts into spontaneous applause.
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In other words, the well-heeled New York audiences cheer the notion that millions of their fellow citizens are unworthy of friendship because of their political leanings. Sure, President Trump contributes to such polarization with his raucous style and divisive rhetoric, but so do his harshest critics with their smug disdain for Trump’s devoted defenders.
America needs more open-minded, respectful dialogue about the issues of the day, but left-leaning pop culture serves to undermine that prospect.