In the early days of Legal Insurrection, particularly after Obama’s 2008 victory at least through the 2010 midterms, I often saw the word “eeyore” used to describe those in the conservative blogosphere whose main role in life was to spread gloom.
I also learned about a few types of common blog trolls:
Although it’s a little off point, it’s worth noting that according to a study, “trolling correlated positively with sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism”.
The eeyores and concern trolls are out in full force after Trump signed the Omnibus crap sandwich. While there was a possible logic to Trump signing the Omnibus bill, on the merits alone it’s hard to defend.
My anger is most intense against the Republican leadership in the House and Senate, whose job it was to draft the legislation. They surrendered, and worse, colluded.
Watching Schumer and Pelosi gloat and take victory dances is most unbearable of all. I’m reminded of Psalm 30: “I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.” House and Senate Republican leadership allowed our foes to rejoice over us, and Trump didn’t stop them. And all for no reason since Republicans *control* the House and Senate — it’s absolutely maddening and almost incomprehensible.
Omnibus has a lot of people spreading gloom for the 2018 elections and the rest of the Trump presidency. Most of the anger and frustration is genuine. But not all of it.
There’s a lot of concern trolling going on. It’s particularly intense from the sub-species of Republicans who have created a cottage cable TV and Twitter industry of being the Republicans who hates Trump more than even the most-hardened Democrat. These concern trolls claim to want to save the Republican Party and conservatism by making sure Trump’s presidency ends in Democrat victory.
There’s also plenty of concern trolling from the mainstream media, which is all too happy to exploit the divisions among Republicans the Omnibus bill created.
This all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy — the more the mistake of the Omnibus brings Trump voters down, the more likely to bring Republicans down in November. Eeyore-ism has a cost.
I’m happy to be part of an accounting with the Republicans who sold us out. But I’m not going to be a part of throwing the elections over it. I may not be over the Omnibus mistake yet, but I will be soon because the stakes are so high. As frustrating as Republican rule has become, I remember what it’s like to have Democrats in control. And the next time Democrats gain control, it will be far worse.
In the past two years we’ve seen how unhinged and totalitarian #TheResistance has become, weaponizing large corporations against us to silence our ability to communicate and trying to take away 2nd Amendment rights. There is no part of life that is not political. That loss of institutions is why, despite Republican wins in 2016, I wrote last October that Legal Insurrection is 9 years old, and filled with dread:
If the assault on the Electoral College was the game changer for me, a runner up was waking up to implications of the concentration of power in a small number of social media and internet companies who have been weaponized to shut down speech and expression. Google, Facebook, Twitter and two handfuls of other companies now completely control our ability to communicate with each other, while internet backbone companies are poised to block internet access altogether.Imagine living in a repressive country in which the government blocked access to and suppressed internet content. You don’t need to move. It’s coming here but from private industry. This is, in many ways, more dangerous than government suppression of free speech because at least in the U.S. the government is subject to the First Amendment, and can be voted out of office.I don’t know if there are any uncorrupted institutions left that matter. The education system, from public grade school through public and private higher ed, is gone….There is a rising tide of absolutism in ideas and enforcement of ideological uniformity that is palpable….
#TheResistance is not your grandfather’s or even father’s Democrat Party. If 2018 and 2020 Resistance Democrats take control of government combined with weaponized corporations, the Obama years of *mere* IRS harassment and politicized DOJ will seem like the good old days.
If you let the eeyores and concern trolls drive the agenda, then prepare for much worse to come.
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