In the days following Kanye’s Wests positive remarks about Trump, he was ridiculed by late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmell. Other celebrities like Snoop Dog attacked Kanye on Twitter. These weren’t only unfair criticisms of Kanye, they were warnings to others. Stray from the liberal narrative and you too will be fair game.
What’s at the heart of all of this is fear? Imagine a national election where celebrities, some of them minorities, were rooting for the Republicans to win. That’s the Democratic party’s worst nightmare.
Jason Whitlock, who is black, recently wrote this for the Wall Street Journal:
Kanye Had One of the Best Tweets of All TimeAfter a nearly yearlong social-media hiatus, polarizing rap star Kanye West re-emerged on Twitter last month. On April 25 he shocked the mainstream media by expressing admiration for President Donald Trump.“You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him,” Mr. West tweeted. “We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.”The tweet heard round the internet pleased America’s Twitter-loving president, who promptly thanked the rapper. It had a much different effect on liberal elites. Mr. West’s tweet and his other missives supporting center-right figures like Candace Owens and Scott Adams constituted left-wing betrayal of the highest order. The man who once vilified George W. Bush for the slow response to Hurricane Katrina was joining the birther president?Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) bashed Mr. West for speaking “out of turn.” Mr. West shared over Twitter text messages from singer John Legend scolding him for aligning with President Trump. “Don’t let this be a part of your legacy,” implored Mr. Legend. The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates even spent 5,000 words admonishing Mr. West for straying too far from his betters’ thinking…Liberalism is black people’s cigarette. In the immediate aftermath of the civil-rights movement, Democrats marketed liberalism to us as fashionable, sophisticated and liberating. Today it needs a surgeon general’s warning: hazardous to your family and the values you were taught as a child.
Whitlock eventually says something that should keep Democrats awake at night:
…maybe we, African-Americans, have chosen the wrong strategy. No other ethnic group is chained to a single political ideology.
If this type of thinking takes hold in even a small percentage of African-American voters, the Democratic party is finished. What if more celebrities figure out that being OK with Trump and Republicans is the edgy thing to do?
Davis Richardson writes at Observer:
Bret Easton Ellis Warns More Celebrities Will Choose the Red Pill à la Kanye WestAs corporate progressivism vies against Trumpian nationalism for the future of America’s Empire, celebrities are inciting their own upheaval within Hollywood.American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis warned for years of an impending shift against progressive values in a town long touted as a bastion of liberalism. Following Kanye West’s controversial break with liberalism over Twitter and TMZ, Ellis is seeing his premonition unfold.“As someone who considers themselves a disillusioned Gen-X’er, I think there IS a backlash brewing against leftist hysteria,” Ellis told Observer over email. “What I used to semi-align myself with has no answers for anything right now, just constant bitching and finding ways to delegitimize an election.”“That is not a plan for 2020, and if I was a hardcore Democrat I’d be very worried despite the blue wave of 2018, that may or may not fully arrive,” added the controversial novelist.
Democrats can’t afford defectors. That’s why Kanye is suddenly seen as a threat. Anyone who follows his lead will get the same treatment from the left.
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