Count liberal author and artist Bret Easton Ellis among the many Americans who just cannot understand what the anti-Trump protesters are hoping to accomplish. Ellis sat recently sat down with the Irish News and explained that while he opposed Trump and his policies, he finds the protests more annoying than the President.
“I didn’t vote Trump, I’m just saying the hysteria is bothering me a lot more than the reality of what he’s doing…
I don’t really know what the path to power is with protest, it’s done, this is where we are. If you wanna protest, protest the DNC, protest Hillary, protest whatever. But what you’re protesting here is an elected president.
I think the protest is aiding this divisiveness, social media is aiding this, celebrity culture, the worst, is aiding it.”
Ellis also wondered if our infatuation with “image” and how people are perceived actually played a bigger role in the anti-Trump hate than the actual policies did, particularly when it came to immigration policy. Ellis argued that the Obama administration’s immigration/refugee policies hadn’t been all that different from what the Trump administration has put forward.
“It is all about image and how people are swayed by surfaces and Trump disgusts people. They see this big orange lump, angry, big puffy face and it really is quite a different step from the celebrity hep-cat, glamour of Obama.”
Ellis saved his deepest condemnation for his fellow celebrities who he believes are unduly feeding into the unrest.
“People love celebrities, I love celebrities, I’m obsessed with celebrities, I’ve written books about celebrities, so I love that celebrity culture exists. But when celebrities become these kind of strident, political advisers, wagging their finger, really people don’t buy it.
It did not help Hillary Clinton at all having this mountain of celebrities on her side. Rejection, rejection.”
Hand-in-hand with his comments about America’s celebrities, Ellis thinks that the liberal overreaction to Trump and his policies is simply an outgrowth of our modern culture. He urged readers to accept what has happened, deal with the repercussions, and use the next election to make their voices heard.
“It happened. He was elected. He is our president. He’s moving very quickly. It’s bothering a lot of people. He is doing what he said he would do. He is elected.
I do think there has been an overreaction to what’s going on. But that’s just endemic in the culture.”
I think there is a lot of wisdom in Ellis’ commentary and it’s something that liberal America should hear. The virulent protest to Trump’s presidency thus far is doing more damage to liberal causes, and simultaneously bolstering Trump and the GOP. Many Americans feel the same as Ellis — that the reaction to Trump’s presidency has been unwarranted and excessive and instead of winning converts to their liberal cause, they are actually pushing centrist Americans into Trump’s arms. The question is, will they notice that their protests and riots are backfiring? Do they even care?
The post Popular Liberal Author says “Trump Won,” it’s Time to Move On appeared first on The Constitution.
