American conservatives have - unfortunately - become used to having unsubstantiated accusations hurled at them by the Left. Almost by default, every conservative politician is labeled as a racist, with other mischaracterizations chosen from an expanding grab-bag of insults. Conservatives are frequently seen as ignorant, stupid, xenophobic, misogynistic, or intolerant.
Conservatives will also know that, while the Left claim that Trump is the sole cause of our modern political division, this is not a recent phenomenon. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were both described as “fascists”, and George W. Bush was regularly referred to as a war-mongering imbecile.
Even while those on the Left appear to look back favorably on conservatives from the past, they only do so when the characters in question have either passed away or can be used to attack new enemies. For example, John McCain was attacked by Democrats as a bumbling and mentally ill incompetent when he faced Barack Obama but was applauded as part of a political post-mortem strategy against Donald Trump.
While this is indicative of the Left’s political panic due to their refusal to understand the rise of Trump, they are also in danger of missing another key detail - their insults exist along a scale. Over time, the Left has moved along this scale, with the regularity and obscene invalidity of extreme language increasing drastically.
The problem here is that the scale along which the Left are rapidly moving does not represent an infinite axis of insults. There are a finite number of words in our language and only a finite number of ways to describe one’s characteristics and ideologies. This means that there is a limit to the weight of the insults available to the Left.
When we analyze the history of Western civilization, it is arguably impossible to find an ideology more abhorrent or more violently impactful than that of white supremacy. The belief in the superiority of some form of “white race” as justification for the subjugation of others was the foundation of the Nazi regime which decimated Europe, the ideology which underpinned the reprehensible practice of slavery, and the viewpoint which brought us organizations like the Klu Klux Klan.
Given that many of the most dreadful parts of modern Western civilization history can be attributed to the ideology of white supremacy, there is no greater political insult than to falsely accuse someone of being a white supremacist. This also means that the Left is unable to continue turning up the dial on hyperbole. While their obsession with identity politics may allow them to combine other vague characterizations, such as “Islamophobic misogynists” or “transphobic climate change deniers”, all permutations are eventually subsumed by the label of white supremacy.
The accusations of white supremacy leveled against Trump are demonstrably false, and the associative description of anyone who questions any Leftist policy as equally deplorable is asinine. Regardless of this fact, since the Left cannot continue to use more impactful language, they will resort to casting their net of insults wider and wider.
We are beginning to see this absurdity in our daily lives, where those who do not adhere to the Left’s political demands being frequently and nonchalantly labeled as white supremacists. By applying such an impactful label in such a broad and false manner, the Left will continue to drag us down into a spiraling world where words become meaningless.
Unless they adjust their course - and cease their absurd strategy of accusing every one of their political enemies of being a white supremacist who hates women, the environment, and puppies - they will only continue to dilute the definition of white supremacy, erase the history of the crimes of true white supremacy, and give real white supremacists a second bite at the apple.
On the day when they learn the difference between white supremacists and conservatives, it’ll be too late to apologize.