Michelle Goldberg‘s recent article for Slate about Trump’s joint sessions speech includes this paragraph:
Though he’s now been in office over a month, it’s still jarring and surreal to see Trump in the presidential place of honor. Maybe I was imagining it, but I thought I could see my own sense of uncanny horror reflected back in the pained expressions of Democrats in the audience. Trump’s presidency still feels like a nightmare—or an occupation.
This winter we have had a good time laughing at the outrageous liberal melt-down over Trump’s victory. We relished the SJW tears. We knew they were butt-hurt and we liked that. But did we realize that to them this is a “nightmare” and an “occupation”?
At the start of his speech, Trump once again insisted that his election was a victory for “the people.” In his kitsch revisionist history, the movement that led to his presidency was a veritable revolution.
Of course, we generally like Trump’s nationalist rhetoric and tone. We are encouraged by the tone of the administration so far. But truthfully, minus a few high profile deportations and other positive signs there hasn’t really been a massive change yet – certainly not a revolution.
I remember how the Left loathed George W. Bush, a man who basically shared their values, because he put on a cowboy hat and sometimes spoke to Middle America in a language they could appreciate. Just the idea that the president was a White man with a cowboy hat who was voted into office by non-urbanite/non-liberal Whites and who spoke to them in a familial way angered the Left. And Trump does that, minus the hat, to a far greater degree. This is it, I believe – the symbolism of Trump. To the Left the symbolism and idea of him is a revolution and a nightmare occupation.
We should also keep in mind the sort of bubble these people inhabit. Goldberg is a critic of “Christian nationalism” who participated in Is Feminism Jewish? (imagine if a Right-winger did such a thing!) in New York. She lives in Brooklyn and writes for a number of Leftist, anti-White publications. For those such as Goldberg we really are the “other.” And the possibility of our empowerment or that the president is seen as our champion is extremely triggering to her.