The Liberal Imagination
Commentary
When President Joe Biden took the step of casting MAGA citizens as the enemy within, writers and Tweeters on the right, the former-president included, registered shock and anger, and rightly so. But I’m willing to bet that a whole lot of conservative Americans without an audience had a different reaction: “I knew this was coming.” After all, a version of this demonization has been happening for decades.
Think of the father in “Footloose,” played by John Lithgow, an uptight tyrant religiously motivated to deny free and healthy expression. Or the murderous gun-toting homophobe in “American Beauty” who is, in truth, repressing his own same-sex desires. Or the sexist husband in “Thelma and Louise,” arrogant and stupid, putting down his wife (while never pleasing her in bed)….