To hear conservatives tell it, there are a vast array of people in the world who are responsible for Donald Trump earning the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. These people are also to blame for his election to the presidency, and if he is re-elected, this cabal is also the guilty party.
Those people are, of course… the left, and the media.
What?
Yes, according to the conservative consensus – follow the bouncing ball here – the mainstream media amplified Trump’s presidential campaign in 2015-16 and combined with an obsession on the left for social justice and other so-called grievance politics, this is the force responsible for Trump’s rise (along with the Nazi fetishists of the so-called “alt-right).
This is of course nonsense.
The people responsible for Trump’s rise and the infrastructure propping him up is the right. It is conservative Republican voters who overwhelmingly favored Trump in the Republican primaries and in the general election. It is those voters who couldn’t be bothered to defect from the GOP and either vote for the Libertarian nominee, Evan McMullin’s independent campaign, or God forbid, Hillary Clinton, the sane person who would have the nuclear football.
It is conservative Republicans who continue to give Trump his only positive approval ratings, while independents and Democrats have stated clearly in every poll since January of 2017 that Trump is not fit to hold the office.
And the idea that the alt-right exists as a clapback on people asserting their humanity, which is repeated again and again and again in the New York Times’ op-ed section, is simply buck passing.
Nobody made the right vote for a man who launched his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and pushing for a ban on Muslim travel.
It doesn’t matter if Hillary Clinton thought Trump would be the easiest in the Republican field to beat (I thought this too), she is easily the least influential voice on the right.
It was right wing media, like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, who were aboard the Trump train. CNN shouldn’t have given him the ridiculous open mic he has had, but Republican primary voters aren’t tuning in to Anderson Cooper for how to vote.
They’re watching Sean Hannity, and Hannity is permanently embedded in Trump’s innards.
The right built Trump. It voted for Trump in the primary. It voted for him in the general election. It continues to support his presidency right now as everyone else opposes him. And if God forbid he wins re-election, the path there is likely the same as his first victory – through the right.
The right owns Trump. He is the monster they created in their role as Frankenstein. The rest of us have tried to ward him off with rhetorical pitchforks and lantern fire, but the right pulled the switch and sent the electricity through the bolts in his neck.
Right wingers, he is yours. You made him and maintain him. It’s all on you.
One of the first political bloggers in the world, Oliver Willis has operated OliverWillis.com since 2000. Contributor at Media Matters for America and The American Independent. Follow on Twitter at @owillis. Full bio.