"Disenchantment" with liberalism is not a surprise to anyone, it's the authoritarian game
This is what they have been doing... they've whipped up a generation of Americans to see the liberal as the "Them", as a pejorative, you've got Keith Ablow saying on Fox News that the Unabomber had a point about liberalism being bad, and frankly, if liberals started coming out and saying they were against cannibalism, incest, and human sacrifice, we'd have people coming out FOR them and they've got all the "reasons" for it on lock. A combination of contrarianism and conditioning has led us to this point.
I have a feeling that Putin was practicing that speech against liberalism for years, years before Trump was even elected. Just looking for a place to use it, I'm sure he has more lined up.
The authoritarian uses things up and then discards them when they no longer have value to them, you know how how Trump was questioning Obama's legitimacy for 8 years through the racist birther movement then suddenly disavowed when it was clear he was going to win the nomination? Like that.
That applies to people too, just ask the people of Ryazan in 1999 or the people of Beslan when the Russian government needed to look strong against Islamist terrorists and decided to wipe EVERYONE out.
You, me... we're fodder to the authoritarian, an interchangeable part. The same as the 30%ers too, but they won't realize that.
Giving hugs to people who say "I'm not racist but..." won't stop this; it's the Constitution, American values, freedom, equality, guaranteed rights and protections on side and authoritarianism on the other.
I think the least horrible solution here is removing the platform of the authoritarian, it's what we got to do.
