We should all know what it means to “cry wolf” and while pundits across the political spectrum are prone to dong so, those on the liberal end of the spectrum should be kicking themselves right about now that because of the way they demonized a very decent Mitt Romney in 2012 (as well many other decent conservatives over many years) they have exhausted the limits of the English language to the point that they can’t effectively expose Donald Trump as being uniquely dangerous in his unfitness for the office that he is dangerously close to holding. (He was dangerously close as soon as the Iowa caucuses were over.)
Having inured the electorate with their constant invective against anyone or anything conservative, they have squandered any moral or intellectual capital they might have had and made it so that wide swaths of voters think that choosing between Clinton and Trump is a matter of choosing their favorite (or least un-favorite) shade of gray rather than a choice between dirt and radioactive waste. (You don’t want to set either one on your dinner table but while one might gross you out the other will eventually prove fatal even if you don’t actually ingest it.)
Pundits on the right are equally powerless because of their history of exaggerated rhetoric to effectively show qualitative differences between political disagreement and a 5 alarm dumpster fire of a candidate. If the Democrats were to nominate someone as toxic as Trump – which they undoubtedly have a few of within their ranks (lets hope they never stoop as low as the GOP did this year) – these talking heads would be left hoping that the electorate could recognize when it was being offered a dirty bomb rather than a conventional weapon.
I wrote the above on November 2nd. On November 6th I came across this video where Bill Maher makes the same “we cried wolf” statement: http://www.mrctv.org/videos/maher-panics-over-fascist-prez-trump-confesses-cried-wolf-bush
