Why No ‘Sister Souljah’ Treatment For Creeps Like Ben Shapiro And Matt Walsh?
It’s an easy answer.
Right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro offered a less-than-modest proposal on his show last week: “No one in the United States should be retiring at 65 years old. Frankly, I think retirement itself is a stupid idea unless you have some sort of health problem. Everybody that I know who is elderly, who has retired, is dead within five years.”
According to Shapiro’s twisted logic, maybe no one would die if we just kept working forever! His ignorant remarks went viral, which is what he wanted all along. Soon, his Daily Wire colleague Matt Walsh joined the “Bah, Humbug!” chorus. He called Social Security “an unsustainable, unfair, morally atrocious, and economically insane system” that should be “abolished.”
Shapiro and Walsh’s cruelty is their only point, but they aren’t attacking Social Security from the far-right fringe. This has become part of what passes for a mainstream Republican platform. House Speaker Mike Johnson created a budget in 2020 that would have imposed steep cuts to Social Security and Medicare while raising the eligibility ages for both programs. John Thune, the number two Senate Republican, has proposed slashing Social Security and Medicare benefits. Former presidential candidate Nikki Haley was also hot to raise the retirement age.
Seniors can still vote, even when working double shifts at their local superstore, but Republicans will likely avoid taking a major political hit from Shapiro and Walsh’s comments. Far-left protestors shouting “defund the police!” can apparently cost centrist Democrats thousands of miles away their House seats, but when right-wing loudmouths scream about abolishing Social Security, it’s barely a news cycle.
The GOP never has a ‘Sister Souljah’ moment
Shapiro was rightly roasted on social media, but I couldn’t help but notice that no concerned white “moderates” suggested that elected Republicans must immediately denounce them or risk losing the upcoming elections.
Back in 2019, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens offered his sage advice for how Democrats could defeat the monster that so many “respectable” Republicans had created and actively enabled.
Too much of today’s left is too busy pointing out the ugliness of the Trumpian right to notice its own ugliness: its censoriousness, nastiness and complacent self-righteousness. But millions of ordinary Americans see it, and they won't vote for a candidate who emboldens and empowers woke culture. The Democrat who breaks with that culture, as Clinton did in 1992 over Sister Souljah and Obama did in October over “cancel culture,” is the one likeliest to beat Trump.
Conservative columnist George Will would also reflect nostalgically about Bill Clinton’s “Sister Souljah moment.” He wrote:
Candidate Bill Clinton’s criticism, not of extremism in general, but of her explicitly, reassured temperate voters that he was not intimidated by inhabitants of the wilder shores of American politics.
Anti-Trump conservative Max Boot argued in 2021 that President Joe Biden “needs a ‘Sister Souljah moment’: He needs to attack the far-left activists who want to defund the police, boycott Israel and divide Americans by race. He could start by criticizing what liberal columnist Jonathan Chait describes as the ‘kooky, harmful, and outright racist ideas’ peddled by White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo. Biden should champion liberalism, not leftism.”
The president punching down at a private citizen isn’t the best demonstration of leadership or strength. Robin DiAngelo is not a name most people know outside of academic circles or white grievance culture. However, Shapiro and Walsh have a significant audience and a real influence in right-wing politics. Yet, we don’t realistically expect that even a faux-moderate Republican will decry their extremist positions.
The real, non-metaphorical Sister Souljah, whose name is Lisa Williamson, wasn’t Bill Clinton’s actual target. She was simply collateral damage. Clinton had his sights on Jesse Jackson, a major figure in the party at the time who commanded respect from both the Black community and white progressives — Bernie Sanders endorsed his presidential run in 1988. However, he was extremely unpopular among white moderates, so Clinton condemned Williamson while speaking as a guest to Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition.
Clinton’s “Sister Souljah moment” was a white Democratic leader’s expression of dominance over a Black Democratic leader. This is probably why white moderates and conservatives recall this moment so fondly. They find it comforting when white Democratic leaders show they have their party under control. It’s also why there’s no Republican version of a “Sister Souljah moment.” There’s far less a demand to see annoying white men put in their place. That’s a demo politicians must forever show respect.
Ben Shapiro was always MAGA
Sister Souljah was a far more thoughtful political commentator than Shapiro and Walsh, who are deliberate provacateurs. However, Republicans nonetheless treat these well-paid trolls like serious thought leaders. It was revealing that so many Never Trump Republicans expressed disappointment when Shapiro announced that he was going to hold a fundraiser for extremely cash poor Donald Trump.
Sarah Longwell posted on social media, “Remember when Trump had dinner with full-blown, unapologetic anti-semites? Remember how he said he would suspend the constitution? Remember when he tried to overturn an election? This is so, so weak Ben. So weak.”
Longwell’s Bulwark colleague Tim Miller wrote simply “pathetic.” He noted that former Vice President Mike Pence had the guts to reject Trump (finally) but Shapiro is a willing passenger on the Trump train. However, he wasn’t naive about Shapiro’s motivations:
You see here’s the thing Pence isn’t running a multimillion dollar chop shop that feeds fear and rage to millions of people so he can be a little more clear eyed about the stakes
Shapiro, who once vowed he’d “never” vote for Trump, insists he has no choice. He would’ve happily voted for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of the few men alive more awkward than Shapiro, but alas DeSantis isn’t the nominee.
“Donald Trump is the nominee,” Shapiro explained. “And he’s facing Joe Biden, who is the worst president of my lifetime. Because Donald Trump is the nominee against Joe Biden, I won’t just vote for him, I will walk over broken glass to vote for him. Actually, I will go into my own pocket to support him, which is what I’m doing.”
This is definitely pathetic. Shapiro didn’t “walk over broken glass” to help DeSantis beat Trump because he didn’t want to offend Trump. Barbie scholar Shapiro is himself peak MAGA. He’s a bully whose ignorance on issues both small and large consistently exceeds his compassion for others.
Shapiro, misreading the sitcom Family Ties, has complained that Alex P. Keaton was just a strawman Republican who’s always proven wrong. He failed to see that Keaton was a human being who was flawed but learned from his mistakes. If Keaton were real, he’d reject Trump in a moving speech by the end of a very special episode. Shapiro, who’s marginally less fictional, eagerly embraces Trump.
I’m glad, actually, that no one demands a “Sister Souljah moment” for Shapiro or Trump. She’s better than both of them.
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You have to love the idea of a guy who rakes in millions sitting on his ass recording his rancid unsubstantiated opinions to inflame popular opinion suggesting that my father-in-law who spent his working life pumping gas should have to continue to work at that until he dies.
Somehow, the party of the country club elites has recast itself as the champions of the working folks, but you can see that they forgot to put a camo T-shirt on their deep-rooted sense of entitlement.
The Sister Souljah moment sparks pleasant memories of the time GANGSTER RAP threatened Rochester, NY.
Ice-T was riding high on his cover-the-little-ones'-ears hit, "Cop Killer" When he was booked at a local venue, the usual suspects weighed in. Would blood flow in our peaceful community? Would our young people lose respect for the law? We're in danger of losing a whole generation this time!
To my surprise, cooler heads prevailed and the show went on. Mr. Ice more or less agreed not to play the incendiary song. The venue in question was not in Rochester's urban center. It was out by the lake, and was frequented by lots of white suburban kids.
No guns were drawn during the performance, and everyone had a good time. The PO-lice stood around with nothing much to do, but think about how to spend their overtime pay. When it was time for the encore, Ice-T said, "ahh-fuckit" and kicked into "Cop Killer." The audience applauded. The lights went up and everyone filed out. Some may even have stopped to buy T-shirts. The little white kids' moms were waiting in the parking lot, and drove them back to the burbs.