In May 2015, Kirsten Powers published a book entitled “The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech.”  Speaking to Laura Ingraham at the time, she said:

It’s one thing to just be intolerant and have your own views and say I’m just not interested in what other people think, that’s a problem and that’s bad. It’s an extra step to say that people cannot say or express things that you disagree with. And that’s what this book is about. Not only do they not want to hear it, they don’t want anyone else to hear it.

Well, that was then and this is now. Kirsten Powers has gone full CNN.

Speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon several days ago, she declared that all white women who voted for Donald Trump are racist. Her remarks:

They’ll say, ‘Well, I’m not racist. I just voted for him because, you know, I didn’t like Hillary Clinton. And I just want to say that that’s not–that doesn’t make you not racist. It actually makes you racist. If you support somebody who does racist things, that makes you racist. So, I want to establish that.

Okay, got it?

As for why white women do it, I think we have to recognize that white men are doing it as well, but I think sometimes we would hope that we would get better behavior from white women, because white women are themselves oppressed and that they would, therefore, be able to be aligned themselves with other oppressed people.

I don’t feel oppressed. But if I did, Kirsten offers her opinion on why I might feel that way.

But, I think we have to remember that the white patriarchal system actually benefits white women in a lot of the ways, and they’re attached to white men, who are benefitting from the system that was created by them, for them and their fathers and their husbands and their brothers are benefitting from the system, and so they are also benefitting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plouB7LeNlQ

After thinking about her remarks, she felt she should clarify them further.

For those upset abt my comments about racism+Trump supporters, I also said that ALL white ppl (not just Trump supporters) need to examine their own racist assumptions/white privilege that are the result of living in a society that privileges white people. That includes me.

— Lisa Sharon Harper in for Kirsten Powers today! (@KirstenPowers) November 18, 2018

Thanks for clearing that up for us Kirsten.

Although I’ve rarely agreed with Powers’ positions, I’ve always respected her. As the token liberal on Fox News Special Report’s All-Star Panel, she presented the positions of the left, but never did she draw such inflammatory conclusions, nor did she make such broad generalizations. She was a moderate liberal.

Immersion into the progressive extremist culture at CNN appears to have radicalized her views. It’s quite a leap to go from “the left is killing free speech” to “white women who support Trump are racist.”

There are so many things wrong with her comments. The unfortunate thing is that remarks like these have become the norm in the mainstream media. Statements like hers are seen by the left as intelligent commentary. As Kirsten spoke, Don Lemon and the other two contributors sat bobbing their heads up and down. Yes, Kirsten, that’s brilliant. You’re so savvy. You really get it.

First, Donald Trump is not a racist. This narrative, originated by the left when Trump first became a serious candidate, has been repeated so many times that for many, it has become the truth. Trump is a racist because he opposes open borders and he believes in enforcing US laws. If he allows 5,000 migrants into the country illegally, there will be millions more behind them. Even the Mexicans in Tijuana want the migrants from the caravan to leave town.

Second, voting for a candidate doesn’t mean one agrees with everything they believe. Nor do we suddenly become personally responsible for their every negative statement or act. And since we are given a choice of only two major party candidates and a few minor ones, we must choose the person whose political worldview most closely aligns with our own.

Conservative journalist Monica Crowley makes the argument that, if you believe all white women who voted for Trump are racist, then all people who voted for Hillary Clinton are liars and thieves and all those who voted for Bill Clinton support rape.

Next, the term “racist” has been repeated so frequently in recent years by Democrats, it’s lost it’s power. There was a time when the word “racist” meant something. When a person was called a racist, I would pay attention. When I hear the left calling someone a racist now, I roll my eyes. And I think, since they can’t argue on substance, they must resort to a smear.

The recent focus on identity politics has only served to widen the division between the left and the right. Progressives believe they are so enlightened and conservatives are so vile. Their constant attacks have made any genuine attempts to address situations where real racism exists impossible. When the left begins the conversation by saying, “You’re a racist,” those on the right just shut down and no progress can be made.

Daniel Hannon, MEP for South-East England, wrote a piece entitled “When Everyone and Everything is Called Racist and Sexist, No-one and Nothing Is.”

He discusses what occurs when these words, which he refers to as “boo-words,” are overused.

We have likewise elevated a series of boo-words, verbal Swiss Army knives that can signal our censure of almost anything. At the top of the list are “racist” and “sexist”, with “homophobic” a little further behind. George Orwell observed the phenomenon three quarters of a century ago. When someone says “Jones is a fascist”, Orwell wrote, all he really means is “I don’t like Jones”.

The trouble is that Swiss Army knives become blunted with use. The original meaning of words is lost.

This is what’s happening in America today. These words have lost their power and their meaning.

Another point the left refuses to acknowledge is that racism is not the exclusive domain of white people. They believe a remark can only be considered racist if a white person utters it. What is it called when an Asian makes a bigoted remark about a white person?

We need only to remember the latest addition to the New York Times’ editorial board, Sarah Jeong, whose derogatory tweets about white men went viral this summer, to see that people of every race are capable of racism.

Are these racist?
These are tweets by Sarah Jeong who was just hired to the NYT editorial board. pic.twitter.com/B3P7ay8QNR

— Armin Navabi (@ArminNavabi) August 2, 2018

The left needs to take down the rhetoric. I’m sorry to say it, but the lion’s share of vitriol comes from the left. They need to stop labeling everyone and everything as racist. They need to stop telling people they are oppressed. And I realize that I cannot be completely objective here. But generally, when we hear serious criticism coming from Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson, it’s in “reaction” to the latest “action” by the left.

CNN’s Don Lemon makes inflammatory statements on a nightly basis. One of his most recent memorable remarks came in a discussion with Chris Cuomo. Lemon was downplaying the threat that the caravan poses to our national security.

…so we have to stop demonizing people and realize that the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right and we have to start doing something about them. There is no travel ban on them, there is no ban, you know they had the Muslim ban, there is no white guy ban, so what do we do about that?

Then, MSNBC’s Donnie Deutsch tells us: “If you vote for Trump, then you the voter, you – not Donald Trump – are standing at the border like Nazis going ‘you here, you here.’”

Following the Synagogue massacre last month, GQ columnist Julia Ioffe claimed that Trump has radicalized more people than ISIS. “I think this president, one of the things that he really launched his presidential run on is talking about Islamic radicalization. And this president has radicalized so many more people than ISIS ever did. I mean, the way he talks, the way he — the way he… ”

These are only three examples of the incendiary language coming from the left these days. And, as the nation stands nearly as divided as it stood in 1861, there are really no obvious solutions. The left doesn’t want to reconcile. They will not accept compromise. They won’t stop until they get what they really want – power.