Years ago Arianna Huffington famously left Republicans, like her ex-husband, behind. And many of her new fans simply took it as given that it was her smarts and nothing else that led her to switch her support to Democrat candidates.
Maybe that's how certain former conservatives hope they are viewed as they switch their allegiance to Democrats.
Howard Kurtz addresses some of those high-profile former conservatives in Divorcing Trump: Why some conservatives are now pushing Democrats (!):
These people deserve to be taken seriously. But it doesn't invalidate their arguments to say that there are certain rewards in the media culture for conservatives who break with their side. Favorable publicity. MSNBC contracts. New respect from the left for their independence. (Flip the script for a moment and think about how the few Democratic pundits who broke with Barack Obama were denigrated or dismissed.) ...
The problem for those who have [switched allegiance] is that they have spent their careers warning that the Democrats are the party of big government, reckless spending, overregulation, social engineering, identity politics and weak foreign policy. To suddenly root for the Dems means these pundits are effectively embracing that which they have always denounced.
It's an interesting phenomenon, and it's fun to watch. But I'm such a bumpkin that I see it as a personality issue. It's called Trump Derangement Syndrome. They hate his personality, and maybe they have reason to be spiteful. But it clouds their thinking to the extent that they can't give him credit for the things he actually achieves. He's brash, abusive, and appeals to the unwashed. To them, that overrides any value he could have to the country.
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1:26 PM 7/7/2018
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