During MSNBC’s The 11th Hour on Wednesday night former Republican strategist and Lincoln Project senior advisor Stuart Stevens proved that for many on the left, speech is violence. This latest example came when host Stephanie Ruhle asked for Stevens’ opinion on the recent spat of random shootings that have taken place over the past week. Stevens then suggested that the outrage over beer company Bud Light using a man dressed up as a woman during one of their promotional commercials was behind some of the violent incidents.
“What is your reaction to this latest round of gun violence?” Ruhle asked. This led Stevens to find some way to blame social conservatives: “Look I think there’s a direct line between a culture of fearfulness where people who live in a world in which they feel threatened by Instagram posts or a beer label. When you stoke that kind of fear, that sort of paranoia. It just rips apart any sort of civic bond between people.”
Stevens never explained how conservatives criticizing a woke beer company and boycotting their products, for example, caused a man to shoot a teenager after accidentally knocking on his door.
“There’s a deep sickness here that goes beyond just guns. It goes to this culture of fear and really, I mean I hate to say this because I worked for the Republican Party a lot of years—it really is the home of the fearful now. Not the home of the brave,” Stevens proclaimed.
“And there’s nobody inside the Republican Party except for a few people who are speaking out on this. And at the heart of it it’s because they don’t really have a positive policy agenda,” he added.
It wouldn’t be an MSNBC segment if race wasn’t invoked at least once, and Stevens made sure to fill that apparent quota at the end: “It’s really nothing that they’re out there that they can say that they’re for. And so it becomes about trying to maximize their predominantly white vote which is a fear and grievance-based tactic.”
This segment on MSNBC’s 11th Hour was made possible by Chase. Their information is linked.
To read the transcript click “expand”:
MSNBC’s The 11th Hour
4/19/2023
11/13/41 p.m. EasternSTEPHANIE RUHLE: What is your reaction to this latest round of gun violence?
STUART STEVENS: Look I think there’s a direct line between a culture of fearfulness where people who live in a world in which they feel threatened by Instagram posts or a beer label. When you stoke that kind of fear, that sort of paranoia. It just rips apart any sort of civic bond between people. And there’s a deep sickness here that goes beyond just guns. It goes to this culture of fear and really, I mean I hate to say this because I worked for the Republican Party a lot of years—it really is the home of the fearful now. Not the home of the brave. And there’s nobody inside the Republican Party except for a few people who are speaking out on this. And at the heart of it it’s because they don’t really have a positive policy agenda. It’s really nothing that they’re out there that they can say that they’re for. And so it becomes about trying to maximize their predominantly white vote which is a fear and grievance-based tactic.