AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
Despite dominating virtually every cultural institution, from Hollywood to the mainstream media, the left’s efforts to smear and destroy their political enemies have begun to falter in recent months, pointing toward a broader cultural rejection of leftist dogma and cancel culture.
Here are just a few high-profile figures who have not only survived the left’s attacks, but have punched back and exposed the corruption and dishonesty of the liberal establishment.
Donald Trump
Any list of individuals who drive the left mad and consistently thwart their attempts to destroy them has to begin with Donald Trump.
Since Trump left office in 2020, the left has continued its full-scale smear campaign in the media, while elected Democrats at every level of government have weaponized the justice system to attempt to disqualify Trump from the 2024 ballot and even throw him in prison.
Joe Biden’s FBI has raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, while Biden himself has made multiple nationally televised addresses claiming that Trump, as well as anyone who supports the former president, is a “threat to democracy.” Liberal judges have even placed a “gag order” on Trump to prevent him from publicly defending himself.
But with each attack, Trump only seems to become more popular with Republican voters and with the American people more broadly. He has consistently led Joe Biden in the RealClearPolitics 2024 polling average, and recently tallied his highest-ever level of support at 47.2 percent, compared to Biden’s 44.9 percent.
In the key swing state of Georgia, where Trump is currently under indictment from far-left District Attorney Fani Willis and has received nonstop negative coverage, he has a 42-point lead in the primary race – one of his largest anywhere in the country.
Even after eight years of a relentless defamation campaign that included the Russiagate hoax, two impeachments, countless false news stories, and thousands of malicious whispers and rumors, the left has seemingly only succeeded at making Trump more popular.
Clarence Thomas
The left’s campaign to destroy Clarence Thomas began more than 30 years ago with an effort to derail his confirmation to the Supreme Court by bringing forward last-minute unfounded allegations of sexual harassment that Thomas would denounce as a “high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas.”
Unfortunately, that high-tech attempted lynching has continued throughout Thomas’s distinguished career on the Court, with the left continuing to harass him to this day.
The latest manufactured Clarence Thomas “scandal” was sparked earlier this year by a hit piece from ProPublica, a left-wing propaganda outlet masquerading as an “independent nonprofit newsroom,” claiming that Thomas improperly accepted gifts from a wealthy family friend.
The piece ignited a media firestorm and even a congressional hearing and a flood of proposed bills “reforming” Supreme Court ethics rules. Multiple high-profile Democrats called for Thomas’s impeachment, while others demanded that he resign immediately.
As the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board wrote back in April, “The claims of corruption are intended to smear the conservative Justices and tarnish the Court to tee up case recusals, impeachment or a Court-packing scheme if Democrats get enough Senate votes to break the filibuster.”
But all of these efforts have so far failed. Thomas is still on the Court and remains one of the most respected jurists in the country. Democrats’ Supreme Court “ethics” bill, which cleared the Judiciary Committee, has gone nowhere and has dim prospects for a hearing before the full Senate.
Despite the left’s best efforts, the public has once again shrugged off this latest politically motivated hit job against Clarence Thomas as just that.
Speaker Mike Johnson
Following a tumultuous few weeks for House Republicans last month, Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson emerged as the leading candidate to become the next Speaker of the House.
Predictably, the media and elected Democrats reacted with outrage, accusing Johnson of being a “Christofascist” who would “undermine the 2024 election.”
The liberal establishment has taken particular issue with Johnson’s strong Christian faith, portraying his traditional views – which would’ve been considered commonplace just a few years ago – as some sort of extremist ideology. Axios declared shortly after Johnson’s ascension to the speakership that his “20-year paper trail is an opposition researcher’s dream.”
But for all the left’s effort, Johnson is still in a strong position as Speaker of the House. He successfully averted a government shut down just before the Thanksgiving holiday and still seems to have the support of his caucus. Despite outsize negative media attention, Johnson’s net favorability rating is the second best of the “big four” congressional leaders at -3.4, ranking just behind media darling Hakeem Jeffries (-2.7) and ahead of Chuck Schumer (-10) and Mitch McConnell (-36.4), although he remains far less well known as a national figure.
Tucker Carlson
No conservative media figure is more reviled by the left than Tucker Carlson. When Fox News fired Carlson in April, liberals celebrated what they thought was a successful attempt to cancel a popular conservative figure.
But Carlson quickly re-emerged as a force on X (formerly Twitter) with a new independent show that has in some cases far eclipsed the reach of his old cable news program. Carlson now posts unfiltered content directly to his 10.7 million followers – more than the four million or so viewers that Tucker Carlson Tonight typically enjoyed. Carlson’s most recent installment, an interview with Argentina’s president-elect Javier Milei, has currently garnered more than 426 million views.
Once again, the left seems only to have succeeded in making Carlson more relevant, popular, and influential than he was before.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s commitment to free speech and allowing conservative voices back on X has made him a top target of the left’s smear machine. Following his acquisition of Twitter last year, the left has done everything it can to hurt the world’s richest man financially – most notably by pressuring large advertisers to abandon X.
In the most recent case, Media Matters America, another left-wing “watchdog” dedicated to ginning up outrage against conservatives, released a report alleging that X places ads next to “neo-Nazi” content. This triggered a number of major companies, including Disney, Apple, and IBM, to announce that they would stop advertising on the platform.
But instead of backing down, Musk continued his pattern of taking the fight to the left by announcing that he would be filing a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters for concocting the entire scandal. According to Musk’s legal team, Media Matters created fake accounts that followed only extremist users to manipulate the X algorithm into displaying ads next to unsavory content, and then used screenshots of those ads as the basis of their hit piece.
As the New York Post reported last week, Musk’s case won’t be an easy win, but it will “[make] Media Matters’ life a living hell if the suit survives the inevitable motion to dismiss” and could force Media Matters to “make significant disclosures on its reporting process and the sources of its funding.”
Musk’s refusal to submit to the left’s threats and intimidation tactics have caused the effort to destroy him to backfire dramatically.
All of these examples suggest that the American people intuitively understand that the media is not to be trusted and that the left’s attacks and cancellation attempts are not as potent as they once were. Moreover, as “Twitter Files” author Michael Shellenberger has written, liberal efforts to censor their political enemies have actually backfired and exposed Democrats and their allies in the media as the ones worthy of criticism and condemnation.
Although liberals still have daunting advantages in the mass media and popular culture, the dismantling of the left’s smear machine is nonetheless a noteworthy and heartening development for conservatives.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @ShaneHarris513.
It is great to see this in print very heartlifting. We need some good news every now and then, the daily falling apart of our country, trouble in Israel and how Israel is to blame thanks to lame strain media we are in a hard place. I have no TV as I live off grid and I can only imagine how it sounds to the left leaning crowd ( another got cha moment) the fact is we are on the ropes. The last two elections are proof of that. There has been little to reel in election fraud, so it will be the same as the last elections unless the proof is exposed like 2000 mules. Over voting in precincts (more people voting than there are registered) We need to pray for our country like never before since our country was founded. What ever happens, happens. God’s in controll. Pray for judges to listen to that still small voice in their spirit that can be moved by God because He moves and is in our spirit because He can and does. We can try to pick apart every thing they do and fight with words but our best fight is on our knees and ally with the Lord of Lord’s. Amen. Thank you.
the left can’t run on their policies they can only hate and smear, without that they are finished.
The amazing thing is that for all their lies, smears, and fascistic behaviors — Biden, his goons, and the far left media have not yet succeeded in totally destroying our Constitutional Republic. We still have many American citizens who are proud patriots and refuse to give in to the propaganda propagated by the Marxists. We still have many American citizens who are proud of this country and do not desire an evil, dysfunctional new world order that swallows up a good and decent country such as the United States of America. People from all over the world come into this country for a chance of living lives with greater liberties and freedoms. Many of these migrants are forcing themselves into this country illegally. This mass migration is straining our economy and political system. Hopefully, Biden and his cast of destroyers will be thrown out of office and a new administration of integrity and reason will once again work on building this country up for the good of all hardworking, decent Americans — Americans who believe in a system of competence and merit, not a racist circus of racial equity.
The left claims that the right is a threat to democracy. Meanwhile, the Democrat in the White House allows millions of illegal and unvetted aliens to stream across our border each year. Along with this influx we are seeing a rise in crime, sex and child slavery and a river of drugs. Biden’s “Please, President Xi, stop supplying the Mexican drug cartels will illegal drugs” isn’t going to cut it. Xi could not care less. A porous border is a threat to our safety and is a real threat to our democracy. The Justice Department’s treatment of Biden or Hillary Clinton vs. its treatment of Trump couldn’t be more different and that represents a threat to democracy. Surrendering energy independence and buying oil from other nations is a threat to our democracy, in addition to being plain stupid. The carbon emissions from using Saudi oil are not less than from using US produced oil. So, Democrats accuse Republicans of doing what they themselves are doing. Big deal. I have always believed that low information voters are not swayed by facts they don’t know. They vote the way they vote because they have always voted that way. But maybe, just maybe, reality is setting in, and liberal talking points are starting to sound hollow. I hope so.
The Left CANT Lead only blame & name for lack leadership vs JFK era
The main stream media has gone so far left for so long that no one believes they are telling the truth anymore. the leftists know it is a lie, but they love the marching orders and sound bites. everyone else knows the media is lying and assume the news is lying as soon as they start talking.
The Jan 6th videos release two years ago put questions in most peoples minds. the media and democrats just kept up their same story. the videos release a year ago told most people the media story was not correct and that the DOJ was probably corrupt. the videos released last week showed everyone that he media, democrats FBI and DOJ were flat out lying about the whole thing.
The same thing happened with voter fraud, wuhan lab, covid vaccines, masks, social distancing, fauci, climate change, the economy and so many other subjects. the same pattern. The democrats lie, the media lies and then the democrats send out enforcers to attack people based on the lie.
You can get away with it for a while but eventually everyone knows you are lying. once that happens you have zero credibility for ever. that is where the democrats/leftist media are. zero credibility from all but the hard core loyalist who also know the democrats are lying but do not care.
Well reasoned, well written. Encouraging. I hope the trend continues
Add to this the staggering losses Disney has suffered from their woke-centric movies, the worst (best) being “The Marvels,” which saw the worst box office opening of any Marvel movie ever made. Disney despises masculine men and parents who want to protect their kids from gender confusion, etc., and its scorn for them shows up on our big and little screens. The theme parks are ghost towns because parents don’t want their children to see male employees dressed as women. They have succeeded at driving away the audience they’ve got to have. The corporation has lost 196 Billion $ in market value! I think it’s hilarious. As for my hero President Trump, I have held firmly through all the attacks to a promise that I believe was given in part for him, in the book of Isaiah: “No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.”
The dems know how to divide this country. Anyone not agreeing with their platform is an enemy of the state. Ole Joe even orders those opposing him to ignore any and all they do and be loving America after all this is America, for God’s sake, in other words Love it you extreme Maga fascists, or else. They are fighting a war in the US, the Ukraine and the Middle East. All on the wrong side in order to destroy America and Americans. Trump is right when he says they are after you through me. Stand up against the left tyranny. It is only going to get worse.
Everything left should be “left” in the trash where they belong (with apologies to southpaws).
The people of the Left think they are better then you , smarter than you, and hate everyday Americans who think and work for the nation, their families and for themselves. No group think for real Americans.
The best defense against any smear campaign attack – have Honor , Honesty ,Integrity , Courage and Loyalty part of the sense of purpose in your life, have a code of conduct as well that is based on the elements that make for good character. Remember the values that respect Faith, Family and Freedom. In the spirit of God bless America , land of the free and home of the brave. Keep a respectful , uplifting sense of humor at the ready, and be dedicated to helping the United States of America maintain honorable principles to be a good example for others, develop a high level of intelligence, have courage and practice being resourceful. Very good article Shane ,Well Done !
They are aware that Biden is not re-elect able for a large variety of reasons, their only hope is to smear those opposing the current administration! Fortunately, it’s not working!
The OLD democratic party has been hijacked by the leftist liberals and hollywood. They are not the party they used to be. I was raised in a democrat house, but have woken up BIGLY !!! I am now an independent for years….voting { DONALD TRUMP } from day one..
The Left’s FAKE news media might get a very little credit back if it started telling the TRUTH and start smearing their Fascist Communist regime buddies starting with Dictator Beijing biden and the democrats Fascist Communist China supporter party.
Either way, if the Left’s media reported it you can count on it being a lie. I NEVER believe a word they say on anything. Just look at ALL the lies they told during the FAKE China Virus pandemic alone not to mention on 2020, 2022 Elections. And that’s not even the tip of the iceberg for starters.
There is the problem – the left expects to have their way with everything and they are running up against some people who are much more right leaning and aren’t afraid of the likes of Chucky, Nancy, Mitch, Biden, Obama, Soros, etc.!!! I despise the way that Democrats consistently call the other side the enemy but love the way that Republicans call them opponents!!!
Feeble minds. They spent far too long allowing someone to do their thinking and have lost that capability. I’ve said for years that the Democrats and International Islam hired ex-Soviet propagandists. It was about the time the Dems became more aggressive, and Islam started changing their nasty image. Those pro-Palestinian riots are being conducted in the style of the 60s and 70s anti-Vietnam “peace” marches. Just ask where in hell all those large posters and 20-foot flags came from. They weren’t spur of the moment.
Defeating the opposition is the goal of the Left and anything, however untrue, unfair and destructive is just a tactic in the war to achieve domination. Anything goes.
Once you accept that they spew mostly vile nonsense it becomes laughable. The weaker their position the worse it gets.
Ignore the rabid junk most of the news outlets allow and weigh it all against your own life experience and logic.
Chose patriotic Americans to support and demand they reflect our love of the US in what they do in Washington. Our strength will prevail.
At this point, I don’t think that Bribem would poll at 42% if the poll was taken at the DNC – provided that each person there only got one vote. Knowing the reputation of the Dimocrats though, out of a hundred people present, there’d be about 165 votes.
Good read about the smear tactics of the left.Hopefully the “zombies” come to realize the reality of the liberal press.
Thank you.
It fits.
You can only go to the dishonest, biased, and corrupt well so many times before everything you do in that respect backfires on you. The clearest example is of course the incessant scourge and persecution of Trump.
When you control the majority of media outlets, your filtered message will always get through. The nation obediently allowed itself to be beseiged for 2 and 1/2 years by theRussia hoax story. CNN bet its entire future on this one story. The establishment is much more terrorized by Trump that Xe or Putin or Iran.
The left never brings anything tangible or constructive to the table. This should be evident in the failed, tired and old candidates that they keep dredging up to run for office. Their quest for power and control is predicated totally and absolutely on destroying the opposition. Again, because they bring nothing new to the table! The only way they can win is to be the last and only candidates standing come election time.
Hope they bring Tucker Carlson back on FOX News. I miss his show, but no one wants to hear truth. So now I can hear it on X and Tucker reaches more people. Too bad liberals. lol lol lol
What hurts is how the left is demonizing our strong males in our society. Sure some men are truly jerks but most are not and society is WRONG by trying to dilute male characteristics and cancel maleness. The current war against maleness, especially white maleness, is truly unwarranted and evil. I am sick of seeing movies, TV, inserting the supposedly suppressed into the equity boxes representative to adding normality to any story which in fact it stands out as just the opposite. No matter what is done when Marxists force equity in everything, you cannot. Something or someone will always left out of that infamous ‘box’ to check. We strive towards equality, have come far, must continue towards this. This evil ideology cannot survive, especially being aimed towards our children, and must be forcefully rejected. It is against God and humanity. We must not accept this ideology and destruction of Americanism. If we do not start treating everyone with respect and dignity we will not survive.
Yesterday’s democrats are today’s republicans The void is filled with the motley crew without cohesive and unifying idea Whatever ideas they have end in disaster for the country and everyone else
If you need proof that the left is evil and out to eliminate you, maybe, just maybe you are the problem. Ask yourself why am I like this?
The dishonest media is compliance in all these attacks. Their ignoring of the fact the left makes up or distorts any thing said or done by anyone trying to be honest is the sole reason for this problem
It’s easy to see what pisses off the left and I use that as an advantage.
The madder, and madder they get the louder and louder they will be, but they will still be wrong wrong wrong.
An Educated person talks in low tones and has facks on their side.
The Democrats ignorant masses will scream and scream until they can’t scream anymore.
It’s better to ignore them because we know they’re wrong and we know that we’re right.
If you want to be successful in overcoming the smears, the woke, the difficult, and hateful people- do yourself a favor, and check out the “Stockdale Paradox”, then JUST DO IT!
The fact that 44.9% of the Real Clear Politics Poll supports Biden is a major cause of concern. The only thing the media has done is shot itself in the foot as people have access to news from multiple sources. This is why their lame game of smearing anyone who disagrees with their far left agenda is no longer working for them. People intuitively know what is really going on and how the Democrats are abusing the Constitution in an effort to gain more power. The fact that they are still so intent on making sure that Trump will not be the Republican candidate running for the Presidency tells you all you need to know about their ethics and distain for this country.
In reply to Patriot Will: It isn’t for lack of trying, the good news is that Bribem has been “on vacation” or has run back home (or the home of some billionaire) for 40% of the time he’s been called president. That’s only given him 60% of the time to attempt to destroy the United States. The actual term “United” must annoy him because I’ve never seen anyone (except his puppet master, Obozo) who has attempted to disunite the people, I guess it falls under the “If they’re fighting each other, they won’t realize what we’re doing and fight us”. heading.
Any one who has the courage to stand up to the far left is an absolute red blooded American patriot.
I’ll be cheering