【sex, marriage, and eroticism in contemporary islamic advice literature】

Meryl Streep's speech at the Golden Globes on sex, marriage, and eroticism in contemporary islamic advice literatureSunday was an arresting, heartbreaking testimony and a historic call-to-arms -- for some.

On stage, Streep mourned the most "stunning" performance of the year, when Trump imitated and mocked a reporter with disabilities. She then used that violent memory to enjoin Hollywood to tell more empathetic stories and protect the storytellers who produce them. Immediately, right-wing commentators on Twitter slammed the actress' speech as "liberal elitism," a way to push down "real Americans" from the heartland.

For Streep, and millions of liberals like her, it was a familiar moment: their empathy and calls for compassion reflexively dismissed as coastal privilege.

Conservative commentators and even some progressive journalists have spent years lobbying the same exhausting, yet effective form of criticism at progressives like Streep. The left, they scream, suffers from an incurable disease known as "liberal elitism," whose symptoms include: writing for and/or reading The New York Times, calling racist people racist, obtaining a graduate degree, speaking positively of Hillary Clinton, wearing tight jeans and/or man buns and disrespecting of one the great art forms known to man, mixed martial arts.

"Liberal elitists" who voted for Hillary accused of getting Trump elected

The attack has reached such a pitch that "liberal elites" like Streep are actually being pigeon holed as the ones responsible for Trump's election, not those who, you know, voted for him. After the actor's speech, Meghan McCain blamed Streep, who spent the majority of her time on stage advocating on behalf of people with disabilities and the free press, for Trump's election. Newsweekcontributing editor and celebrated center-left journalist Kurt Eichenwald recently informed students at Yale that anyone who thought all Trump voters were "racist or stupid" were responsible for getting him elected.

This Meryl Streep speech is why Trump won. And if people in Hollywood don't start recognizing why and how - you will help him get re-elected

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) January 9, 2017

I spoke at Yale. Asked students "How many think all Trump voters racist or stupid?" Many raised hands. I said: "Ur belief is why dems lost."

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 26, 2016

Trump voters aren't responsible for their choices, headlines like "Donald Trump won because the liberal elite forgot the uneducated poor" seem to suggest. They're victims of a cannibalistic call out culture. If only the liberal elites of the Democratic party -- whose base includes people of color, LGBTQ people and religious minorities -- had been more sympathetic to the opposing party's biases, perhaps they wouldn't have voted for a president who'll do violence to them.

Conservatives conflate liberal elitism with multiculturalism

It's amazing to see what falls under the umbrella of liberal elitism. Breitbart,whose founder is now headed to the Oval Office, famously referred to a Washington Postcolumnist as a "Jewish elitist." Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, who called gender-neutral bathrooms "disgusting" and likes to portray American immigrants as welfare-addicted gang members, recently accused the "liberal elite" of lacking compassion for the American underclass:

"Look, if you’re not in the elite media, if you’re not on Wall Street, if you’re not in the political class, look at the people who run the country – they sneer at you,” Carlson said. “They have contempt for you. There’s nothing about you that they like. And you resent that after a while."

Of course, Trump's wealth, the small $9 million dollar loan he received from his father or his cabinet of Goldman Sachs billionaires hasn't made him an elitist. "Elitism" has become largely divorced from its original meaning -- remember the good old days, when money and power made you an elitist? -- and instead signifies multiculturalism, secularism and social liberalism. Since universities, who hold cultural capital, are home to so many of these values, they've become synonymous with them and with power.

In this framework, "liberal elitists" are measured by their level of distance from the (perceived) needs of the white working class. These needs aren't structural -- just look at how Ryan's Affordable Care Act replacement plan will impact white low-income voters -- but cultural and emotional. Trump's policies on Obamacare and protectionism may have flip-flopped throughout the campaign, but his views on Muslims and other marginalized groups remained remarkably consistent.

Money no longer makes you an elitist, values do.

Just look at the data. The average Clinton voter during the primary made a salary around $61,000, compared to the typical Trump voter, who brought home $72,000 a year. The poorest Americans voted for Clinton, including the most impoverished whites. Yet it was the Democrats, not the Republicans, who were largely smeared as "elitists."

That makes it all the easier for right-wingers to dismiss deeply compassionate pleas like Streep's. Whatever Streep had to say about the disability community, or the role of actors and journalists, could be summarily dismissed as "elitism." Of course, many of the critiques about the speech's supposed elitism came from very wealthy Americans -- Tomi Lahren, Meghan McCain.

Oh no!! What will @realDonaldTrump do without the support of the liberal Hollywood elite?! Oh I know, he will Make America Great Again.

— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017

None of Streep's critics denied the actress the right to her wealth -- the conventional definition of "elitism" -- but instead attacked her values. Streep is an elitist not because of the money she has or influence she wields but because of her empathic multicultural worldview.

Liberal elitism does exist, just not to the degree people say it does

To be fair, there is a "smug style" on the American left far more likely to crush healthy debate than invite it. Think of how many Bernie Bros referred to Clinton supporters as "delusional" and Clinton voters who portrayed his base as lazy idealists. Or the avalanche of criticism directed at the moms of Pantsuit Nation or safety pin wearers, who were demeaned for being political ingenues instead of being invited into the coalition.

It doesn't help that some Clinton voters chose to label all Trump supporters as morons or racists this election, and then subsequently deleted them from their Facebook page. While that may be true of a significant part of his base, it's bad organizing, and won't help Democrats in 2020.

Liberal elitism is alive and well -- as is conservative elitism. Too often, however, the label is used to disguise contempt for social liberalism and for compassion. For some, humiliating a reporter with a disability, as Trump famously did, shows disdain for "elitist" political correctness. The victim in this situation becomes not the journalist who was mocked, nor the community who suffered a surge in hate crimes post-election, but the voter who wants a safe space for their hate. Rage cloaked as anti-elitism, power restored to the people who never lost it in the first place.