“First orange president”
“The tangerine”
“Cheeto emperor”
These are just a few of the phrases the less-than-educated left have used to describe President Donald Trump’s melanin composition – and they’re way past old at this point. Of course, this hasn’t stopped memers from using them anyway. Which brings us to the age-old critique: the left can’t meme after all.
Let’s be clear for a minute: memes like the one to the left aren’t out of fashion because they’re “offensive”. They’re simply outdated. All of this underscores exactly why, despite Trump’s tumbling popularity even among Republicans, Democrats are still struggling to build a post-Obama era coalition.
It’s time for a small crash course in memeing history.
Years ago, the left dominated the social media game. President Barack Obama was the first major politician to use internet culture to his advantage, and his supporters followed suit. Today, the situation seems to have completely reversed itself as right-wing communities on 4chan and Reddit are free to be as irreverent as possible. Meanwhile, the left’s obsession with intersectionality and identity politics prevents their content creators from being as creative as they had been in the past.
For example, in 2012, a picture went viral showing Sesame Street’s Big Bird threatening Mitt Romney after the Republican presidential nominee indicated he would cut funds to PBS. The image was objectively funny, and poked fun at the candidate’s promise to slash funds for a relatively small public venture.
Today, leftist memes are sickeningly Trump-centric, and don’t have the luster they used to. For their own sake, it might do them well to explore other topics.
~ Facts Not Memes