The co-hosts of Morning Joe on Monday turned to the help of a psychotherapist on the subject of how to talk politics with people you passionately disagree with. Keep in mind that these are people who compared Donald Trump and his supporters to Hitler and the Nazis. For the most part, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski spent much of the segment wondering what’s wrong with those who don’t listen to them.
Jeanne Safer, a PhD, appeared to discuss her new book I Love You But I Hate Your Politics: How to Protect Your Intimate Relationships in a Poisonous Partisan World. As Safer called for civility (or just not talking politics with certain people), Brzezinski wondered if normal rules apply post-2016: “I just wonder if this is really always about politics, though, in this specific time.” She added, “I mean, do you talk to a family member and you just put it aside that your family member is a racist?”
The co-host sneered, “Isn’t that what our whole present is about?”
If Brzezinski thinks racism is the dominating factor of 2019 in America, it’s no wonder she finds it so hard to talk to people who aren’t liberal. She concluded, “It isn't conservative/liberal. It's something else. A third player in this.” That “third player” is, of course,Trump.
Scarborough offered a variation on the it’s-not-me-it’s-you defense as to why his critics are wrong:
I have people coming up to me and they go, “You used to be a conservative.” And I go, “no, no. I'm still a conservative. Your definition of conservative has somehow changed to embracing Vladimir Putin and running record debt.”
Scarborough claimed that he runs into Trump supporters all the time on the street: “I smile and I say, ‘Come on, come on. Keep talking.’ And occasionally, I say, ‘You don’t believe that, do you?’”
That’s a whole lot nicer than what he says on TV. There, Scarborough compared Trump to Hitler. Of Trump’s supporters, Scarborough once said, “Openly racist. If you support him, then you're supporting that and you are that. It's that simple."
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Morning Joe
6/17/19
8:54 AM ET
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Joining us now, a little help. a psychotherapist and author of the new book I Love You But I Hate Your Politics: How to Protect Your Intimate Relationships in a Poisonous Partisan World. What a great topic.
…
BRZEZINSKI: So now the question for you I guess to begin with on this is are things different now? It's one thing conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican. Isn't there something different going on here?
SAFER: I think it has gotten even more insane. Trump's election changed things far to the worse.
BRZEZINSKI: It isn't conservative/liberal. It's something else. A third player in this. He’s not a conservative.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: It is now Trump/non-Trump. By the way there are quite a few people at National Review that feel as I do. I have people coming up to me and they go, “You used to be a conservative.” And I go, “no, no. I'm still a conservative. Your definition of conservative has somehow changed to embracing Vladimir Putin and running record debt.”
8:59 AM ET
JEANNE SAFER (PhD, author)
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I just wonder if this is really always about politics, though, in this specific time.
SAFER: You are absolutely right.
BRZEZINSKI: I mean, do you talk to a family member and you just put it aside that your family member is a racist.
SAFER: Racist gets difficult.
BRZEZINSKI: But isn't that what -- wait a minute -- isn't that what our whole present is about?
SAFER: Well, to some degree that's true. Some people you are not going to be able to talk to. Some people you'll have to say, look. You can't say this.
