Former first lady Michelle Obama chose to mark the Biden victory by taking a swipe at tens of millions of Americans, tweeting that “tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division.”
That public broadside was dressed up as a call for “reaching out” and “connecting” with people, but the insult was plain: a whole swath of the country was characterized as supporters of hate and chaos.
This sort of condescension from an elite Washington figure isn’t criticism — it’s contempt, and contempt drives people away rather than toward unity.
Americans who work hard, raise families, and pay taxes aren’t caricatures to be dismissed in a pithy tweet; they are the backbone of this country and deserve respect, not lectures from coastal elites who profit from perpetual division.
Michelle Obama’s message also exposes the double standard in political rhetoric: demand “unity” only after you’ve painted millions as morally deficient for disagreeing.
That approach is classic political theater — celebrate the win, then shame half the country into submission — and it’s corrosive to the very idea of a free and pluralistic republic.
Conservatives aren’t asking celebrities to be silent, we’re asking them to stop weaponizing their fame to demean neighbors who think differently.
When elite figures publicly sneer at ordinary Americans, the result is predictable: more distrust, less cooperation, and a louder, angrier culture war.
Patriotic Americans will answer calls for unity on their own terms — with dignity, with common sense, and by holding every public figure to the same standard they demand of the rest of us.
If Washington’s ruling class wants to rebuild trust, it should start by dropping the insults, listening to working families, and treating opponents as citizens, not caricatures.
