Early on, Saletan says of Trump, “He doesn’t foist his hatreds on others. Instead, he …”
But wait! Where’s Saletan’s evidence that Trump bears “hatreds”? It’s apparently just an automatic assumption for Saletan and company. Or maybe it’s projection?
The rest of Saletan’s article is a litany of point & splutter, there being no attempt to engage with any of the ideas he’s spluttering about.
A graphic equivalent of Saletan’s verbiage is the cartoon by John Branch displayed at the top of this post. In his clever [not!] doodle, Branch suggests that Trump is peddling the “red meat” of rage, fear, paranoia, bigotry, and—wait for it!—hate. Would Branch be able to provide facts to substantiate any of these charges? Almost surely not; it’s all just received attitude, perhaps best termed “breathing while Left.”
Such hyperbolic, frothing-at-the-mouth overstatement is really the signature of today’s Left. Another example is the title of an earlier Slate article about Trump, this one in the wake of Orlando’s mass shooting, by Isaac Chotiner: Trump’s Fearmongering, Hate-Filled Speech on Orlando Is the Scariest Thing He’s Done Yet. Yes, yes, it’s apocalypse now—but only because it’s apocalypse all the time.