For liberals, Trump’s exit is the political version of ‘Brokeback Mountain’

Ever since Donald Trump left Washington, I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of who liberals remind me of now that he’s out of sight but clearly not out of mind.

Then it hit me: They remind me of Jack Twist, the cowboy in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain.” Jack desperately wanted to rid himself of someone he fell hard for, another cowboy named Ennis Del Mar — but it wasn’t easy. “I wish I knew how to quit you,” he said. “The truth is, sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it.” 

That’s exactly how liberals feel about Donald Trump. They just can’t “quit” him no matter how hard they try. They miss him so much they “can hardly stand it.”

Liberals in the media, who loathed everything about Trump, desperately long for the days when he was talking and tweeting and causing all sorts of chaos that got their blood pressure to go up — crazy as that may sound. That’s because ratings in prime time at the two big liberal news channels, CNN and MSNBC, have plummeted since Trump left office. According to a recent news report, “CNN and MSNBC have respectively lost 45 percent and 26 percent of their prime-time audiences” during the early part of this year. You want to know one big reason? It’s because those liberals who used to watch CNN and MSNBC because they loved the nonstop Trump-bashing are miserable because he’s not there to kick around anymore. Their human piñata has left town — and so, they’re pining for Trump. They miss him so much they “can hardly stand it.”

I know — that’s why the word “ironic” was invented.

And it’s not only cable news. Web traffic at the Washington Post and the New York Times also took a dive since Trump flew off to Florida. A story in the Washington Post concluded that “Trump’s various scandals and outbursts helped reporters build résumés, sell books, land lucrative commentary gigs and win awards.” That’s another reason why liberals miss the man they can’t stand.

Trump got a lot of things wrong during his four years as president, but he nailed it when in 2017 he said: “Newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I’m not there because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes.”

And then there’s Joe Biden, who can’t seem to “quit” Trump either. Instead of putting the former president in his rearview mirror, he can’t stop talking (or thinking) about him. During his recent news conference, he blamed Trump for the mess on our southern border, even accusing him of allowing minor children from Central America to starve to death on the other side of the Rio Grande. That’s not true, of course, though you’d never know it from the non-reaction to that outrageous statement from Biden’s allies in the liberal press. 

And then there’s that liberal icon from San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who, unlike the president, acknowledges that there’s a crisis on the border — but then, just like the president, blames it on Trump, whom she also apparently desperately misses.

Biden also blames Trump for the deaths of countless Americans who succumbed to the coronavirus. It was Trump’s “lies and incompetence” that, Biden has said, led to so many deaths. 

And who does the Biden administration blame for the rise in attacks on Asian Americans? Take a wild guess! Jen Psaki, the president’s press secretary, says: “There’s no question that some of the damaging rhetoric that we saw during the prior administration” has “elevated threats against Asian Americans.” 

Liberals miss Donald Trump so much that they can’t get him out of their heads. He’s living there, as the expression goes, rent-free. But just because they hate him doesn’t mean they don’t miss him.     

“The truth is, sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it.” What Jack Twist tells Ennis Del Mar in the movie is pretty much the same message that liberals and many in the media are sending to Trump. No matter how hard they try, they just can’t “quit” the guy.

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He was a correspondent with HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” for 22 years, and previously worked as a reporter for CBS News and as an analyst for Fox News. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Patreon page. Follow him on Twitter @BernardGoldberg.