Deep cover liberal

A deep cover liberal is someone who supposedly pretends to be ultra-conservative with the intended purpose of discrediting conservative political parties or conservatives in general. They act in a way contrary to their own beliefs and often sacrifice their credibility to defend the public against world-renowned nutjobs.

Some dare call it
Conspiracy
What THEY don't want
you to know!
Sheeple wakers
v - t - e
“”If liberals are disorganized, how are they so good at getting false flag operatives into Congress as Republicans?
—Josh Barro on Mo Brooks (R-AL)[1]

Characteristics

Deep cover liberals are often characterized by:

  • Subtle or not-so-subtle racist (often anti-Semitic) comments disguised as "Pro-Christian" statements.
  • Active persecution of minorities.
  • Unquestioning support of former President Reagan and/or Bush and apparent hatred for anyone who disagrees with them.
  • Making suggestions for policy that actively contradict the U.S. Constitution either literally or in intent.

Alternative theories

Whether or not these people actually exist is an open question. An alternative theory to explain the existence of people like this is related to the existence of Poe's Law—that liberals themselves just can't possibly grasp that alternative views this extreme can seriously exist. Therefore, real wingnuts must be taking the piss, it's the only thing that makes sense. This isn't entirely a fault; anyone with even a modicum of confidence in the goodwill of humanity will have their view threatened by ten seconds in the presence of Ann Coulter. Assuming or theorising that Kool-Aid drinkers are in fact parodists or insincere may just be a way of resolving the cognitive dissonance of wanting to think that everyone is, deep down, a good person while watching Glenn Beck make an ass of himself.

Mentality

The concept of a deep cover liberal says quite a bit about the conservative mindset. Follow this Schlafly-esque line of reasoning:

  1. All conservatives are good
  2. This conservative, however, is making us look bad
  3. Therefore, they must actually be a leebral

This seems ridiculous at first, but time and time again conservatives want to attribute blame to liberals for the bad things (or at the very least, bad press) that conservatives are actually responsible for. This mentality is the heart of such annoyances as the Dixiecrat fallacy, as well as PIDOOMA assertions such as one by Ted Cruz, who suggested that the very conservative, anti-abortion perpetrator of the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2015 was actually a transgender leftist.[2]

The phantom of a deep cover liberal also plays into the paranoia of conspiracy theorists that dominate conservative talk radio and other media. Apparently, pretending to be a member of a party that you're not is a perfectly acceptable political tactic to win an election, such as was the case with Kim Davis or Dave Wilson.[3]

Suspected DCLs

Groups
  • Everyone on the alt-right. The movement is sometimes claimed, including by some of its own proponents like Milo Yiannopoulos, to be made up mainly of trolls who don't seriously hold the views they espouse.
  • Breitbart, the alt-right news outlet collaborated with liberal activists to take down mainstream conservatives like Marco Rubio in order to get Trump the GOP nomination.[4] But the argument could go both ways; perhaps the liberals in question are really deep cover alt-rightists?
  • The Birther movement, which originated thanks to PUMAs.

People
  • Glenn Beck, for hypocritically using the same tactics that he decries liberals for using.[5]
  • Clint Eastwood, after lighting up the 2012 GOP convention by yelling at a chair for ten minutes.
  • Fred Phelps, according to some conservatives, anyway. Though he was not exactly a conservative so much as an extreme homophobe who had no opinion on almost any issue not related to homosexuality.[note 1]
  • Donald Trump, former reality TV star, currently President of the United States. Granted that Trump did identify as a Democrat, donated to major candidates of both parties and had nice things to say about Hillary Clinton not even four years before he ran on the GOP ticket for the first time which lends a little credence to the theory.[9]
  • Jesse Waters, Fox News ambush reporter, who may be one of the first documented deep cover liberals; he donated $500 to the Obama campaign while publicly mocking Obama voters on the air.[10][note 3]
gollark: As far as I am aware it hasn't been demonstrated to work. There have been trials going on for a while.
gollark: You are going to have problems isolating for a year, especially if basically nobody else is.
gollark: It's worrying to me that the UK is seemingly doing quite badly, since I live there.
gollark: There's this nice COVID-19 display on a Minecraft server I'm on.
gollark: Oh, they're *quarantining* you for two weeks, right.

See also

Notes
  1. Because Phelps was a Democrat, Conservapedia said he was a liberal for quite a while.
  2. However, his activity at CP has not ceased, even after the death of Mommy Schlafly.
  3. Of course, as of this writing, it could be a hoax, but it's too funny not to mention. (Maybe not.)

References
  1. "Mo Brooks Says DREAMers Shouldn’t Be Allowed In Military Because They’re Not Loyal And Will Have Access To Nukes"
  2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/30/ted-cruz-cites-reports-that-planned-parenthood-shooter-could-be-transgendered-leftist-activist-what/
  3. http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/24/12238904/
  4. Hadas Gold, Breitbart coordinated with liberal activist and organizer who disrupted GOP primary campaign events. Politico, 25 October 2016.
  5. Brilliant Response to Beck Case, ScienceBlogs
  6. "The S-Word," episode 2.11 of The Boondocks
  7. Weird to see basically the @dailykos logo on the Charles Koch @wsj op-ed out tonight. pourmecoffee on Twitter, 2 April 2014.
  8. Why Christine O'Donnell Seems So Familiar [CHART] Cracked, 23 September 2010.
  9. Conor Friedersdorf, Donald Trump Is No Conservative. The Atlantic, 13 July 2015.
  10. Tommy Christopher, FEC Document: Fox News Ambush Reporter Jesse Watters Donated $500 To Obama Campaign. mediaite.com, 11 December 2012.
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