![growing up macklemore clean growing up macklemore clean](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-08/5/14/enhanced/webdr15/original-3473-1438798901-15.jpg)
and yet in the past few years I've seen Macklemore be dealt more hatred, distrust, and outright scorn from an audience on the surface you'd expect to be more receptive than rappers who you'd think would be much bigger targets who have said far worse things. Keep in mind this is a rapper who months before 'Thrift Shop' caught fire released a song supporting same sex marriage in the United States, and who has released music criticizing the industry and exploring his own alcoholism. Okay, so what does any of the politics have to do with Macklemore, a good but not great independent rapper who has released his sophomore record pairing him with the perennially underrated producer Ryan Lewis? Well, the more I've seen the hype and the even greater backlash to Macklemore the more I've come to realize that his career probably be most damaged by the audience for whom you'd think would be a natural fit - the social justice community. It's not an answer anyone wants to hear, especially as a liberal, but where conservatives will unite despite most internal schisms, liberals will demand ideological purity and drive people away, preferring to 'win right' rather than win, which can make the losses all the more costly. That was a quote from a self-identified Republican from the Aaron Sorkin-penned show The Newsroom in 2012, and as we head into the upcoming trainwreck that will be the 2016 general election, I think I can see an answer to that question. If liberals are so goddamn smart why do they lose goddamn often?" "You know why people hate liberals? Because they lose.