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There’s a never-ending problem when you choose someone like Donald Trump as the face of your party: You will never, ever have the moral high ground.
Doesn’t matter the situation. Doesn’t matter what someone else does.
Trump has done it worse, said it worse, acted worse, been caught doing it worse. Every single time. And there is no exception.
Even when Trump is the apparent subject of more attempted political violence, he can’t be cast as the victim. Because to do so would mean he’s not complicit in some way in the putrid, toxic atmosphere that currently surrounds American politics and American political dialogue.
It would require, for example, that we all overlook the fact that Trump took an already hostile and counterproductive atmosphere, shoved it into a dumpster, lit it ablaze and then continued to pour gasoline on it every few seconds.
There is no absolutely zero debate on this, and you know it. From attacking Ted Cruz’s wife to mocking a disabled reporter to writing “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” just Sunday morning, the man has driven political discourse through the sludge at the bottom of the barrel.
So, when the Alabama Republican Party and chairman John Wahl, in response to yet another rightwing goober apparently ready to take a shot at Trump, attempts to pin it all on Democrats and the environment they’ve created, I have to wonder if we’re all still dealing in reality at this point.
Here’s what Wahl said: “For years, Democrats and their allies in the national media have labeled conservatives as radicals and extremists. Yet today, we can clearly see where the real extremist threat lies—it lies with anyone, on either side of the political aisle, willing to degrade and dehumanize others because of their political beliefs. The open hatred and villainization of Donald Trump by Democrat leaders and leftists in the mainstream media has created an environment where political violence is becoming disturbingly normalized.
“A free society must allow for a fair debate over the issues without the demonization of those with opposing political viewpoints. Far too often, members of the Democrat Party and liberal activists within the press fan the flames of division and hatred in our country. We should all work to foster an environment that encourages constructive dialogue and allows the sharing of ideas, without pushing narratives that inflame tensions and encourage violence.”
Allow me to speak for everyone with a working brain that has watched, even casually, what has happened over the past eight years: Hahahahahahahaha.
This is like Alexander Shunnarah telling people to ease up on the billboards. Or Kanye telling everyone to stop it with the weird outfits.
Seriously, what world are you living in?
Because here in the real world, there are a couple of inconvenient truths for you: 1. Had you paid a bit more attention to the dire warnings of Democrats (and millions of regular Americans) and passed common sense gun regulations, you wouldn’t have people with a documented history of mental illness carrying assault rifles around anywhere. In addition to possibly stopping some of these incidents in which disturbed rightwingers try to kill Trump, maybe we could also save a few hundred school children per year, if that’s something you’re interested in.
And 2. Trump has been cast only as the threat that he is. I’ll remind you, and everyone else, that he is the only president in American history – the ONLY ONE – to refuse to accept the results of a free and fair election. The only one to attempt a coup. The only one to continue to insist, well after the election and after dozens of court cases proving him wrong, that he didn’t lose. He is the only one to send a group of thugs to the Capitol Building in an effort to disrupt the certifying of electoral votes.
He has been vilified because he is a villain – a role he appears quite eager to embrace judging by his increasingly deranged rhetoric and actions.
Which brings us back to those most responsible for the toxic political discourse in this country. While it is certainly true that the discourse was heading downhill for quite some time, and true enough that each side bore some responsibility for that decline, nothing holds a candle to Trump, or the GOP’s acceptance of his deplorable, disgusting behavior.
Last I checked, no Democrat claimed that any group of people were “poisoning the blood” of America. Or referred to political opponents as “vermin.”
No Democrat has threatened to jail their political adversaries. No Democrat has said the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs should be put to death. No Democrat has referred to a Black prosecutor as “an animal.” No Democrat has called for the shooting of protestors.
And no Democrat has ever even considered fabricating vile and disgusting stories about immigrants – claiming, without humor, that they’re eating pets – in an effort to demonize good and decent people, putting their lives at risk and shutting down schools, for the purposes of winning an election.
“Democrats have …,” please, spare me.
The fact is, Republicans have acted like a bunch of timid snowflakes while their party has been kidnapped and held ransom by a raving lunatic who holds nothing sacred and cares absolutely zero for any other human being. You’ve all sat idly by as this bumbling narcissist has belittled and demeaned good and decent people who have been the stalwarts of the party for decades.
All because you’re too afraid to alienate the malleable group of deplorables that are attracted to a phony tough guy and third-rate carnival barker. And now, when you’ve fractured your own party and they’re literally trying to kill each other, you want to blame this all on Democrats.
Nah.
