Why trumpers are, indeed, terrible people

[EnergizedLib]

Ten years ago, and before the descent down the escalator, if somebody asked me what I thought of the Tea Party and Republican politicians, I would have said that I vehemently disagree with their policies, but would've wanted civility and unity. There was a time when I disagreed with people's political beliefs that I didn't hold against them. There was, I think, a time when we disagreed on economic policies or even some social issues, but we were civil and not cruel about it.

That America, as the past seven years have demonstrated, is long gone, and I'm looking to show why I believe President Biden was correct.

Now, I'm going to delve into every little example, or I'd have a 10,000-word post, and maybe that would be insufficient.

Link to tweet

If they are so loving and peaceful and accepting, why are middle fingers in the air if they're such good people? What are they potentially triggered about to elicit such a reaction? Notice the quote tweet insinuating we should be thankful they're showing no civility instead of shooting at us, as if there'd be a justification for doing so.

And that's the difference between us and them, always threatening to shoot, to invoke 2A, to rise against the very tyrannical government they claim (as if government would just roll over against them).

The difference in the elections between 2016 and 2020 is how people responded. Our side did not like it one bit. I know I didn't. We disputed and even to this day still question it.

Do you know what we did not do? We didn't commit crimes in Hillary Clinton's name. There wasn't a big uprising at the Capitol on January 6, 2017 with her leading the cheers about overthrowing the election results. In fact, she was more gracious in defeat than TFG was in "victory." Candidates have a right to ask for a recount if the margin is small enough and permissible under law. What they don't have a right to do is overthrow the government or democracy. Questioning and disputing election results are one thing, but we put limits on how far we've taken it.

Meanwhile, TFG recently demanded a new election, to be declared the winner, reinstated and the results in Wisconsin invalidated, none of which any politician, to the best of my knowledge, has ever done. Not only are they crying fraud even if they only get 3% in a primary (Kandi Burriss Taylor), but they also outright declare they are the Congressman if they lose (Laura Loomer).

And candidates running for governor and other offices are not wanting to certify election results, which all started because of the Big Lie, of which there is still no evidence, but actual voter fraud cases (not many to begin with) are usually committed by Republicans.

Not to mention I've seen calls for repeal of the 19th Amendment and only allowing property owning men of a certain age to vote, even though the Spoils System from Andrew Jackson allowed all white men to vote (which would be terrible now, but a big step forward back then). Support of this goes against institutions and human rights, a lifeblood of any advanced country.

January 6 showed also what terrible people they are, because they're against democracy and wanting to overturn it. They said they were invited to the Capitol by TFG and were there on his behalf. You saw all the videos and footage, so I'm not going to touch up on too much. Some things that really stand out was taking down the American flag (so much for patriotism) and replacing it with a trump flag (I guess they love him more than the country), or when they attacked police officers, showing Blue Lives Matter was a racist dog whistle.

That's another thing. Anytime a black person is killed by police, they want to know that person's record. They tried excusing Chauvin's actions on George Floyd after noting his rap sheet, or pointing a gun at a pregnant woman. Or Ahmaud Arbery, who is dead for no reason, but that seemed to satisfy defenders of Travis McMichael and his ilk. They cried self-defense on Kyle Rittenhouse while not seemingly wanting to extend the same courtesy to Ahmaud Arbery when he was cornered with no evidence of committing a crime. And no, jogging while black is not a crime (but Obama had the nerve to president while black, and while I do think it was possible to see past his skin color and not like his policies, no doubt him being black was why many didn't like him. The vitriol towards President Biden isn't as intense as it was towards President Obama, in my opinion, and I think I know why.)

Anyway, maybe George Floyd wasn't the best person. Maybe Ahmaud Arbery didn't always make the best choices. Neither, however, is justification for how they met their deaths, but they showed it loud and clear on January 6 it wasn't about Blue Lives Mattering, but Black Lives not.

But then they turned around and supported Dobbs, invoking democracy as this being a good decision. First of all, rights and choices like that should be left to the individual. Second, as I've stated before, it's not democracy if Republican state legislatures are making laws on forced birth without putting the issue to a ballot.

I have said before I sympathize with those who don't like abortion, but I see how badly the alternative is going. These people, both in office and some of their constituents, are willing to let women be traumatized by a constant reminder of their rape if they get pregnant by it, while denying a procedure to a 10-year-old girl impregnated by rape, force a woman to give birth to fetuses not viable and even let them suffer torture in the ER or left to die. I see these pro-life signs in rural Indiana saying "value them both" talking about the mother and fetus inside of her. Torturing women in ectopic pregnancies isn't valuing them, and if she dies, the fetus dies, which isn't valuing anybody.

If stories like these are the alternative to abortion, then it's best kept safe, legal and rare.

But once the child is born, we all know what happens. Take away food stamps, and safety nets, deny, deny deny. They want to not just abortion, but birth control, contraceptives, sex education, all these things that would lead to safe sex, forcing us to live by their Biblical code, even though Leviticus condemns shellfish and mixed fabrics, but we see no attempt to ban that.

So, if you want to talk about dehumanizing, how about the LGBTQ+ community? They should be in special classes, or they should be discriminated against by being withheld school lunches. Overturn Obergefell and Lawrence, return it to the states, when people like Ken Paxton want to enforce the anti-sodomy law in Texas (when's he going down for that indictment again?) Or Mike Braun thinking the Supreme Court made a mistake allowing interracial marriages.

Imagine being so bigoted as to want states to have the right to ban contraceptives, to have the right to ban interracial marriage, homosexual relations or interracial marriages. "I'm for these things, but states should be allowed to decide." No, they shouldn't because states will absolutely go after individual liberties. They already have.

But it was okay for them to cry freedom during lockdown, vaxxing and masking. Look, if you couldn't get vaxxed because you were a health risk, I get it. But they acted like little petulant children, not wanting to be a team player and help out themselves or others. We're part of a society (even though many would rather people die than see their tax dollars help them out), and it's my duty in this society to help myself and others out. When I covered a high school football game last Friday, I was under the weather, but I wore a mask when I interviewed to coach to protect him. How does abiding by rules impinge any "freedom?" Why not be allowed to drink and drive, or drive 200 miles per hour, or visit Camp David, or go streaking on an expressway? What about that kind of "freedom?" Maybe it's because I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert, but I adjusted to lockdown and quarantine just fine. If you had actual grievances (health risk about the vax), that's different than just crying "Muh freedumb!" about the shutdown, vaxxing and masking.

I mean, I can go on and on about everything TFG has done and their support of him - from mocking the disabled reporter to disrespecting gold star families and telling a widow he knew what he signed up for. There's the infidelity and chaos, the governing by trimming social programs and wanting to take benefits away from people, and stacking justices on both sides of their mouth, can't confirm Democratic judges during an election year, can confirm them while an election is actually taking place. All because of a minority voting system they support that allowed somebody into our White House, appoint justices under multiple different standards and now millions of women are at risk in this country. And they cheer. It doesn't matter if he literally shoots someone on Fifth Avenue, I even remember comments sections wanting to make it illegal to be a liberal and one comment I saw wanting permission from trump to shoot liberals. There's no denying they would come for us if they could get away with it.

It doesn't matter how badly he mismanaged COVID (not a hoax, he lied about the severity of it and could've had another four years with a better response), that he incited insurrection or took highly sensitive intelligence documents that don't belong to him, they cheer him on. His ramblings at Saturday's "worship me" rally showed as much, and many of his cultists have demonstrated that with threatened violence or attempted violence.

Now, I'm not about to shed any tears for Ashli Babbitt or Ricky Shiffer, far from it, but I'm sure they had loved ones who did and still are crying over them. By all means, they were responsible for their demise, but who planted the seeds? Who indwelled them with such hate and lies and all this other garbage? They may be responsible, but that responsibility is not theirs solely. People have and are willing to die or go to prison in his name.

Compare that to us. I voted for President Biden again. Assuming he's our nominee in 2024, he'll get a vote right here, too. But I'm not about to go to prison or die in his name, and without knowing the man, I don't he'd want to me to do that either. I know James Hodgkinson was a Bernie supporter, only for Bernie to condemn the baseball shooting.

But their side didn't condemn Charlottesville, or January 6, or the theft of top-secret documents or Nazi salutes, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Confederate flags, etc. That Rubio is more upset about the leaks than the documents is just one of several examples of priorities out of whack and not caring about national security or people who work for us, but they'll still cry Benghazi 10 years later even though the family of Ambassador Christopher Stevens did not hold Hillary responsible. Don't forget who cut embassy funding, but just yesterday, I saw a video of a trumper who thinks trump should let go, but Hillary charged for treason if they both commit the same crime.

Link to tweet

To be MAGA means to abandon all principles, to abandon all sense and simply listen to brainwashing and being told what they want to hear. It means not standing up for accountability, for justice, but throw tantrums and threaten violence and Civil War when they don't go their way. It means to discount and disparage other people's feelings, but don't you dare offend theirs, even though they'll go out and prove you right. It means to live in denial and do reprehensible damage all because of them living in a fantasy world, which sows about the destruction of this country in turn, which brings about the erosion of our human rights and the marginalizing and targeting of people who don't look, think or act like them.

Senators Romney, Collins and Murkowski aren't exactly prizes, but they're people whose policies I disagree with. The vast majority of the Republicans in Congress are not only that, but they're so much of what I mentioned above, while millions of constituents support such action and rhetoric.

I could go on, and on, and on more about why these are bad people and not just people whom we disagree with, but I think I've done enough for now. This has already taken about a half hour to write.

[njhoneybadger]

1. The Trump supporter should read this...

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.

Theodore Roosevelt