The Continental Divide

​​Reading social media the past week has gotten creepy.  In part from general postings, but also comments from MAGOP officials and panel discussions on far-right “news” shows.  The surface cause for it is understandable – the shooting death of MAGOP icon Charlie Kirk.  But the attitude has long been there, it’s not like something new was unearthed.  It’s just gotten much more holier-than-thou and much less in touch with reality.
 
Creepy as it is, and on some levels dangerous, I don’t think it has anywhere near the political impact as those pontificating and shouting think.  It’s largely preaching to the choir – after all, moderates, Independents and liberals are appalled and saddened by the tragedy, but they’re not about to suddenly become deep-conservative, let alone fascist and rise up against The Libs.  And the far-right is already the far-right, who already think not only that all Democrats are evil, but think that pretty much anyone who isn’t far-right is either evil or part of what they consider the problem.

Lest one think otherwise, keep in mind that when there was an assassination attempt on Trump himself, a former president running for re-election, the country didn't rise up in outrage to become united in support of the MAGOP.  Nor has there been an outburst of national support for one side or another after any political killings or even political-driven mass murders.  It is improbable to think there will be at the death of Charlie Kirk, no matter how tragic and no matter how much anyone tries to use it as a political tool to fuel division in the country and suggest otherwise.
 
But it is creepy.  Much more detached from reality and in full-denial than usual.  And at a higher level of angst than before.  Some of that angst is real, no doubt, and some (I’m equally sure) an effort to enrage the base, as if the MAGA base needed enraging.  The whole point of the MAGA base, after all, is largely to be enraged. And it is uncomfortable – and deeply sad – to see how far the commentary goes.
 
Listing example after example after example would be disturbing to read.  I don't even have the heart to include anything from Trump's own hate-filled implosion (which, to use a quote from the great Molly Ivins, was better in the original German), in which he damned Democrats to Trump World's Village of Eternal Hell and blamed them for pretty much everything his fascist, demented mind was even remotely aware of, including the fall of the Roman Empire, Noah's flood and him never winning an Emmy.  Instead, I think that it’s best just to offer a single quote to stand for the foundational worst thoughts being expressed.  That's because, as far as symbolic examples go, it comes from Donald Trump, Junior Edition – likely hoping to anger others and be divisive, his main qualification for speaking publicly, and also to please his father, which appears to be a lifelong, losing goal of his.  But it's also a quintessential example because of how monumentally over-the-top and devoid of reality it is.
 
Appearing on Fox, he said --
 
“Anyone who says political violence is a problem on both sides and not just from those aligned with the Democrat party should be thrown off the air."
 
The good news is that (like some far-right commentary) he doesn’t go deeper into expressions of retaliatory violence, the bad is how full fascist it goes and truly delusional it is, choosing to almost completely ignore reality.

It's one thing, after all, for one to try to obfuscate reality by throwing in a "both sides" distraction when one side is more heavily imbalanced.  But it's another thing entirely to try to deny that there is even an "other" side.

I guess it's just too painfully inconvenient to be honest and note that your dad and leader of your party is a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist and guilty fraud; embraces white supremacists and neo-Nazis; pardoned 1,500 convicted Insurrectionists and is a fascist promoting violence.  Moreover, Trump Junior much too conveniently ignores the shooting deaths of Democratic former statehouse Speaker Melissa Hortman of Minnesota and her husband, the near-death beating of Paul Pelosi, the attempted assassination of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro...and on and on and on...  (We'll get to that in a moment.)
 
All that's stating the ignored obvious.  But a separate, overwhelming problem with what Junior said, and what MAGOP officials have said, and far-right commentators have said, and the base has written is something they will no doubt all ignore, but which to everyone outside their insular, protective bubble will hurt them badly in the long run, is a critical reality that completely undermines their finger-pointing outrage at The Libs specifically tied to the shooting.
 
And that's the New York Times report that the shooter was not registered in any political party, and not a Democrat, and further, both his parents are registered Republicans, both gun owners and avid hunters. 

And nonetheless, I still don't blame all MAGOPs for this shooting.  Because I grasp reality.

But I do condemn all those MAGOPs whose hateful faux-blame is repugnant.

The reality is that most people who are not on the far-right do know reality.  Rational Americans understand very clearly that political violence is a problem on both sides.  And further, know that the majority of political violence in recent years has come from the MAGOP side. 
 
The man who killed Minnesota former Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and husband, and wounded another state lawmaker and his wife was a Trump supporter.
 
The man who attempted to assassinate Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro shooting up the governor’s mansion was a Trump supporter.
 
The man who tried to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and almost beat her husband Paul Pelosi to death was a Trump supporter.
 
The man convicted of shooting up the homes of four Democratic officials in New Mexico in 2022 was a Trump supporter.
 
The men who were convicted of trying to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were Trump supporters.
 
The man who killed the son of Obama-appointed Judge Esther Salas was a Trump supporter.
 
The Insurrectionists who built a hangman’s noose for VP Mike Pence were Trump supporters.
 
The man who sent pipe bombs to the homes of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hilary Clinton in 2018 was a Trump supporter.
 
I sense you’re spotting a pattern here.
 
And we haven’t gotten to all the mass murders, so many of which were terrorist attacks by those on the far right.  The mass murders at the Tree of Life Synagogue.  The mass murders at Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.  They leap out the most.
 
And there's the shooting of Democratic Rep. Gaby Giffords that killed an aide in 2011.
 
And – no, I’m not going to give a long list.  In part because ABC News did that, putting together 54 cases where the perpetrator invoked Trump "in connection with violence, threats and alleged assaults.  It was an article written in response to Trump saying that he deserved “no blame” for divisions in America.
 
By the way, that article was written in 2020!!  Imagine now how much longer the list is today, five years later.

(And this doesn't even include Fox host Brian Kilmeade saying on Saturday that homeless people who refuse assistance should be given "involuntary lethal injections" and then "killed".  The next day, he rushed through an empty “apology" in about 20 seconds.  And no, he wasn’t reprimanded by Fox.  Most likely, it seems from so much pushed by Trump and enabled by MAGOPs in Congress, because he didn't say anything wrong in party policy, just that he said it out loud.)

But sure, “Anyone who says political violence is a problem on both sides and not just from those aligned with the Democrat party should be thrown off the air."  So sayeth Donald Trump Junior in his full fascist denial.

I repeat:  it's one thing to make a "both sides" distraction when one side is more heavily imbalanced.  But it's another to try to deny there is even an "other" side.  Especially when that side is pounding and ripping America.
 
And for all this long recitation of violent acts done in the name of Trump and far-right beliefs, I don’t condemn all MAGAs, all MAGOP officials, all those on the far right, and even Trump for the individual acts of violence, and for mentally troubled individuals.  I do condemn their violent language meant to cause division, and their attempts to scare and frighten by dehumanizing undocumented immigrants and even stirring up hatred against legal immigrants, like when “JD Vance” kept falsely slamming immigrants in Ohio for supposedly stealing and eating other family’s pet dogs and cats, despite him being told it wasn’t true.  And for attacking the press as “enemies of the people” and attacking things like the ancestry of judges who make rulings they don’t like.  And by knowingly lying to undermine trust in reality, trust in elections, trust in the court system, trust in intelligence services.
 
By the way, in many recent statements from MAGOPs, they like to use a long-held party tactic blaming others for their own misdeeds to confuse an issue. And so, they charge Democrats for their supposed violent rhetoric when calling MAGOP officials evil for fascist actions trying to overthrow democracy.  But no, that is not violent rhetoric – that’s describing reality.  That’s pointing out a criminal to police.  That’s calling the fire department to say a house is aflame.  That’s saying that a political party’s leader wants to be a dictator because he said he wanted to be a dictator.   That’s saying the Speaker of the House wants to overthrow democracy because he led the House effort trying to block Electoral Votes from being counted.  That’s saying a U.S. senator wants to undermine democracy because he wrote “We are not a democracy.”  What that’s not is knowingly lying when saying legal immigrants are eating other people’s pet dogs.
 
And to be clear, to repeat, political violence is a problem on both sides.  There was a shooting attack on Trump, and a shooting attack on MAGOP members of Congress playing softball.  It exists on both sides – not equally, but it does exist.  And when it exists on the far-right, I don’t condemn all MAGAs, all MAGOP officials and Trump for the individual acts of violence by individuals.
 
But I relentlessly condemn anyone who says there is no political violence perpetrated by those on the right.  All the while that language dehumanizing groups of people from foreign countries or for their religious beliefs, and embracing white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and condemning the free press as “enemies of the people,” and stirring up Insurrections because you lost a fair election with zero legal evidence to the contrary exists in their party.  When choosing as their party leader someone convicted of 34 felonies, adjudicated a rapist and found guilty of business fraud.  And saying that “Anyone who says political violence is a problem on both sides and not just from those aligned with the Democrat party should be thrown off the air."  And so much more and more and more and more.

And more, like when Reuters reported

From Reuters -- "Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski disclosed this week that the threat of political retaliation from President Donald Trump is real enough to make her anxious about speaking out about his tariffs, executive orders and cuts to federal agencies.

"'We are all afraid,' Murkowski told a summit of nonprofit and tribal leaders in her native Alaska."

And that's not fear from Democrats.  That's today's MAGOP.  And it's not being terrified to being immobile because you might lose your job.  It's the threat of Insurrectionists who gathered in mass in Washington, D.C. at the calling of Trump, caused the death of five police, and stormed the U.S. Capitol.  And built a hangman's noose for VP Mike Pence -- because he went against Trump.

One other quote must be referenced in closing as a clear effort to obfuscate and ignore blatant and well-known reality.  It came yesterday on a Fox Sunday talk show by MAGOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking only to the choir, since no one else would believe him.  He said --

"People have got to stop framing simple policy disagreements in terms of existential threats to our democracy. You can't call the other side fascists and enemies of the state and not understand that there are some deranged people in our society who will take that as cues to act."

Because I don't think Mike Johnson is lost in delusion, what he conveniently, knowingly  leaves out (or has a massive, disturbing case of self-denial) is Trump calling the press and other groups "The enemy of the people."  And "JD Vance" (later repeated by Trump) falsely saying -- even after being told by town officials it was untrue -- that a group of immigrants supposedly stole pet dogs and cats and ate them.  And that Mike Johnson himself literally led the House effort to block the 2021 counting of Electoral votes in an effort to overthrow democracy.

If anyone else did that, I don't think they'd want to be called an existential threat to democracy either.

When someone is fascist by every book definition, who supports and enables policies that are fascist by every book definition, what would you call them? The bottomline is easy:  If you don't like being called fascist, don't be a fascist.
 
Many of the social media posts by MAGOP officials and the MAGA base say Democrats don't understand what has supposedly been unleashed, and that they will be surprised at the Mid-terms. 
 
Actually, with a president starting at 38% approval, polls showing hatred for the MAGOP’s budget bill, significant public disdain for Trump's handling of almost every major issue, rising prices, growing inflation, increasing job loss, tariffs, hatred for the military in U.S. cities, losing 16 points on average in every Special Election since Trump took office, polls showing that Independents support Democrats by 56-10%, and a party leader with dementia which is degenerative – it is the MAGOP whose insular blindness is having them teetering on the edge of shock in a self-contained world of denial.
 
And in the end, preaching outraged falsehoods to the base may stir up their anger amongst themselves, but that only confirms to the world outside that their already 38% disapproval of that party’s leader is justified.  And likely to get worse.