Politics Plus

Right-wingers are getting increasingly vicious. I say increasingly because they’ve been vicious for a long time, since way before Trump was elected. Over the past few years, though, their savagery and evil have leveled up.

Kyle Rittenhouse. The car attack in Charlotte. The spa slaughter in Atlanta. Armed vigilantes at polling stations. And, of course, the 6 January putsch. Right-wingers will stop at nothing to impose their fascism on this country, and they could not possibly care less how much blood they shed.

The Republican Party has ceased to be a legitimate political party, and has degenerated into the Donald Trump Fan Club. Republicans don’t give a rat’s behind about this country, or what it is supposed to represent, or anybody other than white, straight, wealthy, fundamentalist Christian men. They are also all too willing to crucify any in their ranks who show any integrity. Look what happened to Liz Cheney when she refused to walk in lock-step with her peers and voted to impeach Trump for inciting the capitol attack. She was stripped of her committee memberships, and even though she had voted with Trump 93% of the time, she just lost a primary election to a Trump toady.

Just the other day I read on NextDoor about a woman whose granddaughter’s residency, and thus eligibility to vote, was challenged. Why? Fortunately, the granddaughter was able to prove her residency was legitimate; unfortunately, this meant sacrificing time and effort. I doubt this was an isolated incident, and am thankful this woman spoke up.

Doctors who provide abortions have received death threats for decades. Now doctors who provide gender-affirming care to transgender children are being targeted. Indeed, it seems that hardly anybody is not a target of the Right. School counselors, public education, libraries – nothing is off limits for them.

Here are some threats that progressive organizations have received from right-wingers. I don’t recall the sources or the targets, but the words are still chilling.

• “I am a hunter — and I think you should be hunted.”
• “You will never be safe in Arizona again.”
• “I’m really jonzing to see your purple face after you’ve been hanged.”
• “I hope you die of COVID and kill your entire f—ing family.” 
• “You should be thrown in jail for being a terrorist.” 
• “Too bad they didn’t abort all you traitor trash Nazi liberals.” 
• “Die where you are standing.” 
• “You insipid morons ALL deserve a bullet.” 
• “Every one of you should be in prison for the rest of your sorry lives.” 
• “I will kill you without remorse.” 
• “You are not an American but a force of evil. I challenge you to a duel to the death. Pick the spot and time within the next 30 days. Your head will be on a pike when this is over you cowardly bastard.” 
• “We are looking for you. If you don’t like our Constitution, then leave or die!”

These sentences demonstrate all too clearly the mentality of the Right. They are absolutely convinced that they are right – in the sense of correct, moral, etc. – so they believe they can get away with anything. Now, where have I heard that before? In their minds, the only good Liberal is a dead Liberal.

Left-wingers, Progressives, Democrats need to stop trying to compromise because the Right will not compromise. Period. You cannot compromise with the increasingly dangerous Right any more than you can compromise with a tornado. We need to stop being Neville Chamberlain and become Winston Churchill.