Bullshit!!! [View all]

[NanceGreggs]

I’ve been hearing the bullshit all day – the “Trump isn’t responsible” bullshit, the “both sides do it” bullshit, the “let’s not point fingers” bullshit – and it’s time to shut it down.

To those spewing the “both sides are to blame” bullshit, I pose the following:

Name one Democrat who has called Mexicans rapists and drug-dealers, who has labelled people of colour as coming from “shithole countries”, or has tried to ban Muslims from entering the country because they’re terrorists.

Name one Democrat who has called KKK members and white supremacists “very fine people”.

Name one Democrat who has encouraged violence at a political event, with the promise of paying for the legal defence of anyone arrested for engaging in that violence.

Name one Democrat who has actually campaigned on the idea of divisiveness, and has instilled an us versus them mindset in their supporters.

Name one Democrat who has led cries of “lock ‘em up” when referring to their political opponents.

Name one Democrat who has physically assaulted a journalist – and then name one Democratic president who ever praised someone for doing so.

Name one Democratic president who has taunted, insulted, and belittled our nation’s allies.

Name one Democratic president who has not only praised, but embraced our nation’s true enemies – enemies responsible for violence against their own people, and threats against our country.

Name one Democratic president who has referred to his political opponents by demeaning nick-names, has repeatedly stated they have “low IQs” – or went so far as to question their citizenship.

So let’s stop the bullshit. There is no such thing as “both sides do it”, when one side is being continually encouraged to hate those who disagree with them, to hate those who look different than they do, to hate anyone and everyone who their “pResident” tells them to hate.

I’ve heard it said all day that Trump isn’t directly responsible for this act of violence against his political foes. Again, I call bullshit.

Every person who was targeted with a pipe-bomb today is someone who Trump has specifically pointed out as an “enemy” of himself and his followers. He has railed against them repeatedly, and has incited his supporters to see them as enemies as well.

Trump owns all of this. He owns the violence he has incited, and the hatred he has encouraged in order to fuel that violence. He owns every statement, every tweet, every rally cry that has demonized not only his fellow citizens, but the institutions that underpin our democracy – such as our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and a free press.

To hear Trump continually rant against his “enemies” and then absolve him of any responsibility for those supposed enemies being targeted for violence – or even death – is to be complicit in his hateful rhetoric. It is to turn a blind eye to everything he has said and done that has led up to this day. It is to ignore the obvious – the constant encouragement to perceive political opponents as people deserving of violence and/or death.

I heard NY Governor Andrew Cuomo say today that there is “anger on both sides” – and that’s true. But there is only one side that is stoking that anger with lies, encouraging that anger with hateful rhetoric, and vilifying those they hope that anger will be directed at.

Any pretence that today’s events are not a direct result of the shit Donald Trump has been stirring up is an insult to the intelligence of those who have heard the vitriol, and knew that the consequences were inevitable.