All too often now we are reading stories in the media about "liberals gone wild," aggressively confronting Trump supporters. Initially encouraged by California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters' call to arms to challenge members of President Donald Trump's administration wherever they are found, she helped remove the boundaries of civility for liberal/conservative discourse. Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially rebuked Waters but has done little to rein her in since or to dissuade such aggression by others.
While both sides have initiated confrontations, liberals heavily dominate the arena. Oftentimes the trigger is only a conservative wearing a "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) hat. Sadly, no one is proving immune from such liberal confrontations, which often become physical, regardless of age, sex, race or immigration status. With historical inappropriateness, liberals turn to comparing Trump and his followers to World War II's Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Over eight decades ago, the world witnessed the German government and media collaborate, in the wake of their country's embarrassing loss in World War I, to embrace a symbol that had held a positive connotation for 12,000 years. They converted it very quickly into a symbol meaning sheer evil.
That symbol was the swastika, first discovered in the Ukraine on an ivory figurine dating back that far and used by numerous cultures afterward to symbolize good fortune, prosperity, abundance and eternity. Yet Nazi Germany, in less than a decade, by a combination of words and deeds, was able to undermine that positive meaning – the swastika becoming a hated symbol of evil. It became so effectively tainted that to this day the Western world hesitates to use it despite its 12-millennia-long positive history. Within the comparative nanosecond of a decade, the power of hate and fear proved permanently able to destroy that positive history. This impact is most recently reflected by a Denver suburb city council voting unanimously to change their pre-Hitler name of "Swastika Acres."
Such hate and fear was also at work on the other side of the globe as another enemy – Japan – used a false narrative to effect a tragic toll in innocent lives. Facing a U.S. amphibious assault to remove them, Japanese occupiers of Okinawa convinced the islanders Americans were evil. They were told not only would Americans kill civilians but mercilessly slaughter their children as well. U.S. forces were horrified, as they drove the Japanese back up to the island's high cliffs – the Okinawans among them – to see mothers tossing their babies and children into the sea below, jumping off behind them. Temporarily halting their advance, the Americans engaged interpreters to talk the remaining civilians down, stopping the lemming-like mass suicide of innocents.
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Germany and Japan, using their own hatred, falsely created a perception that something – a symbol and a people, respectively – that was non-toxic was toxic. This is what liberals do today, falsely creating a hateful perception about MAGA conservatives – assisted by a media portraying the hat as a symbol of racism and hate speech.
Hate and fear cause those lacking a grip on reality to act on emotions fed them by leaders having their own agendas. A largely left liberal fringe has proven unable to accept the reality of the 2016 presidential election, causing it, with little encouragement, to go off the deep end. They interpret the irresponsible cries of Democratic Party leaders, such as Waters, to confront their ideological opponents, as a license to do so. This has resulted in verbal and physical assaults of MAGA-hatted conservatives.
Jussie Smollett has shown us how far the fringe will go to paint an intolerant MAGA image by even faking an attack. Interestingly, blinded by his anti-Trump rage, Smollett failed to grasp three things immediately undermining the alleged attack's credibility: 1) knowing the MAGA hat's perceived intolerant symbolism, Smollett had his attackers wear them in a heavily anti-Trump Chicago where doing so put them more at risk; 2) while hate is a strong motivator, attackers electing to go out in sub-zero temperatures, with a noose in hand, was suspect; and 3) the pre-attack Subway sandwich Smollett purchased miraculously survived unscathed to be consumed later.
The left's Trump comparison to Hitler is ironic. With an army of liberal attackers striking out against conservatives around the country, they are reminiscent of Hitler's "Brownshirts" who attacked innocent Jews during the late 1930s.
With Democrats tacitly approving the above, it is disconcerting they seek to pass the "For the People Act," requiring unprecedented disclosure of citizen support for nonprofit advocacy groups, professional associations, etc., thus leaving members open to "Brownshirt" intimidation.
While some Democrats have portrayed Trump as mentally unstable, the intensity of the hatred espoused by them against the president and his supporters has generated the suggestion it is not just the fringe unwilling to accept the 2016 presidential election results but even those supposedly more centrist. It has led to identifying a new mental illness – "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS) – from which such staunch Trump haters may suffer.
TDS apparently has cross-pollinated from politicos to educators. Numerous high schools and colleges have banned MAGA apparel after confrontations occurred or to prevent them from occurring, opting to "punish" the victim and not the aggressor. Meanwhile, students wearing "Che Guvera" or "Mao" shirts continue doing so. And a middle school student's selection of Trump as her hero for a class project was rejected.
We clearly live in dangerous times. It is a time encouraging crazies. This realization recently prompted Pelosi to demand Trump remove an accurate video calling out Rep. Ilhan Omar for her offensive description of 9/11. Pelosi dubiously claims Omar is now threatened. However, Pelosi remains silent about numerous conservatives who have really been threatened, some for only earning mention in the Mueller report but not being charged.
Innocent conservatives – whose only "sin" is wearing a red MAGA hat – are becoming "unintentional matadors." Their mere presence creates a "plaza de toros" in the blink of an eye, as an intolerant ideological left-leaning bull charges them – one released upon society by Waters and her ilk. Just like the Okinawans during World War II, these liberals must be talked down from the cliffs. But the only way that can be achieved is by party leaders, responsible for driving them up there, responsibly doing so.