Scott Adams is the mastermind behind the Dilbert comic strip, and I have to say that I have a tremendous admiration for Adams. Besides writing a best-selling comic strip, Adams also writes a blog where he expounds his views on various topics. Recently he weighed in on the shooting of Republican lawmakers in Alexandria, Virginia, by a liberal Bernie Sanders supporter. The main point which Adams makes was that this man, James Hodgkinson, who was a huge Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher fan, had been radicalized by the Main Stream Media.
We are all familiar with the idea of Islamic radicalization, but the idea that someone living in America and listening to the nightly news could be radicalized is somewhat new. When I first heard this thought, though, it resonated with me. That's because I have never seen so much hatred for one man as what we see in the Left's unhinged hatred of Donald Trump. The vitriol is simply beyond the pale. While many on the right would have been severely disappointed if Hillary Clinton had been elected president, I have a hard time thinking they would be behaving as badly as are these progressives and liberals on the Left.
Can any of us imagine a play wherein an actor made to look like Barack Obama could be stabbed to death without a huge outcry of racism from these very progressives who are defending a play in which Trump/Julius Caesar falls under the knives of the Roman Senate? Not only is he stabbed to death, but stabbed to death to standing ovations! It's a play where the liberal-minded cognoscenti flock to see Donald Trump taken down and a nation where the cognoscenti look down on us fly-over rubes as not even worth the trouble of a campaign visit.
Or can you imagine what would have happened to anyone if they had held up a representation of a severed, bloodied head of Obama during his tenure as president? I think there would have been hell to pay in such a situation. The Left would have gone berserk. CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post would have led the attack. There would have been charges of the Right inciting violence and calls would be made for the perpetrator to be jailed or worse.
But now we routinely see and hear terrible things concerning President Trump. While not a huge Trump supporter, I do believe we have reached an important tipping point in our culture in which what used to be termed "loyal opposition" has morphed into "resistance."
One example is Hillary Clinton, who proclaimed herself to be "horrified" when Donald Trump refused to say he would accept the results of the election before the results were known. Democrats and progressives were all over Trump for refusing to say whether he would accept the results of the upcoming election. How quickly we forget! Now Clinton has formed a PAC to resist Trump's presidency. It seems that, for the Left, the ends justify the means and all means -- including violence -- are on the table.
Liberals are now loudly and proudly proclaiming their resistance to all things related to Trump and to the Republican agenda. While a certain amount of resistance is to be expected, the total rejection of the election's outcome by so many has been a bit surprising. Again, I find it hard to believe that, if the roles had been reversed, conservative-minded folks would have taken things to the same level of mindless opposition and disrespect.
The news media, Hollywood, and late-night comics are attacking our duly elected president in ways and to degrees that I have personally never seen in my life. While hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, that doesn't mean there are no consequences when fellow Americans casually engage in hateful language against our institutions and elected officials. And while Donald Trump is guilty of a certain amount of divisive language during his campaign, he is far from being an authoritarian ruler. It is obvious that he is still subject to the rule of law and to the courts and, unlike Germany's Hitler, will continue to be subject to them.
But when we conclude that someone is as evil as Hitler, or that his supporters are Nazis, then we free ourselves to write them off as unworthy of any respect or even of life itself. In such a case, the resistance can become the "armed resistance." Careless, hateful language leads those on the emotional fringe to take the law into their own hands. The result? A 66-year-old shooter hunting Republican congressmen with a rifle and pistol in suburban Virginia. Thankfully, he was a really bad shot and quick-thinking Capitol police were able to take him down, apparently before anyone but the shooter was killed.
But the liberal media and the progressive movement are working hard to, not only take Donald Trump down, but undermine the very institutions for which Americans of all walks of life have bled and died. Getting our way feels good but, if the best interests of the United States are not served by resisting duly elected authority, then maybe we should humble ourselves and accept the wishes of the electorate.
Before the election, I was one of those who said, "Never Trump." But, finally, we must have the grace to accept defeat and to pull together, not as liberals or conservatives, but as Americans. Continued unreasoning and blind resistance to constitutionally elected officials, or to the Constitution itself, will lead this nation down the path of dissolution and destruction. It's sad to say, but we could very well find ourselves in a shooting war.
Sam Byrnes is a Gentry-area resident and weekly contributor to the Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
General News on 06/21/2017