They Started It

My sister sent me a long text this weekend, consisting of Republican grievances from the last four years, which she lifted off a friend’s Facebook group. She was pretty pissed and wondered if there was a Democratic version.

I don’t know about another version but I’m willing to comment and debunk the original. It was the usual list of exaggerations, half-truths, and mountains made of mole-hills. Lots of extenuating circumstances were left out. Lots of projection of their own verified faults onto their enemies. You know, same old, same old. So let’s dig in. My responses are in blue.

“Let us all be a United States again,” from former Vice President, Joe Biden. "We're at war with the virus, not one another."

The problem is we have memories.

We remember the women’s march the day after the inauguration.

               You mean the one that was bigger than his inauguration? Funny, that’s what happens when a     misogynist gets elected president, and whose backers seek to take away women’s rights over their own bodies.

We remember the 4 years of attacks and impeachments.

               This is coming off of eight years of attacks on Obama. You don’t like the negativity and animosity? You started it, from birtherism down to the color of the guy’s suit. Also, no one gets impeached without committing crimes. If your hero wasn’t a crook, he wouldn’t have had to worry about impeachment.

We remember “not our president” and "RESIST."

Was Obama your president? Because Mitch McConnell “resisted” every piece of legislation Obama put forth, once he had to power to do so. Just because it was Obama’s.

We remember Maxine Walters telling followers to harass us in restaurants.

We remember the Presidents spokesperson being kicked out a restaurant.

If you’re going to get up on the People’s podium and tell obvious, verifiable lies, threaten and belittle the press, then I don’t feel so bad if you might have to get your salad to-go.

And I don't have to remember the death threats surrounding election officials whose only crime was not illegally tipping the scale towards Trump, because it's happening right now.

We remember hundreds of Trump supporters physically attacked.

WE remember unarmed black people getting killed by the police, over and over and over again. We remember the president issuing many words of support for the abusers and none for the abused. We also remember groups of “Boogaloo Bois, and “Proud Boyz” coming from all over the country to incite violence and mayhem wherever there was a peaceful protest. And I remember the president’s encouragement to them too.

 We remember Trump supporters getting Doxed, and fired from jobs.

That, I don’t remember. I remember people getting fired for writing or saying irretrievably stupid, sexist, or racist things. The fact that stupid, sexist, racists support the president says more about him than us.

We remember riots and looting.

And the white supremacists were there for all of it. Not for nothing, though, if the police were saving their most brutal behavior for use on middle-class white people and had been for decades, they’d be rioting too. Riots don’t happen in a vacuum, they happen when people are pushed to the limit.

We remember “a comedian” holding up the President’s severed head.

               I remember Obama effigies being hung and burned, to zero outrage from the right. What’s your point? You have hurt feelings about what KathyGriffin did? I remember a famous saying about feelings that Trump fans used to promote with glee. So now you want to cry when YOUR feelings get fucked?

We remember Robert de Niro yelling “F" Trump” at the Tony’s and getting a standing ovation.

I remember a Republican congressman yelling “You lie” at Obama during a State of the Union address, which was unprecedented in its brazenness.

We remember Nancy Pelosi tearing up the State of the Union Address.

Am I missing something? Is there something sacred about a pre-event copy of a speech? Or are we just clutching pearls and grasping at straws now?

We remember the total in the tank move on the mainstream media.

               I don’t even know what this means. But blaming “the press” for everything is as unimaginative as it is inevitable from the right.

We remember the non-stop and live fact-checking on our President and his supporters.

You say that like it’s a bad thing. Fact-checking is the very essence of a journalist’s job, not to parrot whatever garbage is being dispensed from the briefing room. Most importantly, if the president and his followers weren’t lying every single time they opened their mouths, the press would have no reason to fact-check.

We remember non-stop in your face lies and open cover-ups from the media.

Like what? The Coronavirus is serious? Masks help stop the spread? The president’s campaign team regularly worked with the Russians and knew about the stolen Clinton emails in advance and knew when they were going to be published? Every one of those (and many more) are stone cold facts. They just get labeled as lies as a defense mechanism by the least truthful administration in history.

We remember the President and his staff being spied on.

               Our intelligence agencies spied on the Russians. Whose fault is it that Trump associates kept turning up on the wires? (Again, that’s a FACT, as verified in the Mueller Report. Which in no way “exonerated” the president or his staff.)

We remember five Senators shot on a ballfield.

               Yeah, that was bad. No question. But how come when it’s a Democrat, it casts dispersions on all, but when some right-wing nut-job shoots up a public place, he’s just a lone wolf?

We remember every so-called comedy show turn into nothing but a Trump hate fest.

Gee, comedy shows make fun of the president. That's happened every day since… let’s see…the invention of television. Suck it up.

We remember 95% negative coverage in the news.

If the president wants praise, he needs to do something praiseworthy. (Aside from lowering taxes for the richest of the rich.) What are his great accomplishments? Anyone? “ Cutting regulations = spewing pollution into the atmosphere and allowing banks to resume screwing its clients. “Religious freedom” = allowing discrimination of any kind as long as the discriminators can site a religious reason. Seriously, what did Trump actually do himself?

 We remember the state governors asking and getting everything they ask for and then blaming Trump for their problems.

You remember wrongly… obviously through the rose-colored lens of Fox “News.” Governors had to fight each other for supplies, and sometimes even the federal government, who frequently confiscated states’ purchases. No one had “enough” until long after it was needed. Kicking a nationwide problem to the states to solve demonstrates an appalling lack of leadership. The fact that you think he should be praised for his COVID response shows how little you know about what’s really happening. If Trump had exhibited even the minimum of leadership, like telling the country from the onset that distancing and masks work, these things wouldn’t have become a political issue and we wouldn’t have the highest death count from COVID in the world. (And still spiking.) This is an impeachable offense, right here.

And this is from July. It’s even worse now.)

We remember a Trump top aid verbally assaulted in two DC restaurants.

               Again with the restaurants? This is just list-padding.

We remember people banging on the Supreme Court doors.

I remember groups of heavily armed conservatives taking over statehouses in an attempt to intimidate the legislators within, who were trying to formulate a pandemic response… you know, after the president threw it to the states. Why is it that Republicans are more upset about the prospect of buildings being assaulted than people? 

We remember that we were called every name in the book for supporting President Trump.

               Names like fat, ugly, crazy, lazy, sleepy? Oh and I remember some choice names for President Obama, that we don’t say in polite company.

We remember that Hollywood said they would leave after Trump was elected but they stayed.

               “Hollywood would leave?” You’re reaching, here. Seriously.

 This list is endless, but you get the idea.

The list certainly seems endless but that’s only because it’s basically fact free. Republicans are experts at ignoring their own faults and pointing the finger at their opponent, and they’re usually the same faults.

The fact is, conservatives working through Fox “News” and talk radio have coarsened politics into a take no prisoners, zero-sum game. Never compromise, never admit defeat, never admit you’re wrong. Always attack. And when the opponent reaches his limit and responds in kind, Republicans clutch their pearls and claim offense. It’s a race to Victimhood, to which only they are entitled.

I’ve had it. The Obama years turned into a full-on Republican assault on civility, tradition, and rational politics. They don’t get to start the fire and complain about getting burned too.

 I remember everything too.