Despite ‘Taking Their Country Back,’ Conservatives Are Just As Volatile, Hateful, And Angry As Ever
On a Tuesday evening, after picking up his daughter from the sitter, Michael Treiman found himself shielding his child with his body as an unhinged sociopath in a pickup truck violently threw something at his family while shouting “liberal scumbag” at him. Thankfully, nobody was hurt; the object in question turned out to be a full soda. But as dangerous as that could be, hurled from a moving vehicle, it makes you wonder how that may have turned out had the violent conservative thug in the truck reached around and found something more menacing to throw.
Michael Treiman was a candidate for mayor in Binghamton, New York. But after Tuesday night’s incident, and after reportedly receiving numerous threats against himself and his family, Trieman has reluctantly decided to drop out of the race. Republican Mayor Rich David is now unchallenged by the Democratic Party.
Did you let that sink in for a moment? A Republican is able to run for office unopposed because violent conservative thugs threatened and harassed his campaign rival until he was forced to drop out for the sake of his wife and kids.
Welcome to Trump’s America, folks.
A week earlier, sociopathic right-wing conspiracy theory weasel Alex Jones went into a violent, bigoted tirade aimed at Democratic Congressman Alex Schiff, threatening him physically while unleashing a flurry of hateful, ignorant, braindead, homophobic slurs.
“In fact, let me say this right now. Let me tell — I’m not against gay people. OK. I love them, they’re great folks. But Schiff looks like the archetypal cocksucker with those little deer-in-the-headlight eyes and all his stuff. And there’s something about this fairy, hopping around, bossing everybody around, trying to intimidate people like me and you, I want to tell Congressman Schiff and all the rest of them, ‘Hey listen asshole, quit saying Roger and I’ — and I’ve never used cussing in 22 years but the gloves are off — ‘listen you son of a bitch, what the fuck’s your problem? You want to sit here and say that I’m a goddamn, fucking Russian. You get in my face with that I’ll beat your goddamn ass, you son of a bitch. You piece of shit. You fucking goddamn fucker. Listen fuck-head, you have fucking crossed a line. Get that through your goddamn fucking head. Stop pushing your shit. You’re the people that have fucked this country over and gang-raped the shit out of it and lost an election. So stop shooting your mouth off claiming I’m the enemy. You got that you goddamn son of a bitch? Fill your hand. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m done. You start calling me a foreign agent, those are fucking fighting words. Excuse me.”
Jones’ “Fill your hand” remark is a John Wayne quote from the 1969 Spaghetti Western True Grit. Jones was telling Schiff to pick up a gun and defend himself. That line — if not Alex jones’ entire violent outburst — could possibly land him in legal trouble for threatening a US Government official. Here’s hoping the psycho is arrested, charged, and sentenced for his lunacy.
Sadly, these aren’t isolated instances of violent threats. Conservatives have been prone to violent behavior and violent talk for decades. Every progressive reading this article who has regularly participated in online discussions regarding politics has, at one point or another, been bullied by a conservative. Some have even been threatened with violence on occasion. It’s sadly commonplace on today’s Internet; contemporary political discourse is a breeding ground for threatening conservative language.
Why Are Conservatives So Bitter?
Conservatives love to throw around the word “bitter.” They claim that Liberals are “bitter” that Hillary lost the election to Donald Trump, even though it always seems to be conservatives themselves who first bring the election up. But I personally think the opposite is true. I think conservatives are bitter that Trump won. And given their love for macho, violent rhetoric, it’s no surprise that their bitterness is whistling away on the stove right now.
Yes, Trump won the election… after losing the popular vote by 2.8 million ballots. And now his approval ratings are abysmally poor, sitting at all-time record lows, and they only seem to be getting worse. And as he approaches the 100 days in office milestone American presidents are routinely judged on, Trump has succeeded in getting a far-right supreme court justice appointed (which is really Mitch McConnell’s “achievement” – if you want to call unconscionable partisan obstruction an “achievement”), and in dropping a really big bomb to try and distract the media from the fact that it’s looking like he’s probably a traitor. And that’s about it.
Yes, Trump has so far squandered his first 100 days in office, the most critical days of his presidency. He’s about as likely to win reelection in 2020 as Alex Jones is to go one full week without spouting random BS conspiracy theories or bigoted slurs.
Trump supporters surely recognize this, even if they’d never, ever admit it. They blindly worshiped Trump as the second coming, and now that he’s in office, their regret is apparently spurring them toward rage.
Conservatives are starting to realize that backing Trump was a huge mistake. That Trump isn’t going to “make America great again.” They’re starting to understand that Trump isn’t fulfilling his campaign promises, and doesn’t seem to care to, either. They backed the wrong horse. And the fact that Donald Trump was the worst choice in the GOP’s primaries — a field that contained the likes of Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and Rick Perry — is saying a lot.
REAL Conservatives Need To Start Denouncing These Violent Thugs
Not every American conservative is a bigoted, violent thug. I get a lot of messages sent my way from conservatives who stumble across my articles, and for every threat of violence or hateful message I receive, I typically get one or more from people who simply want to voice that they respectfully disagree. It does happen; we shouldn’t think every conservative is dangerous.
But conservatives are always so quick to criticize the Muslim world for not denouncing terrorism (even though the Muslim world definitely does do that). They love to say the same about the #BlackLivesMatter movement, asking why BLM doesn’t denounce black-on-black crime (which they also do).
So where are the peaceful conservatives denouncing Alex Jones for his ignorant, violent ramblings and hate speech last week? Why hasn’t Binghamton Mayor Rich David publicly denounced the attack or the threats against Michael Treiman? Why don’t we ever see conservatives defending liberals when other conservatives make violent or hateful comments online?
Hey Conservatives: You Won, Get Over It
Conservatives won in 2016, but from what I can tell, that hasn’t made them any less angry, violent, or bitter. If anything, their victory
We all recognize that unless he finds a way to turn things around “bigly,” Trump is cruising toward becoming a one-term President, and that’s only if he manages to not get himself impeached before then. But isn’t it a little early to be whining about it, guys? Live in the now, Trumpers. You won the election in 2016. You’re supposed to be happy, not bitter and angry and violent. Yes, Donald Trump is a tubby orange loser, but hey, he’s YOUR tubby orange loser. He’s the loser you chose from a field of other losers, and he actually somehow managed to beat Hillary Clinton and take the White House. You’ve “taken your country back.” Shouldn’t you be thrilled?
Or maybe these violent outbursts are something different? Perhaps you’re just now realizing that we liberals were actually trying to do right by you when we told you how God-awful a choice Donald Trump was. But you’ve spent way too many years inside the conservative bubble. You’re having a hard time processing the idea that liberals were right and your side was ultimately proven wrong. And that’s a big slap in the face at what should’ve been the height of your celebrations over Trump’s win. It turns out you don’t actually have a reason to celebrate. Trump sucks. Trump sucks bad. And those pesky liberals you’ve been programmed to hate? They were right all along.
I guess it sucks to be you guys. But hey, that’s what 2020 is for. You get to right the wrong of voting for Trump. You get to run a moderate, sensible conservative candidate and oust Trump via a primary challenge. So stop being so violent and bitter, conservatives. Stop hating the world. Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. Well, whenever Trump allows you to pull your pants back up, that is.
Featured photo courtesy of Ty Wright/ Getty Images
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