Let Go Of The Hate In Politics
Don’t give in to the Dark Side. Trust the Force.
It is truly astonishing just how much hate there is in American politics. For Republicans, it was a badge of honor to deny President Obama his confirmation of his nominees for the federal and Supreme Courts. Republicans took a certain glee in riling up Democrats with their voter suppression legislation and bailouts to big businesses without supervision. Republican hate for Obama was obvious to everyone.
According to Vox, President Trump believes in “owning the libs” as a matter of political principle and strategy. Even Roger Stone, a friend of the president, took pride in being hated by liberals and Democrats (see the movie, “Get Me Roger Stone”). Powerful Republicans act like the hate for them that they inspire is more important than the policy they support. Public policy victories are sweeter to them if you hate them for it.
And right now, the Republicans own the Democrats. They’ve been installing hundreds of conservative judges in federal courts for lifetime appointments at a record pace. They got Brett “I didn’t do it” Kavanaugh seated on the Supreme Court. They have Betsy DeVos, usurer in chief, collecting debts for the Department of Education, promoting charter schools, and working tirelessly to return prayer to public schools. They’ve got Bill Barr running interference for any investigations from Democrats in the House. And they’ve got Donald Trump to remind Democrats to hate him, hate him, hate him. The GOP has weaponized hate, and I have to admit, they’re doing a great job at it.
When people are engaged in hate, they can’t see their own part in the hate. They become logic challenged. They do things like forget that they’re campaigning for something instead of against something. Democrats did that in 2016 and we all know how that turned out. We now have Trump for president. And he will take a certain joy in making your life miserable because he doesn’t believe he needs your liberal vote. In fact, he's hoping you’ll be so demoralized by November, that you’ll just stay home. The GOP loves low voter turnout. When the turnout is low, they can count on their older, more conservative, and more reliable voters to show up and vote.
On Twitter, I see this in spades. People are talking about sitting out November if they have no choice but to vote for Biden as their way out of living under Trump. They are talking about how much they’re drinking, what they’re…
