Trump supporters are showing their true colors
Thank you, fascist-supporting Trump voters for crawling from under your rocks.
Now we know who to watch out for.
Until serial liar Donald Trump came along, all you racist, xenophobic, misogynistic graybacks kept a low profile.
Today, Trump has empowered you to proclaim your true colors out loud. Wonderful.
You’ve gotten so relaxed about it that you’ve taken to Facebook and online comment sections to yak up your hairballs of violent political rhetoric. Duly noted.
What a relief to finally know, specifically, who among us supports political violence and openly brags about it.
Trump, the organ-grinding circus act, isn’t what’s wrong with this picture. His followers are.
Apologists for Trump voters, such as New York Times columnist David Brooks, say they’re misunderstood, they deserve respect — maybe even pity — that democracy is speaking.
Maybe so, like when Weimar Republic voters enthusiastically forfeited their freedom to a madman who promised to make Germany great again, spouting simplistic slogans, scapegoating minorities, advocating violence.
Democracy spoke then, too, and many among us appear to have learned nothing from it — perhaps especially those “poorly educated” voters Trump brags about, who may have difficulty finding Germany on a map, much less understanding the history of totalitarianism.
“Trump voters are a coalition of the dispossessed,” Brooks explains. “They have suffered lost jobs, lost wages, lost dreams. The American system is not working for them, so naturally they are looking for something else.”
Apparently, that’s a fascist billionaire. Sorry, Brooks et al, you can’t possibly argue that people’s anger at government — no matter how righteously felt — justifies desecration of our civility and civic institutions by a despot and his henchmen.
Fortunately, most Americans have good enough sense to reject such beliefs. Graciously, most Americans also support the right of every citizen to be willfully ignorant, afraid and hateful.
We’re happy to leave those folks alone. If only they’d return the favor. If only they’d stop beating protesters who disagree with them, stop ripping down political banners they don’t like, stop trying to “Make America Hate Again.”
Most Americans adhere to the Judeo-Christian conventions of kindness, compassion, forgiveness and grace toward one another, and most don’t buy into Trump’s hate-filled rants.
I doubt most Americans believe Mexican immigrants are rapists, or that we should require Muslims to “register” with the government. Most don’t believe violence is a legitimate means of political dialogue. Most believe in freedom of the press.
Americans traditionally have great tolerance for those who believe crazy things, so there’s little reason for Trump voters to imagine what their lives would be like if Trump’s “solutions” were turned on them.
But they may want to ponder what Jesus said: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
How would Trump voters feel if the tables were turned — if, should he lose in November, America did unto them what he wants America to do unto “others?”
Let’s play this out to its absurd and disturbing conclusion.
In keeping with Trump’s decree to register all Muslims, what if all violence-touting Trump voters were required to register with the local police?
Under the Trump Doctrine, we’d need to keep track of possible criminal suspects known to promote violence against people with whom they disagree.
Like those punks who vandalized the church in San Luis Obispo, defacing and twice tearing down a “Black Lives Matter” banner.
Trump said folks who disagree with him are “probably” ISIS supporters. So, should we presume his supporters are “probably” criminals, since they disagree with the majority?
How should we track and manage suspected Trumpists? Should they be required to have some kind of identifying marker sewn to their clothes? Tattoos, perhaps?
In deference to Trump’s advocacy of violence against liberals, should we require people who disrupt meetings of the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors — raving about Agenda 21 and other nonsense — to be punched in the face and carried out on stretchers?
This is, after all, the technique for handling dissent that Trump advocates.
In sum, Trump voters should be subjected to the same treatment they wish upon others. Right?
No, not right. No one in their right mind would suggest such a thing.
You are in your right minds, Trump voters, are you not?
If you wouldn’t accept this sort of treatment, why would you vote for someone who advocates doing it to others?
Now that you Trump supporters have crawled from under your rocks, give it some thought.
And while you ponder, Google “fascist.”
In case you never learned.
Liberal columnist Tom Fulks is a former reporter and opinion writer whose three-decade career included positions with The Tribune, Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder and New Times. He has been a political campaign consultant for many local races. His column runs in The Tribune every other Sunday, in rotation with conservative columnist Matthew Hoy.
This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Trump supporters are showing their true colors."