I keep saying I will just stay out of politics and focus on being the best person I can be in my personal and professional lives, but I’m not sure that’s going to be enough these days.
My political opposites seem to want to lump me in with white supremacist terrorists and the insane rioters who invaded the capitol a few weeks ago, even though I have not written or thought anything that would support that assumption.
We are now living in a time when one side accuses the other of lying, while giving themselves a pass to lie constantly since their cause, the progressive cause, is morally superior and thus immune from criticism or having to adhere to ethical or moral standards of conduct.
Most of the media and Democrat politicians spent 3 years lying about Russian collusion, which was ultimately an effort to get a duly-elected president impeached and removed from office. Why was lying about Russian collusion, lying about having incontrovertible evidence deemed perfectly OK and even admirable, but when Trump and his supporters “lied” about election rigging, it was an existential and treasonous threat to the nation?
Why when rioters attacked police stations and governmental buildings were the media and politicians silent, and yet outraged when a mob invaded the Capitol? Trump is definitely responsible for what those rioters did, but so are the politicians who encouraged BLM and Antifa mobs by their silence.
At least Trump condemned the Capitol rioters and anyone who engages in violence after the fact, whereas I heard no such condemnations from the Left when it came to the violence in our cities.
When Trump just suggested sending in federal troops to protect federal buildings in places like Portland, he was accused of being a tyrant, but after one incursion in D.C., the same critics were perfectly fine with flooding the city with troops.
And why is it that those who voted for Trump are now looped in with D.C. rioters on a regular basis, when liberals and Democrats were not treated the same when it came to the rioters and looters of the summer?
In fact, there are many voices on the Left now crying for banning conservative groups and Fox News entirely, for sending Trump voters — all of them — to “re-education” camps? I heard a commentator on CNN say that the 400,000 deaths from Covid are not only Trump’s fault, but the fault of all those who voted for him, and that we should all pay a price.
This kind of shocking double-standard and willingness to label your own countrymen as truly deplorable and evil is, frankly, scaring the hell out of me. We are way beyond “agreeing to disagree.”
We are now in a place where support for Trump, even if partial or conditional (as was mine), is deemed a political and thought crime by large chunks of the people who control our country in the media and government.
Most ire on the Right is directed specifically at the people who perpetrate lies or actively pursue policies and actions aimed at reducing our freedoms. We are not angry at all Democratic voters, or all supporters of Biden, or all anything. We tend to reserve our condemnations for individuals, but the Left condemns whole groups without hesitation.
By doing so, they force the extremists to become more extreme, and the moderates — like me and 99% of the conservatives I know — to genuinely believe compromise and peaceful co-existence are no longer possible. Not because we don’t want it, but because our fellow Americans of different political beliefs seem to dismiss such an arrangement out of hand.
This is because many Leftist beliefs cannot be proven or justified based on logic and facts, and so they have to resort to force to make everyone comply with their diktats. That is how totalitarian countries, most of whom have been Left-wing, have always operated, and that is the direction we sadly seem to be going.
Trump was never the threat to our nation that his critics constantly claimed for his 4 years. The real threat is oppression and censorship by the Left, which will only increase in the next 4 years. I hope my fellow Americans will stand up to protect the rights of those with whom they disagree, or our wonderful nation will soon come to an ignominious end.
Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.
I love how conservative white male cishet Christians act like they are the oppressed ones. African American people were enslaved for around a couple hundred years and were not given civil rights until 57 years ago. Females were not given the right to vote until the early 1900s and there is still a wage gap between the salaries of male and female workers. Transgender folks are still dealing with discrimination, we have seen that the GOP has tried to oppose pro-trans legislation multiple times. The same thing goes with LGBTQ+ folks too, same-sex marriage was not legalized until 2015. That’s right, 2015, also unrelated the Soviet Union under Lenin legalized homosexuality in the 1920s. Let’s not also forget that leftists have been the ones being canceled all this time. Communists and Socialists were hunted down in the 1900s as part of the Red Scare and were arrested by the FBI and CIA.
So before you talk about how you are being “canceled” or “oppressed”, take a look at a history book and look at the people who have actually been oppressed.
Very good sentiments and understanding of the facts.
We now have a On Tuesday, a columnist for the New York Times suggested that Joe Biden construct a cross-agency task force to regulate the spread of ideas online. Basicaly calling it a Truth Commission.
1984 is here. The right has no interest in shutting down speech or ideas. In fact, conservatives want the left to proclaim loud and clear their ideas so those ideas can be debated in an open and free society.
However, the left wants nothing more than to shut down opposing ideas, and say that wrong is right, up is down, left is right, good is bad, tyranny is freedom, government control is self control.
I bet you have not even read 1984. Also, we see the right that really loves to debate people by breaking into the capitol building with zip ties and nooses. Maybe you should stop looking at Facebook and Parler and instead look at the actual facts.
The same old, tired, talking points that we’ve heard thousands of times up to the present. Talking points that the author uses to convince that he is right and everyone else is wrong. Talking points that are claimed to be fact, but as usual are arguable feelings. Everything is debatable Trey, remember that. The Trumplicans believe they are the moral high ground and then do the very same things they accuse Dems of doing. Trey, you are no better than anyone else – as we are no better than you. This mess we find ourselves has devolved into who tells more lies as if that will show anyone which side is better… it makes no sense.
My heart goes out to Trey Hoffman.
He seems to be at that well-worn cross roads of being a Christian…and being a follower of the teachings of Christ.
Most of the Christians I know, if they allow themselves to be
honest, realize the last four years have been a disaster.
The travel ban targeting those who believe differently from them?
A rise and an acceptance of white supremacy?
Separating families who flee to our borders for assistance?
Placing their children in cages?
Systematic racism and deadly brutality in law enforcement?
Our Capitol attacked at the incitement by the president?
A year of incompetent leadership during a pandemic?
People of all good faith would never attempt to justify these
atrocities. We acknowledge them. And we work to change them.
We change them even though they may benefit us–white, middle-class, heterosexual, Christians such as myself and I
assume Mr. Hoffman. Because we are actually trying to follow
the one God we profess and His instruction to do justice and to
love mercy and to walk humbly.
I sincerely hope one day soon that Mr. Hoffman will decide he
doesn’t need to proclaim all the correct answers. Just one–
Love.
And to support Democrats/Libs who see nothing wrong with massive abortions…but yet claim yourself a Christian or follower of God? Hypocrisy at its best…
ISTANDFORTHEFLAG–
Fair point. And as my conclusion states, I will never have all the answers, nor claim to know the mind of God.
Perhaps it is hypocrisy for a follower of the
Universal Christ to support a woman’s
right to a legal and safe abortion.
It is not up to me to justify her extremely
difficult medical decision. Just to stand beside her, in loving support.
There are more than enough people who
will condemn her. It won’t be me (hypocrite though I may be).
“This is because many Leftist beliefs cannot be proven or justified based on logic and facts”
Leftist beliefs can be proven with facts and logic. Most leftist theory revolves around the Labor Theory of Value (LTV), which states that the only way value is added to a product is by someone working on it. The classic example is nails, a blacksmith has a pile of iron ore and over the course of a day makes 10 nails. He has to sell those nails for enough money to make back what he bought the iron for and have enough surplus to feed his family. Now imagine a factory where there are machines that automate much of the production of nails, as a result one person can now make 100 nails in a day. This means a 10 fold reduction in human labor going into the product and as a result a 10 fold reduction in value and the nails can be sold for less.
There are some issues with this theory and it has been refined in the 150 years since Marx originally proposed it. The point still stands that from this starting point you can show that owners steal value from workers and that the capitalist system is inherently undemocratic. This is because when you go to work you don’t have a say in how the company is run and your boss can fire you anytime for any reason. Seizing the means of production means moving control of a company from a small board of executive to the company as a whole and workers vote on who they want to be managers and which direction they want the company to go and moving the goal from making as much money for the shareholders to making the most good for society as a whole. A company focused on making money won’t spend the money to safely dispose of toxic waste if they think they can get away with it, whereas a company focused on society realizes that the cost of safely disposing it in the first place is much cheaper than clean up efforts after the fact. Take Love Canal or any superfund site for an example. It’s much easier to deal with waste before it leaks out into the environment.
Now to circle back to your claim that the both sides are just as bad. That’s simply false. There is a difference between not condemning the actions of protesters and actively promoting a false narrative that presidential election was “stolen” and encouraging people to take action.
There were people in the capitol calling for the hanging of Mike Pence. I don’t remember anyone at BLM protests this summer setting up nooses and calling for the execution of cops. I also don’t remember anyone attacking reporters at the BLM protests other than the cops, but people at the capitol did that as well. There is simply a difference in kind between overwhelmingly peaceful protests and literally storming the capitol of the US with the intention to overturn the results of a free and fair election and if you can’t see the difference, I don’t know what to say.
After a brief attempt at comity last week, the eternally aggrieved Trey Hoffman feels compelled to fire another broadside at the nefarious political left. With twisted logic worthy of Rush Limbaugh musings, he argues that although the Capitol riot was incited by the 45th President, it is analogous to recent ethnic insurrections. Since the President he supported condemned the rioters, all is forgiven. He posits that 99% of Conservatives abjure this violence, but apparently every liberal condones anarchy in all of its incarnations. As usual, his white male cohort is being tormented by every other faction in American society.
The argument is well known to every elementary school student, “Well, they did it first, so you can’t blame me.”
This letter is lame even by Mr. Hoffman’s diminutive standards. Maybe he can peck out another distressed missive while hiding under his bed, fearing internment in a re-education camp.
You really can’t make this stuff up. Truth is stranger than fiction.
In Mr. Hoffman’s latest weekly rant, he makes the bold revelation … “And the moderates – like me and 99% of the conservatives I know” …? Hmm, he’s living in an alternate reality, so put this in the category of when fiction is sometimes stranger than the truth.
With apologies to Lord Byron, I’ll flip the phrase and tip my hat to you Doon.