Letter: Hate begets hate
Hate begets hate. We all know we need to be more compassionate in our national political dialogue.
It was bad that a Democrat Congresswoman came out recently to make remarks regarding harassing Republicans in restaurants, department stores, etc. A former Democrat Attorney General recently said that when Republicans go low, we should kick them. Even though he said his words did not mean physically kick them, still it gave the Republican side of the issue “see there” comments.
One thing that is undeniably bad and leaves no possibility of misinterpretation is when the leader of our country, the President of the United States, said a few things at his continuing political rallies like … “I would like to punch him in the face”; “Maybe he should have been roughed up”; “Knock the crap out of him would you? I promise you, I will pay your legal fees”; “The audience hit back. That’s what we need a little bit more of.”; “Part of the problem is no one wants to hurt each other anymore”; I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if other people will”; “I’ll beat the crap out of you”; If you do (hurt him), I’ll defend you in court, don’t worry about it”; “Lock her up, crooked Hilary”; “CNN is the worst spreader of fake news.”; John Brannon is a very bad man”, plus many more.
Yet his Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently stated “The President in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence.”
On October 24th, 2018, bombs started to show up at the homes and offices of Trumps perceived detractors, including two former presidents.
Is it not time to impeach the wannabe dictator and hate monger, Donald Trump?
Dan Barrett
Jasper, Ind.
I read your remarks very carefully. In fact, I read them more than once. I can’t help but take away from this that you are somehow putting the blame of the pipe “bombs” on President Trump. All I can say, is what a stretch. Sounds like Trump Derangement Syndrome to me.
I agree with Vic. You aren’t impartial at all. You led like you were filling somewhere, maybe bi-partisan, then you were suddenly, “Impeach Trump”. You come off as very biased.
Fact Check
A total of 30 Republican members of Congress have either been attacked or revealed that they were the victim of a death threat since the beginning of May.
May 8: Wendi Wright, 35, was arrested after stalking Rep. David Kustoff (Tenn.) and trying to run him off the road. After pulling over, Wright “began to scream and strike the windows on Kustoff’s car and even reached inside the vehicle.”
May 9: Virginia Rep. Tom Garrett needed heavy security at a town hall after receiving a series of death threats in May that police “deemed to be credible and real.”
“This is how we’re going to kill your wife,” one message said. Others detailed how they would kill his children, and even his dog.
May 12: A town hall participant accosted North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer, shoving fake dollar bills into his suit jacket. A Kramer supporter grabbed the same man by the neck. Both men were ejected by law enforcement, but neither were charged.
May 12: A Tucson, Ariz. school district employee was arrested by the FBI for sending several death threats to Arizona Rep. Martha McSally. The man threatened to shoot McSally and told her to “be careful” because her days “were numbered.”
May 21: Florida Rep. Ted Yoho described his office getting vandalized by protesters. One female constituent left a voicemail on an office answering machine, promising, “Next time I see you, I’m going to beat your f**king ass.”
June 14: Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.), and Reps. Steve Scalise (La.), Kevin Brady (Texas), Jack Bergman (Mich.), Mike Bishop (Mich.), Mike Conaway (Texas), Roger Williams (Texas), John Moolenaar (Mich.), Gary Palmer (Ala.), Chuck Fleischmann (Tenn.), Ron DeSantis (Fla.), Barry Loudermilk (Ga.), Mark Walker (N.C.), Steve Pearce (N.M.), Brad Wenstrup (Ohio), Rodney Davis (Ill.), Jeff Duncan (S.C.), Trent Kelly (Miss.), Mo Brooks (Ala.), and Joe Barton (Texas) were attacked by a gunman during a baseball practice in Alexandria, Va.
Scalise, the House majority whip, was shot in the hip, and remains in the hospital. Four others were injured, including a staffer for Williams and two Capitol Police officers assigned to Scalise.
The same day, New York Rep. Claudia Tenney received an email reading, “One down, 216 to go.”
June 17: Missouri Rep. Ann Wagner revealed that she had gotten five death threats in the weeks leading up to the Scalise shooting. Wagner said that protesters had been “vandalizing my home, showing up with masks and gravestones, and laying down on my driveway and drawing chalk outlines of dead bodies. Picketing my church at 8 and 10 o’clock Mass.”
June 22: An Ohio man was arrested for leaving a voicemail threatening the life and family of Rep. Steve Stivers (Ohio).
“We’re coming to get every goddamn one of you and your families. Maybe the next one taken down will be your daughter. Huh? Or your wife. Or even you,” the man said.
The same day, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz played a threatening voicemail he had received on “Fox & Friends.”
“I suggest you prepare for the battle motherf**ker, and the apocalypse,” the caller yelled. “Because we are going to hunt your ass down, wrap a rope around your neck, and hang you from a lamppost.”
List courtesy of The Washington Free Beacon
Daryl Hensley, Jasper IN
There are tons of crazies on both sides. I would almost get assaulted by anti-abortion protesters at IU just trying to go to class. Many democratic congressman were accosted during the Obamacare passage. There is something different with Trump’s rhetoric. Trump has called Democrats “unamerican”, an angry mob, the party of crime, etc. He portrays Democrats as evil at his rallies and never apologizes for his words. This is important because 1) he is a leader of his party 2) he characterizes all Democrats as these things. Hillary Clinton called some Republicans deplorable and apologized after, Trump never has apologized.
Keep in mind Democrats are nuns, clergy, teachers, businessmen and women, etc. Most are great people with just different views on how government should be run. Having entire rallies where he rails against a group of people (not a policy or an idea) is not healthy for the nation.
Note, I am not saying he is responsible for something like the bombings that are currently happening, but by making whole groups of people unamerican and not ideas, he is at least propagating a toxic environment. The bottom line is that Democrats are not going away and neither are Republicans and Trump has generated an environment where people do not discuss ideas anymore and learn to live with each other. Instead political parties are cheered for like football teams, and before long it becomes a win at all cost mentality.
Dan you are giving hate a whole new meaning. If you really cared about the hate you claim the President of the United States spews then you would stop your hateful op-eds. Hate does run deep on both sides but the Democrats have corner this market since Nov 2016. This nation in order to heal must get back to the creator God Almighty. Think about it!
US Army, you’re absolutely right.
Dan, I was curious how this was going to go because you spread more hate and misinformation than anyone on here but I hoped that you had turned over a new leaf. But once again you embarrass yourself with your extreme bias and hate for Donald Trump. Bring some maturity to your posts or just find a new hobby. This is sad.
Sure I’d like to see Trump impeached and thrown out of office. But is Pence any better? I will never forget when Pence said this when Obamacare passed:
“it was worse than 9/11.”
What a morally corrupt statement that is. Especially considering Pence is a Christian and Christians are supposed to help the poor. Which is mostly what Obamacare does; help poor people. Jesus would shed a tear to hear the comparison of 9/11 to Obamacare. Shame on Pence for saying that. I don’t see how him saying that didn’t end his political career.
Jeff,
Calling Pence a Christian is going too far. He resembles no Christian I’ve ever encountered. His devotion is to boot licking, and he does that better than anyone.
Keep writing your out of context letters. You claim trump spews hate, but when you look at the left or democrats. You get people like Maxine Waters to encourage people to heckle or harrass anyone in the trump administration. Of course lets not forget about antifa that want to beat up anyone who supports trump or the right. There is a reason Hilary didn’t get elected. Trust me, it wasn’t the Russians. Now, look at the caravan that is funded by the left. Continue to be delusional. Look at Mr. Hensley’s post. This is who you support. This is violence from a bunch of cry baby’s who won’t accept losing. The blue wave continues to be a puddle.
We have much more to fear from Trump adoring bomb throwers in this country than we do a rag tag group of poor starving people from Central America. You’ve been gas lit, Rodney, and I’m sure you don’t even realize it. But that doesn’t excuse your intellectual laziness.
Listen, there is no immigration emergency. IT IS A FAKE CRISIS.
Scott Newton. There is an immigration crisis. I just moved from a town that was taken over by primarily illegal immigrants. The population went from 4% total Hispanic to over 40% total in 12 years. The elementary school grades K to 2nd grade were over 75%. I was tired of my kids being called Gringo and being left out and I became tired of being told that I need to learn Spanish on a nearly daily basis. By the way, I worked in a hospital and had to take ID’s for visitors. Easily at least one third of the ID’s I was given on a daily basis were expired Mexican drivers license or Guatemalan.
There is a crisis, you just haven’t experienced it yet. We’re being overrun, they just haven’t gotten this far North yet.
If you want to see, look at the demographics of the southern states. Compare them now to 10, 15 and 20 years ago. You’ll see what I mean.
PS, I came from Lehigh Acres Fl.
Will,
What I hear are the same arguments that were raised in the 1840’s, the 1890’s, and the 1920’s against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, and the Japanese. I don’t know why this “crisis” has you so petrified. I’m from Dubois County and I have seen the Hispanic population there. They are the ones doing the backbreaking work of picking tomatoes for Red Gold or plucking turkeys for FarBest — the kind of work that Anglos find beneath their dignity.
Is it crime? Well, the crime rate among lawful and unlawful immigrants is lower than that of the general population. The only conclusion I can come to is that there are more people in this country who do not look like you. Well, the demographic face of this country is changing, as it has been changing for several hundred years. We are supposed to be a melting pot, not an Anglo-Saxon melting pot.
I don’t believe we have anything to fear from a run down rag tag group of starving beaten people who, for the sake of their children, are willing to flee certain death from the governments they oppose.
I reject the Trump/Pence phony call to fear. This country is so much better than our government.
Scott, I agree that we are a melting pot. We could argue the Irish, Italian, non-anglo-saxon variety etc. Yet, those people came here and adhered to the ideology of becoming like us. We didn’t have “assistance”, and I really don’t think that one person doing “back-breaking” labor entitles 5+ family members of there to sit on the system and clog everything up for those of us that have put into the system.
This is not about race, this so not about origin, this so about massive groups of people that come in and only some work, while the majority pop out babies and expect the government (aka, us) to pay for their medical care and kids schooling, clothing ,food, etc…
This is in no way similar to the droves of different cultures that came to this great country to work hard for opportunity. This is a few working hard and many more taking from our system while we are expected to keep our mouths closed because we could be considered racist for pointing out facts of literally millions of people slowly sucking is dry.
We had a problem with “assistance programs” before, how much worse will it continue to be when we take in millions more.
PS, I’m not surewhay you think a normal number is, but where I was from the white and black population grew less than 100% to the Hispanic (Spanish speaking only) 500+%. That is not a comparison to the old times of new cultures, that is a takeover of a majority people unwilling to become Americans, yet reap the benefits off of Americans. Look up the demographics if you don’t believe me.
Will,
I see no statistics to back the assertion that “some” Hispanics are working but that most are laying around collecting welfare. This harkens back to the ugly myths of the 70’s and 80’s about black welfare queens. This doesn’t happen. As an attorney who represents numerous agencies within FSSA, I can attest to you that it simply doesn’t happen.
More important is the fact that my two kids went to school with children of these immigrants (lawful and unlawful) who were as Americanized as you or I. IT IS THE SECOND GENERATION THAT ACCLIMATES ITSELF INTO THE MELTING POT while keeping those things that are near and dear to them.
Isn’t that what the English Pilgrims did? Or did they surrender their culture totally to the Native Americans they found here — the one’s who had occupied the continent for thousands of years?
Scott Newton, I have no statistics, just my own experience with the many family’s that moved in around me and I only ever observed the men work and the women stay at home with many children. Sometimes many women, with many children and only the one man.
I really hope your right about the second generation joining the country. My only concern is what I stated above, with the many people coming in and the key differences of our country now and then.
I understand completely the idea of what I’m saying coming off as someone who’s intolerant. I assure you that’s not the case. I just want to see my kids get the same chances I was given and not be forced to change to a different culture or be forced to learn a new language. The school my son went to had 5 regular kindergarten classes and 3 ESL (English as a Second Language). I feel like we as a country are curtailing to people instead of making them join us.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I know we didn’t have German, Gaelic, Italian, Polish, etc as a second language. Our ancestors had to learn to become American, not have America learn how to make their lives easier.
Thank you for your words, it has given me a few things to think about.
Will,
My intent was never to make you appear intolerant. Every parent has a right to hope for the very best for their own children.
If I could, I’d like to recommend an essay called “Trans-National America.” It was written by a social critic
and progressive writer named Randolph Bourne, and it appeared in the Atlantic in July 1916. In my mind it has more than withstood the passing of the decades.
It is pretty much out of print now, but can be read on the Internet. I freely admit to copping portions of it whenever I’m engaged in immigration debates. I’d be interested in what you think.
Scott
Scott Newton, I have only been able to read about half of it so far. It’s a long one and I have only so much free time. If your up for it, you can email me. It would make this easier for me as I have problems with the page loading most times. It’s wjeisaman@gmail.com.
As I stated, I’ve only read some of it so far, yet I have made a few observations.
Please email me if you want to continue this discussion. If not, I understand.
Thank you.
I’ll try to get you a copy.
Scott