ITS ONLY FAIR

It is increasingly clear that liberals and conservatives are living in parallel universes. I recently had someone tell me that I must be watching different videos of Trump speaking and reading a different twitter account. It soon became obvious to me that this was true. That is because this person went on to describe things said by Trump that he did not say. It became obvious that a lot of people are evaluating Trump based on reporting by people who despise him. Words are taken out of context and distorted. These people “explain” what Trump really means. America First does not actually mean American First, it is a dog whistle for white supremacy. When Trump talks about nationalism, he is not actually talking about nationalism, he is talking about white nationalism. It has become increasingly obvious that few of these people actually read a Trump tweet and they certainly don’t listen to him speak.

One would think this would be obvious, but it isn’t to the Trump haters. Trump rallies draw thousands of people. In many cases there are over-flow crowds. If you look at pictures of the crowd, they pretty much look like America. Yet the liberal left would have us believe that the only people who listen to Trump are racists and bigots. They are what Hillary calls the basket of deplorables. People Obama described as clinging to their guns and their religion. Others describe the Trump crowds as similar to Hitler youth rallies. Where people are too spell bound to notice the dangerous rhetoric. They are either too biased or too stupid to recognize the racism and bigotry spouted by Trump on a daily basis. These people desperately need the help of someone like Don Lemon or Anderson Cooper to provide desperately needed translation services.

This happens on both sides of the aisle. I have seen many times where a liberal says something that is grossly distorted by a conservative critic. When I read the actual statement, it is often very different than what is reported.  It is frequently taken out of context. Politics is like that. We should all learn to read what is actually written and listen to what is actually said.

Recently Fox News went to college campuses and read statements regarding illegal immigration. The students immediately said these statements were racist and bigoted. They were then shocked to learn that the quotes were from Barack Obama, not Donald Trump. This, unfortunately, is a sad reality.

To be honest, Trump does bring some of this on himself. He does say rude and insulting things about people that are very unfair. That is particularly true when he ridicules people for the way they look, or he calls them Low IQ. Some of the outrage is justified. But, in most cases, Trump is responding to people who have said rude and insulting things about him. There is plenty of rude and insulting behavior to go around.

But now, this has reached the point of real danger. Far too many people really believe Trump is an avowed racist who supports white supremacy. They also believe that anyone who supports him is equally guilty. This is generating outrage. But look around you and see who is acting on this rage. Although the MSM dreams of the angry white male wearing a MAGA hat shooting up people because he has been inspired by Donald Trump, that person remains elusive. Instead there are stories of people wearing MAGA hats being beat up by the oh so tolerant liberals. It is not liberals who are being harassed and chased out of restaurants, it is people like Sarah Sanders and Ted Cruz.

Once again, we hear pleas, usually from the liberal left, to tone down the hate speech. This ignores a simple fact of life. There is good and there is evil. There are people who are warm and friendly. People you can and should trust as a friend. There are also people who are jerks who think only of themselves. Sometimes, treating everyone the same is the most unfair thing of all. If we give equal weight to those who are undeserving, then it just may be at the expense of others who actually are worthy. For example, there are two men. One is a decorated war hero, the other is a guy who not only dodged the draft, he protested against the war. Should we really treat them the same. What would be fair about that?

I have a tee shirt, that my wife allows me to wear on rare occasions. It says: “I am one of those men you despised while I was risking my life defending our country. I have forgiven you, but I have not forgotten.”

It is time all of us remember something important. While we can and should forgive people and we should be tolerant, even of those who are intolerant of us, we should never forget that sometimes treating everyone the same is the most unfair possible response to a situation. If there is a fair race, the most unfair possible result would be to ignore the real winner and give first prize to someone else. Fairness is not necessarily treating everyone the same, it is often rewarding those who are most worthy. Don’t give the employee of the year award to someone who frequently comes in late and never puts in a full day of work. There would be nothing fair about that at all. Instead give the reward to the person who earned it and if the other guy is offended, so what?

So, while I am tolerant of those who believe things that are not only false, they are insane, it does not mean that I should ever be stupid enough to let them make decisions for me or anyone else. That, in my personal opinion, would be the most unfair thing of all. I sometimes cringe at the rudeness of Donald Trump, but I should never confuse this with the bitter hatred spewed out on a daily basis by his opponents.

TDM