I’m not toning down anything.
Not my rhetoric. Not my objection to Donald Trump’s anti-democracy agenda. Not my disgust with Project 2025. Not my disdain for his pathological lying. Not my problems with his being a felon and running for President. And certainly not my continued advocacy for non-violence as Americans get mowed down for going to school, the market, places of worship, and now, a political rally.
You want me to stop Hitler comparisons? OK, but perhaps consider those came about because Trump has expressed admiration for the guy. Not to mention his explicitly expressed respect for Putin and Orban. If that triggers people, it damn well should.
I will not stop calling out what a horrible and unethical human being he is because of what happened in Butler, Pa. I have never felt violence was the answer and I still don’t. I am appalled this happened in my country. But let’s be clear – I’ve been vocal about the American obsession with guns for years. I stand by my horror. I’ve also been vocal about the danger Trump presents to this country. I stand by that.
I abhor violence. I abhorred it when Paul Pelosi was attacked with a hammer in his own home and Trump added a riff about it to his little standup routine at rallies. I abhorred it when Trump encouraged violence against Vice President Pence and everyone in the United States Capitol, and when he unflinchingly watched it unfold on TV in the people’s beloved White House.
You want me to lower my truth volume after all this bullshit? Out of what? Respect? Respect for what? Again, violence is not the answer. But neither is pretending he’s a saint or martyr. He does want to end democracy. This isn’t inflamed rhetoric. It’s stated fact. He’s proud of it. The people around him – the “loyalists” – have spent months if not years crafting Project 2025. Its unpopularity may be giving them pause, so it’s not surprising that Trump is pretending he doesn’t know anything about it. He knows his staunch supporters won’t even punch the damn thing into Google to check his bullshit lie.
If we’re going to meet this challenge to our democracy head on, it’s not going to happen by shutting up. Please join me in staying vocal.
This guy has put judges, lawyers, witnesses, and even jurors in danger with his threats. Again, not an exaggeration. Who exactly is ramping up the violent climate in the U.S.?
It’s easy for many of us to feel empathy for a victim of violence. But we also need to separate an evil act from ongoing truth. The victim of this act doesn’t have an ounce of self-awareness. He isn’t going to lower his volume on violence. He’s going to continue instigating, lying and maximizing this incident financially and politically.
Nothing I say here is condoning violence. I don’t think any of us should try to emulate him or match his zeal for civil war.
But we scale back our own clarion calls and we lose democracy in November. We need to take the threat Trump poses seriously by continuing to ring alarm bells. I’ll be damned if I’m going to start being polite about this right now.
Empathetic, yes. Awake, yes. Attentive to the facts as they come out about the shooting, yes.
But shutting my mouth right now or even dialing it down when it comes to fighting for my country? Not going to happen.
Oh, and I’ll keep living in integrity so if I ever get shot people won’t think I staged it. Imagine that.
[Editorial Note: This is my 27th installment in a series I began in order to give my writing some flow after being in a healing phase from knee surgeries for a year (2023-24).]
