The idea that today’s Republicans are more violent and extreme than any ideology in the past 50 years is so patently absurd and ridiculous that it does not warrant a response. But I am going to give one anyway.
Earlier this month, veteran journalist Edward Luce tweeted that today’s Republicans are, essentially, the most violent and extreme political force he has ever covered in his career. As if this hyperbolic claim weren’t enough, retired Gen. Michael Hayden, the former director of the CIA and National Security Agency, tweeted yesterday that he agreed with this absurd statement.
Yet, as much disdain as these elitists have toward today’s Republicans and their working-class voter base, this kind of supercilious sanctimony shows exactly why our country was in such dire need of former President Donald Trump and the movement that brought him to power.
I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.
— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) August 12, 2022
The asinine comments by Luce and Hayden are indicative of a repulsive and toxic culture among this country’s elite. Yet they are also telling as to why Trump and the MAGA movement existed in the first place.
I agree. And I was the CIA Director https://t.co/LRAHDDyy4n
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) August 17, 2022
One can criticize Trump and his supporters. That is everyone’s right as an American. And some of the criticism may even be merited. But to be so blatantly fanatical and say that today’s Republicans are the most dangerous and contemptible force in modern history reveals nothing other than a bitter hatred, lack of tolerance, and apparent denial or absence of knowledge of geopolitical history.
Consider the claim: Today’s Republicans are the most violent and extreme political force Luce has covered. He was born in 1968. This means he has lived through the tail end of the Soviet Union, Iran’s ayatollah, China’s Tiananmen Square, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, the Rwandan genocide, Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, the Islamic State, Syria’s Bashar al Assad, Hezbollah, Hamas, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and China’s Xi Jinping, just to name a few.
And if for some reason he forgot about those, there’s a Billy Joel song that covers most of these people.
These countries, people, and terrorist groups are responsible for the deaths of millions of people. No matter how much anyone dislikes contemporary Republicans, they do not even come close. It is stupid and laughable to say otherwise.
That the nation’s elite makes such fatuous suggestions is the reason Trump rose to prominence. The fact that a former director of the NSA and CIA would publicly agree with such a stupid claim shows the magnitude of the elite’s disdain for normal people. This claim is so utterly ridiculous that only affluent, elitist bureaucrats like Luce and Hayden, and indoctrinated leftists around the globe, could believe it.
Whether you like him or not, Trump has become a symbol of resistance against these swamp creatures.
Had politicians before Trump not abandoned the working class (looking at you, Mitt Romney, Jeff Flake, John McCain, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Boehner, et al.), there would not have been a need for Trump or the MAGA movement.
If you want to be critical of Trump and hate him, go ahead. That’s everyone’s right as an American. But let’s stop giving people like Luce and Hayden free passes to spew their nonsense. They deserve as much criticism, probably more, than Trump gets.
