Simple Math Yet Again Proves to Be Too Much for MAGidiots
No, the '1' is not '2,' and yet the right is so confused by the differences between the First and Second Amendments.
Last night in Erie, Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris did something very interesting. She decided to show the attendees at her rally just how Donald Trump plans to treat anyone not in cult-like awe of him. In a world where the media often fails to report on the extremist threats Trump makes at his rambling rallies, the vice president let Trump speak for himself.
Donald Trump, if you haven’t had the “pleasure” of watching his gatherings of cultists, hypocrites, and barely literate former patriots (yes, I dislike these people), then you have probably missed his endless rants about how he will seek retribution; how he will punish people who are less than in love with him, and his agreement with his plans for ending American democracy. Vice President Harris ran a greatest hits, which were all filmed just in the past few weeks of Trump on the campaign trail, during which Trump menacingly informed the world of his plans for punishing non-MAGA in our country.
Since when was not agreeing with a presidential candidate a punishable offense?
This is a big problem MAGidiots and Trumpists have, though, and it is one many of us have noticed before. Since the descent down the escalator and the subsequent rise of Trumpism, Trump has claimed to be a warrior for 1st Amendment rights. What this really means, though, is the right to be vile, racist, nasty, cruel, mocking, profane, and barely civilized has become the ultimate expression for rightists as freedom of speech. The right considers anyone wanting to mute those disruptive and ugly expressions of speech as anti-American — communist, the enemy.
And so, citizens who could — and should — be dealt with by the 2nd Amendment. They say the nastiest of things and destroy the lives of innocent Americans, like the two election volunteers in Georgia in 2020 who had to go into hiding and sell their homes after Trump and Rudolph Guiliani went after them, like election officials and judges around the country now in need of security, and of Haitians in Springfield, Ohio who did nothing other than wake up in the morning and go to work to feed their families.
Fascists like Elon Musk, with his Twitter platform, now declare Trump the ultimate warrior for the 1st Amendment because they welcome his race hate and the right to be disgusting and offensive in public. When society asks them to behave themselves and be respectful, which used to be a normal ask, they threaten the need for the use of guns — civil war and other violence.
I know that rightists aren’t very bright. I know that expecting them to understand the difference between 1 and 2 is a big leap. Still, I genuinely recall a time not too long ago when civility was more or less something to which we all universally aspired. Donald Trump is a cancer and one that is slowly losing his it to dementia. The spectacle of him dancing for 40 minutes at a “town hall” meeting yesterday should embarrass MAGidiots — but then again, if they can dress the way they do and don’t feel any embarrassment, then Trump’s bizarre behavior also won’t cause any discomfort.
Trump’s blending of the 1st and 2nd Amendments has both skewed what we perceive as a nation as being “freedom of speech” and when and where we can bear guns and for what purpose they can be used. Many Americans today are finding their 1st Amendment rights trampled because others are abusing their 2nd Amendment rights. Donald Trump likes this confusion.
Dictators like it when things are turned upside down, especially the most basic principles that form a nation’s foundation.
To paraphrase one of my heroes, Malcolm X: “We need to stop him.”