It’s galling and pathetically hypocritical to see and hear the word “hate” thrown around by conservatives. For years conservatives have stoked the very essence of hate by their constant barrage of hate-filled rhetoric on talk radio and one specific cable television network and encouraged their listeners and viewers to do the same. Now, as people have had three years of watching the current duly-elected White House occupant gush his own hate-filled words and ideas, it’s conservatives who accuse progressives of hating.
It’s not an act of hate to acknowledge that the words and actions of the president are hateful. It’s not hateful to point out the president has said so many hate-filled comments about immigrants, women, Muslims and people of color. It’s not hateful to point out the president’s love of hateful extremists. It’s not hateful to point out the lawless actions of a president who needs to be held to account for his violations of the Constitutional Oath he took and the Rule of Law that he breaks every day.
Factual comments do not constitute hate of the president. In a democracy, pointing out the actions of a flawed and failed leader is an act of free speech, speaking truth to power. If the president and his adoring true-believers ever read the Constitution, they might understand that.
So for all the people who continue to make excuses for the president who has tweeted and spoken and committed a constant stream of hateful words and actions and then point to the president’s critics as haters, maybe they should reassess their own attitude and their own definitions of “hate” and “truth.”
Larry E Donaldson, Elida
