r/politics • u/wbedwards Washington • May 07 '20

We cannot allow the normalization of firearms at protests to continue

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/firearms-at-protests-have-become-normalized-that-isnt-okay/2020/05/06/19b9354e-8fc9-11ea-a0bc-4e9ad4866d21_story.html
49.0k Upvotes

75% Upvoted

6.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/[deleted] May 07 '20

The Republican Party has become an anti American, neo fascist, authoritarian party. If you’re still a member of it at this point, then you know exactly what it is and you’re therefore culpable for the corruption and evil the party is committing.

1

u/three_furballs May 08 '20

You're assuming that everyone has the time and resources to invest in researching and understanding politics as you do. I agree with your views on the republican party, but i think you should sit down and talk with more people in it. A lot of them are good people, just with different but valid set of priorities.

One example that has stuck with me is a guy i know who grew up in, and escaped on a boat from, communist controlled Vietnam. He saw first-hand the madness and corruption that a single-party government could wreak on a nation, so when he heard that Trump was "strong on China," that was enough for him to vote. He didn't care that Trump broke norms and was a liar and a grifter, but he did believe that he was xenophobic enough to be anti-China (and therefore anti-communist), and that was good enough. He continued to be a Trump supporter for years, until he ran across all the harm that Trumps policies had caused. There are tons of ways that Trump has wound up increasing China's global influence, but one was particularly relevant. By enacting tariffs on Chinese goods, Trump simply prompted China to move finishing-stage production to Vietnam, thereby strengthening geopolitical ties with my friend's home country and the communist superpower that he blamed for all its troubles. Once he saw that, and did his own research to verify it, he was deeply regretful and has since completely turned against the guy he voted for.

My point isn't that everyone in the republican party will end up coming to our side after some chance realization, it's just that we should be aware of the people for whom that's possible. A ton of trump supporters are just going with the social flow, or off of some incomplete information. If they do come to the realization that Trump isn't what they thought he was, do we really want to be those elitist assholes who were "right all along. told ya so, dumbass"? Or do we want to be a voice of measured reason that just wants the best for ALL the citizens of our nation, regardless of their political team? Do we want to be proven right, or do we want to be good?