I know, balance doesn’t stink, and in fact balance is what we should be striving for. But the title is because this post is a follow-up/continuation of my previous two posts (Blood, Sweat, and Rot: https://divided-states.com/?p=635 and Balance: https://divided-states.com/?p=651); if you haven’t read them, please go back and do so; it’ll make this post a little clearer, I think. It’s OK, I’ll wait…

I had a little misunderstanding with a friend of mine the other day. This friend leans conservative and is going to vote for Trump next Tuesday; they’re one of those people who are going to hold their noses as they punch their ballot. We were talking about the recent arson events in Washington and Oregon, where someone torched a couple of ballot drop boxes (Washington and Oregon are both vote-by-mail states). Several hundred ballots were destroyed. And because both of these states are about as “blue” as a state can get and not be California, the natural assumption is that a MAGAT did it.

OK. When you read that last bit, did your blood pressure spike? When I used that term in our conversation, my friend’s sure did…

I used that term with my friend for two reasons. First, because we know Democrat activists and campaigners use the label to insult anyone even considering voting for any Republican, let alone Trump, and it seemed appropriate to use the term since that’s the label they’ll use when the cops catch up to the guy, regardless of what his political affiliation actually is. And I expect there will be eerie silence afterward, if it turns out the guy’s a leftist anarchist…

The other reason is because I’ll use the same term to describe the extremists on that end of the spectrum, the truly despicable, white-supremacist misogynist so-called Christians who make a lot of pro-Trump noises – and threats. I did not and would not use it to describe reasonable people who are going to hold their noses on Tuesday and vote the Republican ticket, nor would I use such a term to describe reasonable people holding their noses and voting Democrat – I don’t hate on people who don’t deserve it.

And I’ve got a weird sense of humor, and I thought it would come across as amusing, given the circumstances.

It didn’t.

And I should have known it wouldn’t, for the very reasons I used it…

I feel really badly that my friend was initially insulted by it, and even though I never meant it as an insult I understand why they reacted the way they did; they have been tarred by a wide brush, repeatedly and often, and it’s not fair to them. I apologized, explained where it came from. In fact, because of this I seriously doubt I will ever use the term again, privately or publicly.

Which brings up another, equally important issue. You know that because of the principles and philosophy I try to live by, I am anti-extremist. It doesn’t matter which end of the political spectrum, I am vehemently opposed to the extreme views they hold. But I don’t know if I’ve been entirely fair in presenting this; while I’ve been pretty clear about right-wing extremism, I may not be adequately expressing my disdain for the politicians who are actively trying to turn us into the United States of Europe or the United States of Australia or the United States of Canada. People like Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Sleepy Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris. The architects of the immigration crisis of the past decade. Of the debacle of our exit from Afghanistan. Of our inability to defend our most vulnerable from murderous violence.

If I’ve been sounding one-sided, maybe it’s because of the upcoming election; there’s a bunch of fresh Unconstitutional right-wing conspiracies and rhetoric being offered and reported to capture our interest, but the leftist’s Unconstitutional agenda hasn’t changed much in several years, they still worship Marx and Mao and want an unarmed and docile electorate, just as they have for decades…

Yes, I should speak more about that. And I will. For now, vote…