It isn't about "hating" Trump; it is about hating what he has done to this country

There is a cottage industry animating Trump World that there is a “deep state” cabal of “never-Trumpers” and people motivated merely because they “hate” Trump personally. There is some hypocrisy involved here, of course. The day after Barack Obama was elected, there was a certain element of the population that was not happy about this, and who just “suddenly” decided to emerge from nowhere to oppose anything Obama would do months before he even took office and there was any policy to oppose. They called themselves the “Tea Party.” Of course it didn’t just come out of “nowhere”; at least since the emergence of the so-called “American” or “Know-Nothing” Party in the mid-19^th century, there has always been an element of nativism, xenophobia and racism in the country that emerged from time-to-time to counter threats to either Anglo-Saxon supremacy and then plain white supremacy later on—usually coming to the fore during Democratic administrations. These people were always of the same stripe; they just changed the names of their organizations or parties to “fool” the media that they represented something “different.”

At the time of the emergence of the Tea Party “movement,” those who saw through it were annoyed about how the mainstream media played “dumb” and treated Tea Partiers like they were just “regular” people. The mainstream media would attend “official” events where the Tea Party favorites like Sarah Palin would speak (or read off her notes), and assume that these were “serious” policy discussions. But the second tier, “independent” news organizations would go out and investigate what was really happening at “grassroots” Tea Party get-togethers at the local park. The “real” Tea Party people were a pathetic bunch. Especially so were white female seniors, who when questioned typically came across as paranoid, racist nut-jobs. But while their ignorant and uninformed views could be “pitied,” they could not be laughed at; after all, these people were still allowed to vote, and they did so with a vengeance and vindictiveness in their hearts in 2010, and they would do so again in 2016, and likely again in 2020. 

Donald Trump isn't someone who it is necessary to hate as a person; what he has done with the power he has been allowed to have by a minority of voters is what must be hated. He is a person who cannot be “pitied” or laughed at, but someone who is demonstrably an unaccountable megalomaniac who must be stopped. It is interesting that a meme has surfaced that superimposes Trump’s head on the Avengers villain Thanos who snaps his finger saying “I am inevitable,” meaning his reelection is “inevitable.” Of the course Thanos is essentially a mass murderer, and it should be no surprise that such violent memes featuring an “avenging” Trump have sprouted up from time to time. Perhaps the most notorious is the one of Trump engaged in a mass shootings of his “enemies” in the “Church of Fake News,” which although removed from YouTube is still out there for the purpose of “education.” The “fake” Trump is seen shooting, stabbing or setting fire to various media and political critics. He ends his rampage driving a stake into “CNN” and then stands on the church altar to inspect his handiwork with apparent pleasure. 

This video, which was shown at Trump’s Doral resort recently, is both shocking and instructive. These past three years have seen record numbers of mass shootings, as well as increases in hate crimes and domestic terrorism. Is it that difficult to accept that when we have a president who inspires his supporters to create depictions of grotesque violence against his “enemies,” that we have gone beyond the simple expressions of ignorance, paranoia and bigotry? Now we have a president who inspires—much as Hitler did—depictions of himself as some of kind of medieval “knight” going forth to slay his foes, and it is a short walk for some people to be willing to contemplate violence on his behalf. And some even step over the line into real violence.

We have gone way past the point where support for far-right “leaders” who espoused white nationalism and grievance was expressed merely in ignorant words. If Trump has inspired violent imagery of retribution against the “enemy,” why should he not be held to account for that at the very least? Millions of Americans apparently “get-off”  on this kind of thing; when people start believing violent imagery means “nothing,” naturally they will deny accountability for an environment in which mass shootings, domestic terrorism and hate crimes thrive. That should not be allowed to happen. The mainstream media should not just allow this to be seen as the work of a few crazed “loners,” but as the inevitable result of an environment where some people see themselves as Trump’s “foot soldiers” in the war to eradicate or expel those out to “destroy” their vision of a country of white privilege and entitlement.

This is not about “hating” Trump or being a “never-Trumper.” Rather, there is much to hate in Trump's actions and words. People of any human decency must say “never again” to that.