Just To Be Clear, Do You Guys Want Political Anarchy Or Not?

No matter how old you get, there are two people from your childhood you never forget: your favourite teacher and the scariest teacher. 

For me, they were the same person.

Ms Watson was a small, kind-looking woman who always looked as if she'd just heard a secret about you. She was beloved because she was kind and funny and was one of the few adults who encouraged us to make our own decisions, and feared because every bad decision came with devious, cursed-monkey-paw style consequences.

For example, if you forgot to do your homework, she didn't yell or make a fuss. In fact, she wouldn’t give you any homework for a week! Because you’d spend every lunch break for a week studying with her.

If you complained about your lunch being icky, that was fine. She'd just take it away and you wouldn't get anything else to eat. 

If she caught you using swear-jar language in class, she wouldn’t judge. But she'd make a big show of writing down what you said so she could quote you, verbatim, to your parents (I'm pretty sure she never actually told them, but we were young enough that the threat was terrifying). 

Ms Watson never scowled or tutted or raised her voice, every action provoked a logical, intuitive, reaction, we were free to make almost any choice we wanted. We just weren't allowed to blame anyone else for the consequences. 

Sometimes the most valuable lesson you can teach someone is to give them what they ask for.

On September 15, 2024, a fifty-eight-year-old activist named Ryan Wesley Routh tried to assassinate Donald Trump. It was the second attempt on Trump's life in just three months. 

But if you were thinking of blaming guns or mental illness or the ease with which mentally ill people can get hold of guns, think again. The real problem, according to Trump and his allies, is the “inflammatory language” of the Left:

"Today is not just some isolated incident," said JD Vance, Trump's presidential running mate. "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

"For years, Democrats and their allies in the media have recklessly stoked fears [...]," claimed South Carolina senator Tim Scott, "Their inflammatory rhetoric puts lives at risk."

And standing in graceful opposition to that reckless, fear-stoking rhetoric, I present Marjorie Taylor Greene:

We are in a battle between GOOD and EVIL. The Democrats are the party of paedophiles, murdering the innocent unborn, violence, and bloody, meaningless, endless wars. They want to lock up their political opponents and terrorize innocent Americans who would tell the truth about it. The Democrat party is flat out evil, and yesterday they tried to murder President Trump.

That's right. 

For years now, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have recklessly called Trump a "convicted felon" and a "threat to democracy," just because he's the proud owner of 34 felony convictions, and tried, more than 62 times, to overturn the result of a democratic election.

This is a man who recently promised his supporters that if they vote for him in November, he'll have it "fixed so good" in four years that they "won't have to vote anymore."

And sure, maybe you think it's fun when Trump undermines democracy but "inflammatory" when other people notice, maybe you're frustrated with the media's lies about "bloodbaths" and "fine people on both sides," but how are you getting past the fact that nothing the Democrats have said even touches the rhetoric Republicans have been leaning into for years? 

I mean, it doesn't even touch the rhetoric Republicans have used to describe Trump! 

Here’s Lindsey Graham calling Trump a "race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot." Here's Tucker Carlson saying he's a "demonic force," who he hates "passionately." Here's Ted Cruz describing him as a “snivelling coward” who “will betray his supporters on every issue.“ And JD Vance, who I remind you is Donald Trump's running mate (!!!), calling him “America's Hitler.”