Politics in the United States has always been a blood sport. Ever since the advent of political parties, with the emergence of the Federalist and Democratic Republican parties, in the late 1700s, each side has claimed to own the high ground. Most presidential candidates, in the early years of our Republic, left campaigning to surrogates and newspapers aligned with their party. The rhetoric spewed by newspapers in the election of 1800, between incumbent John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, was a newsprint fistfight. William Jennings Bryan changed the surrogate campaign model, in 1896, by actively traveling around the country giving campaign speeches. He would lose to McKinley, whose campaign was dubbed the “front porch campaign.” This opened the floodgates to candidates using heated rhetoric in campaign stops across the country. And it’s gotten more vitriolic ever since Bryan opened the floodgates.

Over the years, the rhetoric would only get worse on the campaign trail. But in the age of Donald Trump, and MAGA, things have really spun out of control. There has been political Lawfare, where Trump has been charged, arrested and prosecuted, to keep him from winning. Which, he obviously did. Each side said the other is guilty of voter fraud. Each side calls their opponent dangerous – and in the case of the Democrats – have called Trump a communist, Hitler, racist and a rapist. These things have done nothing but ratchet up hatred. And violence – 99% of which are from easily manipulated young people. These young people are very idealistic and support social justice causes: Black Lives Matter, LGB, open borders, climate change, socialism, etc. It seems every time I turn around, there is a new social justice campaign being pushed to malleable youth. And these causes are pushed hard by the Democrat Party – just because they know that the young people, who believe in them, will act out on their behalf. Unfortunately, the Mainstream Media (MSM) takes a very active role in their coverage – or conveniently ignores true news which doesn’t align with their ideological agenda. It is blatantly obvious that the likes of the Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and MSNBC are complicit in pushing the ideology of the Democrats – and especially the furthest left of those ideologies. And when one does a deep dive into the media, it is obvious that moderates, from both sides, are realizing this and turning them off. They witnessed CNN’s reporting of the George Floyd Riots – or as I call it – The Summer of Love – as mostly peaceful protests. All while buildings were being burned down and police officers were being attacked. They have celebrated transgender women (men) overpowering biological women in sports. There is 24 hour coverage when a white man kills a black man, which will often go on for days or weeks. But you will rarely hear a single word of news coverage when young black men are dying every single day in gang violence in large liberal cities. The list goes on, and on and on – with the most blatant example of this  being when a very unstable young man assassinated Charlie Kirk nearly two months ago. They positioned his assassin as being conservative and MAGA – which has been completely debunked by conversations with his parents, with his friends and with his transitioning partner – an actual biological male. They called him a murderer instead of what he actually is: an assassin. The very far left talking heads lied blatantly about this with many sympathizing with the assassin. This only ratchets up the hatred, especially the heated rhetoric directed against Donald Trump – and his supporters. One last example is that social media influencers, and democratic talking heads, are now spewing lies, saying that Donald Trump was not the victim of a failed assassination attempt. Tell that to the widow of a murdered supporter who was shot dead right behind Trump: Corey Comperatore (a former fire department chief).

Unfortunately, this has driven wedges between friends. Hatred between neighbors. And families being destroyed by unnecessary animosity between brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, and parents and children. This isn’t necessary. This hatred has been spread by politicians, social media influencers (many of whom have far higher follower counts than politicians) and the MSM. We all need to take a step back and remember what things are the most important to all of us: friends, neighbors and FAMILY. After recently being called a member of a cult, a racist, intolerant and other nasty things, by one of the most important people in the world to me, I know what can be lost by the venomous hatred being spewed all over our country. The thought of losing someone so close to me, due to ideological divides, scares me. And hurts very deeply. And while I am very opinionated, and say harsh things, I try to refrain from spreading hate about a specific person, but rather hatred for their actions. But like many other people, I sometimes fail.

In closing, remember that those politicians, social media influencers, Antifa antagonists, BLM members and journalists, who desperately want us to hate each other, won’t be there to support you during the most trying times of your life. Your friends, neighbors – and especially family – will be. The things we support can’t be fixed or addressed by hate. The only things hate and violence accomplish is destroying people’s lives. And those people can be the people that mean the most to you.

Praying for The Heat To Be Turned Down,

The Original Grey Beard Biker™
Email: gbb@TheGreyBeardBiker.com
@AlchemyShootist on X