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“BENGHAZI!” That’s what we hear, over and over again, every time a person who supports Donald Trump is asked what is to them a complicated question about politics. The hordes of Trumpateers who gather at rallies to shout out loud their every racist thought—when asked to compare and contrast the difference between federal debt and the annual deficit—their face becomes contorted and confused, as if a cartoonish twin of Homer Simpson. They only know what they want to know. They only know what they’re told to know. And when they regurgitate the predictable catch-phrase they’ve been trained to trumpet, they expose themselves as being uninformed and unfit to make an intelligent decision when voting.
Make no mistake about it, it was nothing short of tragic, the lives lost in Benghazi. But where were these Trumpateers prior to the attack, when the Republican-controlled Congress rejected the requested additional funding for security for those in Benghazi? They weren’t told to be outraged about it. Therefore–they were not outraged about it.
On April 18, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a van into the lobby of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people. Ronald Reagan did nothing. Six months later, 241 American servicemen were killed on October 23, 1983. This was the biggest one-day death total for United States Marines since the battle of Iwo Jima. Ronald Reagan did nothing. Where was the outrage?
During the Bush administration, there were 13 embassy attacks resulting in 66 deaths. There was no outrage directed toward the President of the United States of America. Where was the outrage?
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The problem is, the Trumpateers aren’t even aware of these tragic attacks that happened on the watch of previous, conservative administrations. They have nothing by which to compare the Benghazi attack because they choose a ‘news’ source that spoon-feeds them the intentional bias they want to hear. The result is false outrage and threatening behavior that makes them a traitor to the United States of America.
Conservatives’ veins pop out of their skull when they start talking about Hillary Clinton’s “email scandal”. However, when there was an investigation into the unethical firing of eight U.S. Attorneys during the Bush administration, twenty-two million emails were deleted before they could be read and used against them. Not only that, the Bush-Cheney administration was illegally using a public email system that is easily hacked to access top secret information, not a private and secure email system. There was no outrage. Why was there no outrage? Why so much outrage over the Hillary Clinton e-mail “scandal”? Because the Trumpateers—and the Tea Party before them—are too lazy to learn history, and they aren’t able to put these situations in context and compare them to similar situations and better understand just how dangerous or overblown each scenario is.
Conservatives used to have a deep-seated hate for Russians, or “Commies” as they are better known in conservative circles. An actor of days gone by warned us all of the dangers of the U.S.S.R and its mission to take over the world. Fast-forward to current times and suddenly those same “Commies” are admired by Trumpateers. Why? Because he told them to. Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and King Jong-un are free to circle jerk as often as they wish; there is no crime against doing so in the United States.
However, United States security is put at risk when Donald Trump encourages a foreign authoritarian ruler to hack United States government computers to try to dig up conspiracy-theory-driven secrets about Hillary Clinton. Can you imagine the reaction if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or President Barack Obama encouraged a foreign leader to hack United States government computers? When Trump does this, where is the outrage?
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The hypocrisy goes on and on. Trump and his Trumpateers blow their horn in protest over Bill Clinton’s infidelity, while they turn a blind eye to Donald Trump’s well-established record of cheating on his wives. Donald Trump criticizes U.S. companies for shipping jobs overseas; all the while his products are clearly labeled with ‘Made in China’. Donald Trump criticizes the Clinton Foundation, all the while using money from his own charity to purchase expensive personal items. Where is the outrage?
Donald Trump has insulted women, lesbians, and gays more times than we could ever count. His family values are non-existent. He says the prep school he attended was tougher training than military training. He told us that he knows more about military tactics than the men who have dedicated their lives to serve and protect this land. Donald Trump received four deferments from the draft because of a “foot thing.” He said that avoiding STDs was his own personal Vietnam. He said Senator John McCain isn’t a war hero because McCain was captured and tortured. Apparently Trump only likes the veterans who aren’t captured and tortured. He called soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder “weak”. Donald Trump insults the families of fallen military veterans when he says he has sacrificed more than they have.
The truth is, the Trumpateers—and the Tea Party before them—are uninformed voters who are being played like a harp…or a trumpet. They don’t take the time to learn about foreign or domestic policy. They don’t take the time to learn about the federal budget now, or at any point in the history of this nation. They only know what they’re told to know, and they eagerly jump on the bandwagon of any situation where false outrage can be expressed. Trumpateers don’t care about family values, if they did, they certainly would not idolize a guy like Donald Trump. They don’t care about the budget deficit. They don’t care about equal pay for equal work regardless of gender, or marriage equality or equal rights. The only thing a Trumpateer cares about is finding a leader who will feed their irrational fear of people who are different than them. They want a leader who will protect them from the boogeyman, also known as the immigrants and refugees, the blacks, Mexicans and Muslims and gays. Everything else is just false outrage.
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