Ms. Nixon,
This was not the first time I read an article written by a Leftist. It is however, the first one in which I was genuinely interested. I have always preached to my children (now grown) that no one can lend support nor make a judgment on anything in life without seeing both sides. Therefore, I appreciate your effort in seeing for yourself what the Trump United group was about. However, I do not agree with allowing one group to define your perception of all of us. At the same time, reading your very well written and well-articulated article, I learned that our perception of the left should not apply to all as well.
With that said, there are a few points you made that I’d like to counter with the same respect you showed us (thank you for that by the way):
“They have rules (…follows)”. The rules you stated as the Trump supporters unite group, I’d like to point out are practically verbatim to the rules in The Deplorables group. (But yes I get your point; I feel the same. In fact we have had many members say they were leaving because they were discouraged by it being less of a pro-Trump and more about anti-left.) I know nothing about that particular Trump group (you joined) but I cannot fathom being tasked with monitoring the posts within such a large group, especially when there are 40,000 plus members. There are 511,000 (as of the day I started this) I will agree that hatred persists among some; but that goes for all sides and communities, political or otherwise. But it is NOT representation unless it is a platform upon which they exist or get elected.
The haters were haters before whomever or whatever came along. In this case it was Pres.Trump. Just like those on the left, haters on the right confused the point of “extreme vetting of immigrants and refugees” and twisted its meaning to “no entry for Muslims”. Haters loved it; progressives screamed ‘racist’. (I for one cannot stand the hate born out of ignorance). The lack of knowledge is what creates such impulsive and fear-driven prejudice and violence. These individuals will politically support whomever’s actions closest represent their media-puppeted and propaganda- induced views. The left sees all those “ists”, “ysts”, and “phobes” in Trump because that’s how the media WANTS them to see him, especially CNN (what I call the Clinton News Network). Do you lock your doors at night to keep people out when you and your family are asleep? Is it because you hate other people? You must hate them; you don’t want them in your house; right? When a stranger rings your doorbell, does he/she get invited in your home right away? What determines if or when that individual is allowed in or is no longer a stranger? The single most important job of parents is to keep their children safe and feeling safe. That is also true of our Commander-in-Chief and the citizens he vowed to protect. HOW is that hateful?
These small minded right haters and their leftist counter parts are more vocal than conservatives and TRUE democrats. Therefore, you will see more of their negative comments to posts and replies to comments than those not of like mind. Both sides are guilty of resorting to name calling or foul language to get a point across…And to your credit, I saw that the loudmouthed destructive ‘protesters’ do not represent all of you either.
Which brings me to my last point: No, we don’t love fake news. There are many times I see where posting fake news within our group gets called out by another member, even though it leans in our favor. I don’t like (not even a little) that a serious event is headlined with sensationalism. Tragedies happen; we need to pay attention with our hearts, not with our need for drama. Orlando and the Ariana Grande concert are great examples of that. But no matter how you slice it, false information, fake news, however one wants to call it, is wrong and neither of us are blameless on that.
But, we on the right did not interfere with Obama doing his job how he saw fit; agreed or not, we waited til elections to speak. If Trump does a bad job, so be it; if he does it well, more power to him. But he can’t do either if he’s blocked at every turn! Some of us form our opinions on our own (based on experience and observation) while other’s opinions are derived from the taken- for-granted as true(listening to repeated ‘news’). It is because of the methods chosen by some to ‘speak up’ that extremism occurs. Individuals who attack bigotry with more bigotry is mute point.
The whole point of this was to commend you for sharing your observations in a way that didn’t involve insulting behavior, nor did you endorse the behavior some on the left engage in to counter the behavior and attitudes they believe to be displayed by the right.
So again, thank you.