By Diane Snyder, Guest Columnist
A response is needed to Rich Cassidy’s guest column with the headline, “What do Democrats mean by ‘kill and confront?’ ”
It is so easy to take a few words and misconstrue them to say what you want them to say in order to arouse a specific response.
On Sept. 1, 2022, President Joe Biden clearly stated, “Equality and democracy are under assault. We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. Not every Republican. Not even the majority. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. But there is no question that the Republican Party is driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.”
He did not imply that 60-75 million Americans are in this category. He clearly stated it was not the majority of Republicans. One news outlet reports the number of extremist MAGA Republicans to be just 10 percent. So Biden is referring to 6-7 million Americans who have bought into Trump’s extremism.
But like bullies, they are loud, brash and threatening, and they have become the face of the Republican Party. Biden is raising the alarm for Democrats to get out and vote.
The “violence” that Cassidy would have you believe U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) was expounding, was a “call to arms” against the pro-life movement. Clearly, she is using this Merriam-Webster definition of “call to arms” – a summons, invitation or appeal to undertake a particular course of action/a political call to arms.
“When I hear my colleagues talking about how … government should not be telling us what to do. The word hypocrites, it doesn’t even go far enough to call them out on what they’re doing.”
Cassidy misquotes Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) when he wrote Ryan “insisted that his party must kill and confront MAGA Trump supporters.” Cassidy took three words from Ryan’s sentence, then added his own. Ryan actually said, “We’ve got to kill and confront that movement.” The movement he refers to is the one started by Trump.
Again, the MAGA GOP uses inflammatory and false statements to unite their base and it is this kind of movement that Ryan feels needs to be stopped.
It was the insurrectionists and their violence on Jan. 6, who with Trump’s blessing were ready to overthrow an election, and thereby our democratic government. I find it ludicrous that Cassidy suggests a fictional Hitler-like plot based on his falsehoods, which is a red herring to deflect the violence of the MAGA movement.
Thankfully, I have friends and relatives who are Republicans, who disavow the MAGA base and vote accordingly.
Democrats will fight. We will fight back at the polls.
The writer is a resident of Murphy.