I’ve become a student of that human species I call the Incredibly Serious Trump Hater.
A cardinal rule for Incredibly Serious Trump Haters is that one must never give Trump any credit for anything, no exceptions.
If by accident Trump does something that looks good, one must immediately change the subject and go right to the familiar turf of Trumpian blunders.
After the murderous mullahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran mowed down thousands of their own citizens in January, Incredibly Serious Trump Haters were faced with a dilemma.
If Trump decided to take on the bad guys, what side would his haters take?
Incredibly Serious Trump Haters are not stupid. They know that the murder of up to 30,000 peaceful protesters was not an isolated event. They know that the Islamic regime has been hanging gays, brutalizing women, murdering Americans and spreading terror around the globe for decades. They know that the monsters of Tehran are the very definition of evil.
They know, in other words, that it would be a horrible look to take their side.
At the same time, however, they also know that if they’re serious about being Incredibly Serious Trump Haters, taking Trump’s side is never an option.
So, once the war started, there was only one thing to do: Focus on arguments and on bashing Trump. There are enough complications with this war that one can easily submerge the fundamental truth of an evil regime.
No end game! No approval in Congress! Goals keep changing! He got sucked in by Israel! This is helping China! It’s another potential quagmire!
Another form of misdirection has been to frame the war as “America’s war” or “Israel’s war,” something Mideast expert Dan Perry calls “profoundly misleading.”
“This is not a bilateral conflict between two nations,” he writes. “It is a struggle over whether the international system will tolerate a regime that exports extremism, destabilizes entire regions, and openly pursues nuclear weapons while calling for the destruction of other states.”
For decades, he adds, “Iran has funded, armed, and trained militant organizations across the Middle East and beyond. It has bragged about having ‘sleeper cells’ throughout Europe. It has turned proxy warfare into a geopolitical strategy. The result has been instability that stretches from Lebanon to Yemen, from Gaza to Iraq.”
Incredibly Serious Trump Haters know all this, but they hate Trump too much to dwell on it.
Occasionally, they will blurt out a forced concession like, “Well, I won’t shed any tears for the bad actors of the Islamic regime,” but that’s just foreplay before they deliver an avalanche of Trumpian blunders.
Is it working? Is this anti-Trump avalanche creating enough noise to move people’s attention away from a murderous regime?
Maybe yes, maybe no, but who cares?
What matters is that while one of the world’s most evil regimes is taking a beating, much of the mainstream media, Hollywood and our cultural elite would rather focus on who’s doing the beating.
You can even see it on the streets, when anti-Israel and anti-America protesters (a distinction without a difference) try to hijack demonstrations against the theocratic Iranian dictators. They will yell “Free Palestine” all day long, but “Free the Iranian people?” Not a chance.
Incredibly Serious Haters of Everything Western– from America to Israel to Trump– know how to make noise. They take their roles very seriously.
The role I take most seriously is Incredibly Serious Hater of Regimes Who Promote Terrorism and Get Away With It.
So while I recognize the need to talk about war strategies and end games, I don’t let it distract me from the moral component: An evil regime is being severely weakened as I write, and for the first time since the Islamic revolution of 1979, the people of Iran and freedom lovers everywhere see a ray of hope.
Yes, the mullahs are in desperate survival mode, so we shouldn’t be surprised if they’ll fight to the death, hoping perhaps to exhaust its foes. The truth is they’ve never been more vulnerable, and they know it.
If you’re an Incredibly Serious Trump Hater who still doesn’t appreciate this development, think of the thousands of innocent protesters who perished a few weeks ago at the hands of the very monsters you’re ignoring.
For all of his many faults, it wasn’t Trump who mowed them down.
