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I Refuse to Tolerate Donald Trump and His Supporters

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We’ve Worked Too Hard to Allow Trump’s Racism, Xenophobia, and Bigotry Rule the Day

On Thursday night, Donald Trump gave his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. It was incredibly dark and scary, and it freaked the hell out of me. It should scare the crap out of you, too.

In response, I posted this on Facebook:

I’ve been really reluctant to jump on the Trump/Hitler comparison bandwagon because I’m a firm believer that certain historical events and people are simply incomparable. Listening to Trump’s speech tonight is making me strongly – very strongly – reconsider that position.

Let me be as clear as possible: If you plan on voting for Trump, there is no place for you in my life. You are shameful and represent the worst of humanity. Trump is the absolute worst of what we have to offer, and if you endorse his ideas and behavior you will be complicit in the darkness that is to come.

We have the power to stop this, but it’s going to take every single one of us. How will you feel when your grandkids ask you why no one stood up to the evil?

I’m still reluctant to go full-out with the Trump/Hitler comparison. There are, without a doubt, echoes of Hitler in Trump – it doesn’t take more than a minute or two of paying attention to figure out – but I hope and pray we never get to the point where the comparison becomes wholly accurate.

What I find most surprising, though, wasn’t that I was being hyperbolic (I was, because a little bit of drama makes a point get across a little bit faster), but that I was accused of being intolerant and “judgmental of folks whose political opinion differs from” mine. 

You know what? Yes. I am, and I was. I am absolutely intolerant of Trump and his supporters. 

Maybe a few months ago I wouldn’t have said this, but after everything that’s happened with his speeches and the disguting Republican platform, I’m done. I’m proud to be intolerant. 

I’m proud to be intolerant of racism.

I’m proud to be intolerant of anti-Semitism.

I’m proud to be intolerant of misogyny.

I’m proud to be intolerant of Islamaphobia.

I’m proud to be intolerant of homophobia.

I’m proud to be intolerant of transphobia.

I’m proud to be intolerant of xenophobia.

In any other situation I would agree with one commenter who said that a vote for a certain canddiate doesn’t mean an endorsement of their entire platform. There are certainly candidates I’m not 100% in line with but whom I proudly support anyway. I still have yet to find The Perfect Candidate. That’s how it works most of the time, and I know it’s the best we can do, all things considered.

With Trump, however, his offensive qualities so outweigh anything reasonable he may have said at one point by such a large margin I felt like a fool just trying to write this paragraph at all. At this point it’s absolutely impossible to separate out the candidacy from the candidate – or from the party. There is simply no argument to be made for voting for Trump that doesn’t make you a terrible person.

I understand that a polite society requires us all to live and interact with people who often hold views that directly contrast with ours. Most of the time, I can handle tolerance. Tolerance, at its most basic level, simply requires that we don’t get in someone else’s way, even if we absolutely hate them and everything they stand for. Tolerance doesn’t mean approval, it just means I’m not going to try to get you arrested or harm you. It’s the absolutely lowest level of human decency.

Being forced to confront our own biases and learn from others is what usually makes our society so great – but it doesn’t apply here. Tolerance doesn’t apply here. The kind of hate that Trump spews affects us all. It creates a world of fear and disgust and I refuse to allow our country to go down that road. 

I refuse to allow bigotry to rule the day. I refuse to allow the ideals of inequality, xenophobia, and outright fear to become our country’s guiding principals. We’re so much better than that. We’ve worked far too hard for that to happen. 

And if that means that certain people take themselves out of my life because they cannot abandon their bigotry? Well, then good riddance, because they were never really welcome in my life in the first place.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

 

Robbie Medwed is an Atlanta-based LGBTQ activist and educator. His column appears here weekly. Follow him on Twitter: @rjmedwed

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‘I Feel So Bad for Him’: George Conway Trolls Trump Amid White House Attack

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Longtime Never-Trump critic turned Democratic congressional candidate George Conway is mocking President Donald Trump in a campaign video and a social media post while the White House targets him in a highly critical attack.

“Hi, Donald, it’s me, George Conway,” Conway, a conservative attorney, says in his video. “I cost you 88 f —— million dollars, and I’ve only just gotten started.”

“I know you like putting your name on everything from your plane to the Kennedy Center,” he continues. “But the only thing your name is gonna be left on when I’m done with you is the orange jumpsuit you’re going to have to wear in prison.”

“And you see that building back there?” he says over an image of Congress. “That’s where we’re gonna hold your third and final impeachment trial. The one that’s gonna put you away for good. And I’m gonna enjoy every minute of that.”

“We’ve got a lot of serious problems in this country, including, and especially, the price of gas — which is hitting $6 a gallon in some places, and that’s all because of you, Donald Trump. We can’t fix those problems until we impeach you and convict you. And that’s why I’m running for Congress.”

In a statement to Fox News, the White House blasted Conway.

“Lightweight George Conway is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person,” a spokesperson said. “His severe and debilitating disease known as Trump Derangement syndrome has melted his brain and made him crazy in the head.”

Conway is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project and was considered for a post as Trump’s Solicitor General at the start of his first administration. Conway withdrew his name from consideration.

On social media, Conway further mocked President Trump.

“Here’s our TV ad that poor wittle Donnie (@realDonaldTrump) didn’t wike and had to compwain to Fox ‘News’ about,” Conway wrote. “Sad! I feel so bad for him.”

Conway is running for a reliably blue seat in Manhattan.

“Conway, who previously lived in Bethesda, Md., before launching his congressional campaign, faces an uphill battle in the race for the heavily Democratic seat vacated by longtime Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who is retiring,” Fox News reported.

Earlier this year, Conway warned, “The way things are going in America, it should be clear we don’t have much time.”

“We certainly don’t have three years,” he said in February. “We need to help ourselves by pushing for impeachment and removal as hard as we can and carrying it out as soon as humanly possible.”

 

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A Letter From Florida Has a Blunt Verdict on the MAGA Movement: It’s ‘Dying’

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The Villages in Florida, the largest retirement community in the world, has been home to an extremely active MAGA movement. Roughly seven out of ten county residents voted for Trump in 2024, and its MAGA golf cart parades are legendary.

But Sunday’s parade was sparsely attended, according to a letter to the editor in The Villages News, which declares that the MAGA movement there is “dying.”

Casey Marr writes that they arrived at President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday golf cart parade, found many open parking spaces “and only a few people milling around” 30 minutes before the starting time. At 1:00 p.m., the official start time, “there was certainly no big crowd of cheering people” to welcome the parade of golf carts, which numbered only about 100 and lasted just 20 minutes.

Marr explains that there were two smaller starting places, and says that even if they had a similar number of carts, there would only have been “a pitiful 303.”

“This was advertised as a Guinness World Record challenge,” Marr says. “The record was set on Sept. 4, 2005, here in The Villages with 3,321 golf carts.”

According to Newsweek, Trump’s approval in Florida is 13 points underwater. Nationwide, Trump is 23 points underwater.

“Several states that began his term in positive territory, including Florida, Ohio and Texas, are now net negative,” Newsweek noted. “Deep-red states still form Trump’s strongest base, but many of those margins have narrowed sharply since January 2025.”

The golf cart parade fell short of the record, but Marr notes that The Villages’ “No Kings” rallies have grown “exponentially.” The “latest had two locations with attendance close to 6,000.”

“There is now a ‘Leaving MAGA’ billboard here on U.S. Hwy. 441,” Marr writes. “The ‘Trump 47’ website is down. The MAGA Club almost never holds any events. You almost never see a Trump flag flying anymore.”

Trump, Marr charges, “is using the office to line his pockets. Started a war which spiked gas prices along with everything else. Inflation and unemployment are rising. Aligned himself with murderous war criminals like Putin. He continues to protect pedophilia. This weekend he is desecrating the White House by holding a fighting match like Caligula being entertained by gladiators. The list of horrific things being done, especially in this administration, is endless. And he’s even lost former stalwarts like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson.”

“Yes,” Marr declares, “MAGA is dying in the country and even here. Florida is purple now again and turning bluer daily.”

 

Image via Reuters 

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Red State Democrats Sound 2026 Warning Over ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’

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Democratic candidates running in red states and hoping to flip districts are warning against “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the president’s and his supporters’ name for reflexive anti-Trump sentiment.

“Arguing about Donald Trump, somebody people voted for probably three times, isn’t going to be very conducive to getting things accomplished or reaching some common ground,” Kansas farmer and veterinarian Don Coover, challenging an incumbent GOP congressman in a deep-red district, told Bloomberg Government. Coover “said his party has to dial back the national rhetoric if it wants to compete in Trump-friendly places.”

Andrew Sneed, who is challenging a GOP incumbent congressman in a deep red Alabama district, told Bloomberg, “If we make this election about President Trump in my district and in districts like this around the country, we’re going to lose.”

Democrats hope to retake the House majority, and have targeted 25 GOP-held seats.

U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) urged Democrats to focus on the issues, such as affordability, and not on Donald Trump.

“It’s less about him than the fact that he’s not paying attention to the issue of affordability,” Suozzi told Bloomberg. “It’s not about Trump. It’s not about Trump derangement syndrome, and it’s not about his sometimes interesting behavior. It’s about policies that affect peoples’ lives.”

U.S. Rep. Laura Gillen, a vulnerable New York Democrat who is being targeted by the House GOP’s campaign arm, “said she is focused on touting her bipartisan work across the aisle, keeping Trump’s name at bay.”

“My messaging has been focused on what I am doing to try and make life more affordable,” Gillen told Bloomberg. “I ran for Congress and said I’d work with anyone from any party to get things done.”

Some warn that campaigning against Trump directly could backfire, especially should the president’s low approval numbers rebound.

Bloomberg notes that Republicans are targeting 29 Democrats, including 23 incumbents who represent voters in districts Trump won.

Democratic incumbents and candidates have stated their messaging plainly. The Republican National Committee is  accusing them of “TDS.”

“Voters want secure borders, lower prices, safer communities, and a strong economy, not Trump Derangement Syndrome,” RNC spokesperson Kiersten Pels said in a statement. “Americans are seeing through the Democrats’ tired strategy of attacking and vilifying President Trump and his supporters.”

 

Image via Reuters 

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