The New Terrorists

We are all much too familiar with terrorists. They are far too busy killing people these days. We’re all sick of it. We are sick of the senseless killing, the false claims of religious authority disguising raw ambition for power. We are sick of them trying to gain power by frightening us.

Well, guess what: there is a whole new group of terrorists out there. You may have seen them and not even been aware of it. But I’ve seen them. I recognize them for what they are. Just last week they got up on stage with national tv coverage and to scare us all by ranting about Islamic terrorists–how they are coming here in their thousands to kill us in our homes. One after the other the speakers at the Republican National Convention got up on stage and told us to be afraid–be very afraid.

They want us to be afraid so we will give them power. They want us to be afraid so we will do what they say. Sure, they don’t kill people in their lust for power. They don’t have to. The “other” terrorists will do that for them. But they will magnify and exploit our natural fear of the “other” terrorists to gain power. They are the worst terrorists of all–the kind that pretend to have our interests at heart, but will say anything–do anything–to get that power they crave.

When I started this blog I promised myself I would stay non-political. Since the nomination of Donald Trump as the presidential candidate of the Republican party I can no longer keep that promise. I saw people supporting his candidacy while saying he didn’t really mean the terrible things he said. I saw the gutless toadies of the Republican get up one by one to support and propagate his message of fear and hate–and I was afraid. I was afraid that the thinking people of this country would stand by and let this fear mongering crowd of terrorists have their way.

I still am. You should be too.