In the opinion pages of a local newspaper, another letter writer fabricates this claim of victimhood:<\/p>\n
\u201cMy fear is that if I wear my Make America Great Again<\/strong> hat in public I may be assaulted. \u00a0That is what I call \u2018real\u2019 fear. \u00a0True Trump supporters are generally a quiet, hard-working, taxpaying, respectful group of people. \u00a0We need a little more conversation and a little less confrontation,\u201d<\/em> she writes.<\/p>\n Hardly an appeal for ‘conversation<\/em>,’ this letter writer fabricates a straw argument. \u00a0Are quiet, hard-working, taxpaying Hillary voters just as likely to be harassed by an unhinged Trump voter? Our letter writer doesn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n Binary thinking and misplaced attribution has turned our public life into a bully pulpit of exaggerations and confabulations. The difference between a bogus claim versus a real one\u00a0is exemplified as follows:<\/p>\n In Quebec City, a gunman kills 6 people at a local mosque. Authorities arrest a Canadian national whose Facebook page reveals an admiration for Donald Trump (Toronto Star).<\/p>\n Two Texas mosques are destroyed by fire in one month, one within hours after the president signs his Muslim travel ban (Texas Tribune).<\/p>\n CNN reports a wave of bomb threats that close 130 Jewish Community Centers. In the face of pandemic anti-Semitism, the president dodges questions from an Israel reporter \u2014 ordering him to \u201csit down.\u201d<\/p>\n The Southern Poverty Law Center documents a sharp rise in hate crimes since the election. These reports correlate with slogans and remarks made by candidate Trump during the campaign \u2026 over 1,000 new incidents in all.<\/p>\n Imagined fear is the province of children, and playing the victim card is a dishonest and disingenuous argument at best. No doubt, there are real victims \u2026 and REAL vampires \u2026 but not the ones we fear. When voters turn mirrors to the wall and refuse to see their own reflections, real vampires are the ones who scapegoat others and refuse to hold themselves accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"