Spreading hatred at Christmas time

While shopping three days before Christmas, I saw a group of 3 or 4 young men walk by a large display of Christmas wrapping paper that was on sale. One of them said, gleefully, “I’d like to take all the Democrats and wrap them all up in a ball and throw them away!” I was so shocked I wasn’t quite sure what I had just heard. Did he say, “Throw them away,” “toss them in the trash,” or “burn them up?”

As the group moved away through the crowd, there was an older woman behind them (who had nodded approvingly at the evil comment). As she passed me I asked her for clarification, “What did he say he wanted to do to me?” She stopped and asked me what I meant. I said, “I am a Democrat. What did that guy say he wanted to do to me?”

She said, “You are a Democrat?” I replied to her, “Yes, I am a Mormon Democrat.” She said, “That’s even worse!” “Why?” I said, “because we don’t vote for liars and criminals?” She remarked, while walking away from me, “Like the President!” “Yes,” I called after her, “like President Donald Trump!”

What just happened?

I stood there stunned for some time reflecting on what had just happened. I think I was shaking. I wondered how anyone could so callously express such ignorant, vile, hatred amidst decorations celebrating a holiday commemorating the birth of the Prince of Peace.

I wondered how my very existence could be such a threat to this guy. I wondered if any of those men had been carrying “concealed” guns. I wondered how quickly and easily this man and his friends could move from his violent language to actual, physical, violence. I felt fear.

I had just received a frightening glimpse into an alien world – a world that I do not inhabit and do not understand. In this world, right and wrong do not matter, only power and money.

In this world Donald J. Trump is not only a hero, but he is the one who decides what is true and what is false. Facts do not matter, only Trump’s random, shifting, self-serving, opinions. He gives his fans permission to be their worst selves: selfish, ignorant, racist, sexist, proud, violent, bullies — and they love him for it.

History often does repeat itself

It would be easy for me to dismiss these guys as simply irrelevant, ignorant, bullies. Indeed, it was that thought that allowed me to shake off the event and continue with my shopping that day.

But it is important to remember that it was guys like this that helped bring the Nazis to power in Germany in the 1920s and 30s. (See “Sturmabteilung” in Wikipedia).

The German SA (known as the “Brownshirts”) was made up of politically motivated bullies who were used by the Nazis to intimidate opposing parties, trade unionists, and Jews….

Hatred and ignorance go together

Even though the hate speech I experienced was overheard and not directed specifically at me, I was still intimidated. I was shocked to see blind hatred so casually expressed in a public place.

This experience made real for me the fact that many, many people see the world, and people with my political beliefs, in this way. They hate the very Democrats and Union workers whom I personally know to be intelligent, hard working, good people. These are people who have dedicated their lives to helping others have better, happier, and more fulfilled, lives.

That man in the store hated me and my friends even though he knew nothing about us generally and none of us personally. Instead, he believed the lies that have been told about us by Republican politicians and by wealthy professional media propagandists.

A Mormon Democrat?!!

What concerns me most, though, is not those ignorant bully boys who laughed at the crude remark stereotyping and threatening an entire political class. There will always be stupid, crude, potentially violent, bully boys. Sometimes some of them even grow up and repent of their immature ways.

What disturbed me the most was the woman who thought that I, by claiming to be a Mormon Democrat, was some sort of traitor — to both my country and my church. “That’s even worse!” she said. She meant that it was bad enough to claim to be a Democrat, but to claim to be a Mormon Democrat was heresy.

She turned away so quickly it was like she felt I was unclean — like the biblical lepers.

Given her age, her clothing, her demeanor, and our location in Centerville, Utah, I am quite sure she was LDS. I have no doubt that she is a kind, good-hearted, person who takes food to people in the ward who have had surgery. She has over the years, no doubt, been both a Primary teacher and a leader in the Relief Society.

And yet this good LDS woman (yes, I realize that I have, myself, created a stereotype here) apparently honestly believes that Joseph R. Biden is a liar and a criminal while, presumably, Donald J. Trump is not.

Why are Mormons so vulnerable to political lies and hatred?

This widespread nonsense just drives me crazy. How can any person who worships Jesus Christ, believes the Joseph Smith story, reads the Book of Mormon, and probably attends the temple, NOT recognize the lies and evil embodied in Donald J. Trump?

How can they hate a generous, intelligent, hard-working, good-hearted man like Joe Biden (whom I have had the privilege of meeting and shaking his hand) based on lies, insinuation, and no facts?

How can anyone allow themselves to be willingly and uncritically brainwashed by the likes of FoxNews, and its even more extreme offshoots? How can anyone vote for Republicans who want to dismantle Medicare and Social Security and abandon Ukraine to Vladimir Putin?

And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.

Moses 4:4

Since Satan is the Father of Lies, then he is also the Father of Donald Trump and FoxNews. How can any Latter-day Saint continue to worship at their alter?

Why can’t so many people see the obvious? What will it take to cause the scales to fall from their eyes? How can I help my brothers and sisters to wake up from their political blindness?

And when will the Church officially speak out about this problem?