Gosh.  Being a ‘seasoned senior citizen,’ I thought my life was pretty much determined and established.  About ten days ago, as a result of the riots and protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, I am now confused about my identity.  I have recently learned that I am a nationalist, bigot, possibly a neo-nazi, racist and white supremacist!  Who knew?  And….I may unknowingly belong to the Ku Klux Klan!  I have an AAA card and an American Legion membership, but I did not think that made me a Klan member.  I asked Grandma P if there have been any bed sheets missing lately.  She confirmed that all bedding is in place and in order, and she would be happy to cut holes in them as long as she could also lop off a few of my masculine body parts.

Why have I become all of these things?  Well, according to the mayor of Charlottesville, the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and Nancy Pelosi; the protesters in Charlottesville were all Trump supporters and they were all nationalists, bigots, neo-nazi, racist and white supremacists, so….by extension, anyone who voted for Donald Trump is all of these things!  Because it has been well trumpeted (notice this irony?) and advertised in the liberal media that that is his political base and as a result, that is how he got elected.  The media just cannot come up with enough words ending in, ‘ist’ or ‘ism’ to describe their venomous attitude to the POTUS or to his supporters.

When I initially heard that there were a bunch of ‘nationalists’ protesting in Charlottesville, I thought the members of the baseball team from Washington, D.C.  was there in protest to save the Civil War statues. (Washington Nationals)   Obviously that was not the case.  But the word, ‘nationalist’ has an almost patriotic sound to it, so the media quickly shifted to the other derogatory words: racist (one of their favorite words!), bigot, white supremacist and neo-nazi.  I believe the KKK did actually hold a small rally the weekend before the biggie protests.  It was peaceful.

So now the big protest weekend takes place in Charlottesville.  And….I hope you are as confused as I was initially when I say that I did not know who the home team was and who was the visiting team. I would have had a difficult time knowing which uniform to wear and which banner and big yellow finger to wave.  The supposedly bad guys protesting the removal of the Civil War statues had a permit.  The supposedly lily-white patriotic counter-protesters did not.  And, not surprisingly, violence erupted. Unfortunately, three people lost their lives over this event.  (The moron driving the car into the crowd was a counter-protester, not a Trump supporter protester as originally reported.  Have you noticed how quickly his name disappeared from the media after learning which team he played for?)

Who did the Democratic mayor of Charlottesville blame for the violence in HIS city?  Donald Trump, of course. Who did the DNC blame for the violence?  Donald Trump, of course.  Trump condemned the violence, condemned bigotry, and stated that there were “bad people on both sides.”  Apparently his condemnation of the radicals on the protesting (with permit) side was not harsh enough and he became the target of the media, members of his own party, and a bunch of consulting CEO’s on his economic board that felt he was not definitive enough in his condemnation of the protesters, while he should have exulted the patriotic counter-protesters for their actions.

But never fear!  I, Grandpa T, in the search for at least a partial truth began watching YouTube videos of the event to see what was transpiring that day.  Here is what I found.  The counter-protesters marched down the street wearing matching helmets and carrying shields with identical paint schemes on them.  It looked like a marching band, and it looked a little too coordinated to have been a random counter-protest.

So I have a question for the mayor of Charlottesville and the Charlottesville police department. When you see people marching down your streets wearing matching helmets and carrying matching shields, exactly what part of this scenario did you think was going to end peacefully?  Why were you not proactive in arresting or at least restraining the opposing groups from meeting?

Trump did his part in condemning both sides, much to the dismay of his political opponents.  The police and the mayor did not do their job and tragedy resulted.

Now the following weekend, we have a protest in Boston.  This time the protesters are a little more defined.  They are marching in support of the ‘Freedom of Speech.’  This seems harmless enough as this directly supports the rights of the First Amendment to the Constitution.  Don’t most people support the right of the ‘Freedom of Speech?’  Well….apparently not.  The counter-protesters during this march were five to six times larger than the protesters.  And they protested.

Now I am totally confused.  How in the hell do you counter-protest the ‘Freedom of Speech?’  If you don’t like the ‘Freedom of Speech’, what is your alternative?  Are you intelligent enough to realize that by counter-protesting, you are actually exercising your ‘Freedom of Speech’ rights?

The City of Boston and the Boston police department, unlike Charlottesville, were proactive.  They kept the marchers and counter-protesters apart, thus preventing any violence.

Now we need to take a step back and look at the two issues that caused these marches and counter-protests.  Charlottesville was supposedly about protesting the continued removal of Civil War Statues.  OK.  I had a minor in history in college.  How exactly, do you change history?  I am sorry it occurred, but it did happen.  America needs to grow up.  There are no people in this country who have been slaves and there are no people in this country who have owned slaves.  So I am going to make a novel suggestion, and here it is:  ” Rather than viewing these statues as something oppressive, we should rather view them as a reminder as to how far our country has matured and evolved in the last 150 years.”  If the black race is finding these statues racist, then you should remember that more white people fought and died for the end of slavery.  That effort was led by a Republican, Abraham Lincoln.  It was the Republican party that fought for and granted Equal Rights. The Democrats, particularly the Democrats from the South, fought against it for decades.  But you will never see the liberal media put a positive spin on these statues or that they should be viewed as historical and with a positive connotation.  Don’t like the KKK?  Well, that group was founded and manned by Democrats.

The Boston marchers were about protecting ‘Freedom of Speech,’ and yet, a horde of people appeared to counter-protest.  90% of the people in the United States support the ‘Freedom of Speech.’  62% of the people believe that Civil War statues should not be removed.  But yet, we get protesters, sometimes violent protesters, appearing to disrupt these marches.  Why?

Well, it makes more sense if you realize that these counter-protests are not about the issues, they are about ‘identity politics.’  That is the new catch-phrase, so you may as well get acquainted with it.  It is identifying everyone, especially Trump supporters, into an ‘ism’ or ‘ist’ derogatory name, and attempting to convince the voting public that they are bad and the reason you are feeling discriminated against or down-trodden is because of them.  The liberal media takes it a step further and attempts to convince you that Trump won the presidency because of them.  So, it is the racists, nationalists, bigots, white supremacists, neo-nazis and Ku Klux Klan that make up the entire Trump base, and they are responsible for the destruction of poor Hillary Clinton.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, and I am none of the ‘isms’ or ‘ists.’   I voted for Donald Trump because I was tired of ‘political correctness’ ruling our society.  I no longer wanted to decide which of three gender bathrooms I had to use.  I voted for Donald Trump because I have more respect for a successful businessman than I do for an underemployed lawyer that became a politician.  I voted for Donald Trump because I wanted to see this country run with a budget and to eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse that has become the norm in Washington, D.C.  I voted for Donald Trump because I did not want another candidate that was beholden or obligated to a particular lobby group.  I wanted a POTUS that supported the military and law enforcement.  I voted for Donald Trump because I thought Hillary Clinton would have made a crappy POTUS.

A word to the liberal media and the DNC and its cronies.  We, the Trump supporters are getting damned tired of being lumped into a group of ‘isms’ and ‘ists’ just so you can advance your tired liberal agenda.  We, the Trump supporters, realize that your 24/7 agenda is to again create racial division within our country for your political gain.  We, the Trump supporters, are intelligent enough to see that your organized counter-protests are an attempt to derail our government workings and to scuttle the Trump agenda.  All of this is being done at the detriment of the United States and to get your sorry asses back in power in 2018.  America is watching and America is wise to your methods.

How amazing would it be if the Democrats would spend as much effort on governing this great country as they are in organizing counter-protests.  Get to work!