CASH MICHAELS
THEY ALL “HATE” THEIR OPPONENTS
by Cash Michaels
In journalism, you always endeavor to get your facts, and the context in which those facts exist, correct. That’s why it should be hard to state categorically in either a news story or opinion piece that someone “hates” somebody else. It should never be used casually.
“Hate” is such a powerful, descriptive word of such an overwhelming, callous and destructive human emotion, that most experienced writers try to be extremely careful how they use it in their copy.
If someone says something significantly anti-social, even if he/she has a pattern of doing so, you try not to reflexively assign the descriptive term “hate” or”hateful” to them or their statements unless left with little choice given the circumstance.
“Tragically ignorant,” in some cases, would be more appropriate, in my opinion. The late Charlie Kirk would fit neatly into this category, and the hurtful, untrue things he specifically said about brilliant and undeniably accomplished black women (“You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously”) like former First Lady and Harvard Law-educated attorney Michelle Obama, Harvard Law-educated U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Yale University alumna US Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (deceased), and Harvard U alumna author/educator/television commentator Joy Reid, would certainly qualify.
Apparently Charlie Kirk didn’t have much respect for any black women though, per his ignorant remark from a January 2024 podcast -“If I'm dealing with somebody in customer service who's a moronic Black woman, I don't -- I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action? It almost creates thought patterns that are not necessarily wholesome. It creates resentment, doesn't it? This is not a way to design society.”
Add to that the negative things Kirk has said about civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (“MLK was awful. He’s not a good person”); about the 1964 Civil Rights Act (“We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s,” later adding that the 1964 Civil Rights Act "created a beast, and that beast has now turned into an anti-white weapon"); and of affirmative action/DEI (“You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously”), and you have to wonder why Charlie Kirk would say such ugly, false and divisive things unless he had a motive.
If he really believed that stuff to be true, that's a problem.
For the record, Mr. Kirk, 31, briefly attended Harper College, a public community college in Illinois, over a decade ago before dropping out after just one semester to pursue a career in conservative political activism. Apparently Kirk believed his brief tenure there equipped him with more “brain processing power” than Harvard Law-trained black professionals like Attorney Obama or Justice Jackson, or Yale-educated Jackson Lee or Harvard U alumna Reid.
That’s prima facie white supremacist arrogance! Kirk was insisting that he was just born better than the most accomplished black person, which was pure rubbish AND racist!
I could see where many people would justifiably call such ignorant supremacist talk “hate speech.” I won’t do that here, because I didn’t know Charlie Kirk or his heart. Only his hurtful, ignorant, arrogant words. But make no mistake, just imagine for a moment someone saying such extraordinarily disturbing things about you or your family or community, then calling themselves “christian” as well. Makes you pity that person, and wonder about the people who would unabashedly follow such a confused and uninformed young soul.
Just like, not too long ago, we all wondered about the tragically ignorant words and character of former NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, and knew in our hearts that that pitiful man had absolutely no business being elected as our next governor. Remember, he claimed to be an anointed follower of Jesus Christ, as well.
Let's not forget, many of Robinson's most disturbing and hateful words were spoken in white "christian" churches on Sundays, where folks were more than happy to hear a black conservative talk big smack about LGBTQ, women, African-Americans, Jews, Democrats... the whole liberal list.
Hopefully, Robinson has constructively spent the time since getting his butt royally kicked in the last election to find the true Jesus, straighten himself out and realize that normal folks were never going to buy his nonsense.
I must tell you, for all of the “christian” love and accolades Charlie Kirk received in the aftermath of his tragic assassination on September 10th, you would think all he did was preach the Gospel everywhere he went on his “Prove Me Wrong” tours and media appearances. But thanks to the magic of past online videos and podcasts, many of us who knew nothing about Kirk or his massive conservative movement, Turning Point USA, are now able to research him and what he has said on the record.
After doing so, and finding myself appalled by the arrogant, white supremacist intolerance that masqueraded as “christian” values on his part, I also found myself really concerned about other deeply confused and uninformed people who’ve bought into the Charlie Kirk mantra.
Even people who look like me. Talking to you, “black” conservatives Dr. Ben Carson, Candace Owens and Larry Elders.
I must be blunt at this point.
If you agreed with Charlie Kirk’s very controversial, highly illogical, and extremely hurtful views about blacks and other human beings, then I can only say it plain - there’s something seriously wrong with you!
Am I calling you a racist? Actually, I’m not going to waste my time here doing something that easy if you honestly think, like Kirk, that Almighty GOD created certain human beings to be deficient at birth by virtue of the color of their skin.
Not worth my time!
When it came to the topic of race though, Charlie Kirk was not a truth teller, and because of that, I can see many of those who followed him “hating” others in this nation who are different. That's a shame.
And that explains the mindset of the large number of people, and indeed growing movement in this country, that would dare to just sit there and allow Donald Trump, the president of the United States, before 95,000 mourners at a “christian” memorial service for Kirk, and the nation on television, say, “I hate my opponents and I don’t want the best for them.”
The Christians of all colors and nationalities that I know and grew up with would never, ever have tolerated such a despicable thing said, because the Jesus we worship taught us much, much differently.
The elected leader of the Free World publicly expressed the rawest and most base of human emotions towards his fellow human beings he happens to have issues with, and NO ONE at that gathering, NOT ONE SO-CALLED “CHRISTIAN” MINISTER said afterwards, “I’m a conservative, but Jesus taught us to love our perceived enemies.”
No one even tried to divorce themselves from that sentiment either?
Hell, this man spewed his “hate” crap just minutes after Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erica, dug deep down into her soul to publicly say about the twisted person who violently took her husband’s life, perhaps some of most powerful words of any language:
“I forgive him…because it was what Christ did, and it's what Charlie would do!”
And instead of honoring and respecting that, the despicable man known as our president actually stood up, and told a so-called “christian” crowd that he couldn’t roll with that “I forgive you” stuff.
And why did he say such a dastardly thing and mean it?
Because Trump knew who he was talking to. He knew that no one in that “christian” crowd who presumably came to honor a fallen leader in the name of Jesus Christ, no one… except the very opponents he “hates,” would call him out for using his office as a weapon to indeed further divide this nation.
Donald Trump shackled himself to the legacy of Charlie Kirk because it was a no-lose proposition. Trump telling Charlie Kirk’s movement of millions of emotionally wounded followers who helped to reelect him that he “hates” his opponents, and lying that those opponents were responsible for Kirk’s death, was actually a battle cry, a cold-blooded declaration of war he wants Kirk's followers to obey.
He’s using them now like he’s been using MAGA.
As journalist Zaid Jilani recently wrote in an excellent NY Times op-ed piece:
“Conservative Christian charity still thrives, helping heal the sick and tend to the poor, but the Christian right of the Trump era, which marches in the Trump army under banners like Christian nationalism, can be distinguished more by cruelty than kindness.”
Don’t tell me a president can’t lead by true Christian example in times of national crisis.
Right after the 9-11 terrorists attacks in September 2001, in an effort to forestall a misguided mass retribution campaign towards millions of innocent Muslims in this country for the evil actions of a few from elsewhere, Pres. George W. Bush went to the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., and spoke out against religious bigotry when a lot of angry, revenge-seeking Americans would have preferred he did anything but.
“American Muslims love America just as much as I do,” declared Bush, an Evangelical Christian.
Bush wasn’t my favorite Republican president by far, but that took real courage, and history should reward him for it.
Hell, even before Trump issued his “I hate my opponents” declaration, one of his closest White House advisers, the wretched Stephen Miller, stood up before that same “christian” crowd and said, "The Democrat [sic] Party does not fight for, care about, or represent American citizens. It is an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gang-bangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization."
Apparently from where Stephen Miller is from, those are exactly the kind of soothing, comforting, thoughtful and unifying words of solace that should be uttered at any and every memorial service.
“Grief” like Miller’s helps to inspire crap like this - the next day after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the FBI reported threats were made to seven historically black colleges and universities across the South, and nowhere else. And after that, a group of white MAGA followers went to the campus of all-black Tennessee State University with signs identifying themselves as such, trying to start a ruckus there.
Thankfully, black students at TSU refused to take the bait, for which we’re extremely grateful, but now we’re also very anxious about possible future episodes.
And as you’re reading this, the Durham Police Dept. is investigating a suspicious "hate mail" letter with a “threatening message” containing racial slurs that was sent Tuesday to Police Chief Patrice Andrews. According to published reports, the letter contained a powdery substance that thankfully tested as not harmful.
Think this had anything to do with Chief Andrews’ recent controversial now-deleted Facebook posting about Charlie Kirk “disguising” himself as a Christian and she not appreciating him bashing accomplished black women like herself, or "creating a culture of divisiveness"?
Nah…probably just another one of those “radical leftist” plots Trump is always claptrapping about.
“Make America Great Again” in truth, means things were “great” for white “christian” Americans when segregation laws restricted the rights of black and other people of color before the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement.
The racially divisive words of Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump confirm this.
Probably why folks like Looney Tunes MAGA right-wing influencer and Trump confidante, Laura Loomer, reportedly felt free to disparagingly refer to outspoken Texas Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett as a “DEI Shaniqua” and a …”ghetto black b--ch who hates America serving in Congress.”
By the way, according to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ new book, 107 Days (a great read, I might add), Loomer may be the one responsible for pushing Trump’s memorably unhinged and racist debate diatribe about Haitian immigrants in Ohio “eating the dogs…eating the cats…”
It should disturb all decent people that someone who has that much influence over the president of the United States behaves in this hateful manner.
Then, of course, we have MAGA Vice Pres. J. D. Vance, who came to North Carolina recently after the Kirk assassination and the fatal sniper shooting in Dallas, Texas targeting ICE agents that has taken two lives, saying, “If your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement, you can go straight to hell, and you have no place in the political conversation in the United States.”
Gee, if only Vance had guts enough to say exactly that after the Jan. 6th Trump-inspired U.S. Capitol MAGA attacks on police officers which caused the direct death of one, and serious injuries to many others. Instead, Vance blamed “the very top of the Democratic Party” for recent political violence.
Of course, being honest and truthful is not the name of the game here, is it?
But getting ignorant Republicans and conservatives riled up is.
Let’s face it, Trump isn’t winning the Nobel Peace Prize, not with behavior like his or fomenting the hate in others that he does. That’s not what that prestigious honor is about.
No, he is about retribution - both personal and political - which for him, is the same thing. He literally wants to destroy those who rightfully, and successfully, have held him to account, or stood up to him.
Former FBI director Jim Comey; Sen. Adam Schiff; NY State Atty. General Leticia James; Fed. Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook (who will remain on the job against Trump's wishes at least until January, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court); the news media; late night comedians Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel; Democratic Congressional leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries (who, despite Trump's racist video this week, does NOT wear a sombrero with a Mexican mustache); Democratic presidential opponents Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris; and without question, the man who certifiably beat Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden. These are some the “opponents” that he absolutely “hates,” and seeks revenge against without question.
Based on recent reporting, you should probably add Russian President Vladimir Putin to that list. There’s little question that Putin has had big fun lately making a prime sucker out of his “friend," Donald.
Donald Trump is a crusty, 79-year-old man, who is looking at his last days with vinegar and vengeance. Mix that with an unquenchable thirst for power, and you have what we have now - a tragic old hate-monger whose best days are behind him, who has no plans to leave a place he feels is forever and rightfully his until the day he dies - the presidency.
This is the real trouble that we’re in, and it’s aided and abetted by so-called white conservative “christian” nationalists who also hate their opponents, which is why they applauded the white supremacist declarations and legacy of Charlie Kirk, and demented musings of a very sick old man, Trump.
This mess is pure evil!
And by the way, and it’s a shame that given the current tense political atmosphere of this country this has to be explicitly stated so that there is no misunderstanding otherwise, but just because I am highly critical of Charlie Kirk’s white supremacist opinions about my community, DOES NOT MEAN I, in ANY WAY, celebrate or endorse the horrific, cruel and unwarranted taking of his life. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was also tragically murdered for his strongly held beliefs, I, too, strongly subscribe to nonviolence.
There can NEVER be an excuse or justification for political murder, and as despicable as his opinions on race were, Charlie Kirk had a First Amendment right to express them without harm.
Just as I, and others, have our First Amendment right to express our opinions, unharmed, about his. We should all be very straight about this!
Oh, and someone please explain to me…Charlie Kirk thought Dr. King, a GODly man of peace who helped to free people from hate, was “awful" and “not a good person,” but Kirk had no problem helping a convicted felon and deranged despot like Donald Trump get re-elected president, so he can send ICE agents out to mercilessly hunt helpless non-white immigrants seeking sanctuary, and shutdown the government to hurt the opponents he "hates"? Do I have all of that right?
Here’s my final sentence in a commentary I’m sure has left a bad taste in your mouth by now (or at least should have):
Given all of the hate that's being flung around our country lately, you ain’t seen nothing yet!
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