The persistent temptation of anti-Trump outrage

A woman with a bullhorn.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

Many Americans have had it with Donald Trump supporters. After the opening testimony from law enforcement officers who successfully fought off pro-Trump rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, they are tired of claims that last year's presidential election was stolen. As face masks become the norm again, even for the fully vaccinated across the country, they are sick — both literally and figuratively — of vaccine holdouts, many of whom live in communities that voted for Trump.

The current news cycle has heightened the political polarization that characterized the last two presidential elections. For some, the frustration has reached a boiling point. A Justice Department reporter for The New York Times vented in a since-deleted tweet that combating "legitimate national security threats now entails calling a politician's supporters" — she meant Trump's — "enemies of the state." An emotional reaction to the Jan. 6 committee's first hearing, perhaps, but one must ask: What if Trump had said it?

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W. James Antle III

W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.