Balance?

Sometimes a MAGA cultist that I have engaged with will inject a bit of whataboutism into the conversation and accuse me of being silent when Biden or Obama did something that he believes is worse than what I am pointing out about Trump. Fair point...or would be if the recent Democratic presidents actually did what they supposedly did, and if my "debate" partner had any idea what I spoke out for or against in regards to other presidents. 

It's certainly true that I didn't spend a lot of time publicly criticizing Presidents Obama and Biden. You won't find many of these blog articles slamming them for things I disagreed with. There's several reasons for that. One is that in most instances where other presidents deserved criticism, it was more like the politics-as-usual, garden-variety bad decisions in contrast to the burn-it-to-the ground "policies" of the current regime. Some of my more left-leaning friends and associates certainly were more vocal than I, and had plenty of words of rebuke and even vitriol for Obama, Biden, Clinton et al. Another reason is that whatever the MAGA acolytes think a Democratic president did, it's usually filtered through a right wing, tinfoil hat "thought" process that has minimal relationship to what's really going on. Spending time "researching" the veracity of conspiracy theories is something I used to spend time doing, but I have discovered that it's statistically unlikely that I will ever find confirmation of their hallucinatory view of national politics. 

A third reason is that, unfortunate as it may be to do so, in today's political climate you have to take sides. Years ago I was more center-right in my politics, and was even a registered Libertarian at one time. Even as my politics drifted leftward, I never became as liberal/progressive as some of my more vocal acquaintances, but starting during the Obama years I saw that of the two major political parties, the Republicans had become irredeemable and my vote and my voice was aimed at preventing them from accumulating more power. The way things are currently organized, the Democratic Party is the only real alternative. I decided to focus my political writing pointing out the danger that the Republicans were, and left criticisms of the Democrats to others. The ascendancy of Donald Trump solidified my decision to concentrate on articulating the menace to democracy Trump and the Republicans are. 

Trump is a unique threat to our nation, and anyone who questions my right to point it out can kiss my...