Republicans are Terrorists!

Brian Karem and Salon reveal their true colors

Hamas and the GOP are both terrorist groups — it's just a matter of degree. That’s the headline at salon.com. In case you missed the point…

Most Americans understand the truth about Donald Trump and his followers: They're deranged, violent and dangerous.

Brian Karem’s incendiary op ed begins by lacing into two Republicans who linked Hamas atrocities to President Biden’s policies. Mr. Karem calls Republican Sen. Tim Scott’s assertion that Biden told Israel to stand down after the attack “an absolute lie.”

Senator Scott was referring to a post by the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs on X in the attack’s immediate aftermath (since deleted): “We urge all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”

Undaunted, Mr. Karem turns his attention to Republican Rep. Steve Scalise.

Rep. Scalise’s X post: “The Biden administration must be held accountable for its appeasement of these Hamas terrorists, including handing over billions of dollars to them and their Iranian backers.”

“That claim is also a lie, on multiple levels,” Mr. Karem asserts, without elucidating. At all. On any level.

After paragraphs of sanctimonious bile, the writer shuts off his word-mincing machine, completely.

Trump and many other politicians in this country are not so different from the craziest leaders in many foreign nations. They preach division. They preach hate. They teach fear. Scalise and Scott are part of the GOP that ruthlessly and relentlessly demonizes political opponents — who are not supposed to be “enemies” — no matter the cost. United We Stand? Not so much with those two and other leading Republicans, but facts matter little to them. Only power.  There is little difference between Scott, Scalise and Hamas. 

There’s “little difference” between democratically elected politicians who swear an oath to the United States Constitution, and the men who rape, torture, shoot, stab and decapitate men, women and children?

Is Mr. Karem so full of bile he can’t make that distinction? Yup.

Further, there is little or no difference between most of the GOP leadership, including Jim Jordan and Donald Trump, and the leaders of Hamas. Both groups will do anything they can to win. Both groups have engaged in atrocities. Both groups continue to lie. Both groups use human beings as hostages. Both groups are extremely dangerous. Both groups threaten the world’s internal and external peace. The fact is, many Americans viscerally understand this: Donald Trump and his followers are terrorists.

It’s often said Conservatives view Liberals as misinformed, while Progressives view Conservatives as evil. If proof be needed, there it is.

I’m reluctant to point it out, but there’s an obvious parallel between Hamas and Mr. Karem: hatred.

Hamas hates Jews with homicidal fury. Mr. Karem’s hatred for President Trump and GOP doesn’t call for their extermination, but it’s only a matter of degree.

When you label someone a terrorist, you’re asserting society’s right, perhaps obligation to eliminate the threat.

By whatever means possible?

I would hope Mr. Karem draws his anti-GOP animus line at violence or any kind, sort or description. But I doubt it. What did Playboy’s former White House correspondent have to say about post-George Floyd looting and burning?

Shame on Salon and their clickbait editors for appealing to readers’ basest, most dangerous instincts. Giving Karem a platform for his hate speech is, at best, a Faustian bargain with one benefit: it reveals Salon’s true colors.