Welcome aboard the reality train, David French.

Yesterday French wrote a column in the New York Times that is a must-read (gift link). He wrote some things that are very important coming from someone on the right side of our political spectrum. And that is admitting to the very real fact that MAGA Republicans are violent, dangerous thugs.

Full disclosure, I have never really been a fan of French, but he has his moments. His declaration that reversing Obergefell would be wrong and harm so many same-sex marriages, even with his “but I still think the gays are immoral” mitigator, was one example.

French might feel this way because he is, in fact, a target of MAGA threats of violence. These threats are due to what I referred to in the previous paragraph. The marching orders of the new Republican Party, so sayeth their god-child Donald Trump, is that anyone who is not sufficiently cruel and fascist must not just be shunned, but also eliminated.

That this was in The Paper of Record is in and of itself an achievement. The Times has  been laser-focused on The Important Issues of Our Moment in History, which is apparently that Biden is old and the economy is failing. Any suggestion that they are in fact failing the moment and are not talking enough about the stakes gets a lot of hurty-hurtz from their reporters and pundits on the social medias.

So, for one of their conservative opinion slingers to come right out and say the right is violent and dangerous is a welcome change. Even if he had to drop in a both-sides-are-just-as-bad paragraph about how the left is violent using the George Floyd protests (again, which were mostly peaceful), the Congressional baseball shooting, and the disturbed guy who threatened Brett Kavanaugh. In the latter two, you can honestly say they were disturbed individuals who were the exception.

But no matter, overall, French’s column is welcome. The bizarre avoidance by so many in the media to not say what is happening right now with the Republican Party is not just disingenuous, it is downright dangerous. So more of it, New York Times, and less of this. If we are going to stop fascism, we need to see it clearly for what it is.

The last word goes to Jimmy Cliff.