During the first time around for Trump, I was graciously included in a lunch invitation by a very wealthy lawyer who I knew just a little but knew him to be a decent guy. Unfortunately, despite being ostensibly sophisticated and educated, he couldn’t help but comment about how Trump is a terrible person. In this case I think he was just so culturally insulated and filled with hate for Trump he simply couldn’t control himself- the arrogance of feeling righteous and assuming everyone felt the same. I, being a lukewarm Trump supporter, kept my mouth shut- there would have been absolutely to positive benefit in contesting him- but he was a little diminished in my eyes.

More recently, I have an anti-Trump elderly cousin who is a “Facebook Friend.” (I’m pleased to say that in the 15+ years I’ve had a Facebook account I’ve never posted a single item). I don’t really understand the inane protocols of Facebook, but some how I was notified soon before the 2024 election this cousin posted (re-posted?) a statement from someone I didn’t know. I wish I saved it at the time, but it was pretty harsh, something like, “If you are going to vote for Trump I hate you. If you support this fascist Nazi then you are a fascist Nazi. I don’t care if you are a friend or relative, if you support Trump I want nothing to do with you whatsoever, now or in the future;" a pretty strong declaration. I have no idea if this person was a known figure or just some unhinged guy on the internet, but there are no shortages of people who have large public platforms and expressed similar themes of hatred.

Just after the election a person named Leonard Serrato, the Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at Univ. of Oregon, posted a video on Instagram (not quite sure what that is) that included the following statements: “I'm done crying. My sadness is over. My anger has set in; I'm saying this in the most disrespectful way possible- I don't care if you are my family, I don't care if you are my friend, I don't care if we've been friends our entire lives - You can literally go f**k yourself if you voted for Donald Trump; If you are so sad about your groceries being expensive, get a f*****g better paying job. Do better in life. Get a f****g education. Do something, cause you’re f*****g stupid and I hope you go jump off a f*****g bridge.”

While the Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at Univ. of Oregon is clearly a public position with a fair amount of local prestige, much higher up the ladder is the editor-in-chief of what used to be a revered magazine/institution, Scientific American. The person currently occupying this seat Laura Helmuth (who ironically has a PhD in cognitive neuroscience), shared these post-election gems: “I apologize to younger voters that my Gen X is so full of f*****g fascists; Solidarity to everybody whose meanest, dumbest, most bigoted high-school classmates are celebrating early results because f**k them to the moon and back.” We really need to understand the significance of this- Dr. Helmuth is not some aggrieved privileged college student with multiple body piercings who can’t come up with reasoned thoughts, let alone any without profanity, rather she is the elite of the elite in the scientific and academic establishments.

In Washington state on the day before the election, an 82-year-old white lady wearing a Harris/Walz campaign button approached two women, ages 55 and 66, with pro-Trump signs and proceeded to assault them, with some degree of violence; the two women where not white. The suspect, name not released, was arrested, with the following statement (reported by the Post Millennial and other sources): “When officers spoke to the suspect, she said she couldn’t understand why people of color would support Donald Trump.” Edmonds police said the “suspect continued to show no remorse for the incident and attempted to push an officer while demonstrating how she acted.” The white lady apparently said (to the two non-white women), “I can’t believe you’re voting for a racist ... how dare you, you should be ashamed of yourself’ and “Do you know what will happen to people like you if Trump is elected?" The 55-year-old not white lady, Gina Powell, said, ”...she made it very clear it was my skin color.” The police added, “The suspect commented on the victim's attire (pro-Trump) and skin color before the suspect pushed the victim and punched her in the chin."

The visceral, and often vicious, hatred of Trump expressed by Democrats both great and small has been impressive, to say the least. Curiously, Democrats, more than people on the Republican side, tend to view themselves as being all about love and compassion yet often project hatefulness on to those who disagree with them. This really isn’t profound psychology: to some extent we all view ourselves in a manner not always consistent with reality, and part of this is projecting our own faults on others, and trying to incorporate the virtues of others into our own ego-identities. I do think the Democrat strategy of heaping upon Trump and his supporters relentless accusations of Nazism, fascism, racism, just like Hitler, and so on, became truly unhinged: ultimately trying to feel better about yourself at the expense of others is of limited value.

While expressing hatred for Trump became as natural for Democrats as breathing, there didn’t seem to be much of the same from Trump supporters. That’s not to say they gushed over the opposition because of course there were plenty of insults hurled at them, but not much that could be interpreted as raw vituperative hate, the endless chanting of “Nazi, fascist, just like Hitler!” Yes, Trump stated Harris was “mentally impaired” and perhaps said she’s “retarded” (one of those anonymous “according to sources” reports; described as a “shocking slur” per the UK Independent). And there was no lack of Republicans labeling Harris/Walz as socialists and Marxists, with insult clearly intended (along with Trump referring to Harris as “Comrade Kamala!”). It’s hard to think this line of attack was especially hateful, as Walz himself stated in August 2024, “One person's socialism is another person's neighborliness.”

As the 2024 election was evolving, a few anti-Trump close friends/relatives stated they hated Trump, as if they simply could not help saying it. My response was, “I can appreciate that,” noting that lots of Trump supporters I know think he’s an obnoxious blowhard. Never did I say, “Oh yeah, well I hate Democrats-Biden-Harris-Walz,” for the simple reason I don’t, and I’ve never heard any of my Trump supporting acquaintances, nor anyone with a platform talk about hating Biden-Harris-Walz. I can’t even bring myself to hate the person I think is the most odious politician of our times, Hillary Clinton. It might be noted that in Trump’s first time around he never used the power of the Presidency to prosecute, let alone persecute, Clinton.

It’s not necessarily difficult to not hate those who disagree with you. I am, for example, a long-term vegetarian for philosophical reasons and really don’t like the idea of eating meat. Unfortunately, I’m in a very small minority, which means I would have to hate an awful lot of carnivorous people, but I’m not sure what that would accomplish. Should I go up to strangers in restaurants and scream, “Animal Murderer!”? Should I hassle and threaten them in their homes, places of work, on the street, on the internet? Maybe, in some way, I would feel good about myself for vegetarian activism, but I think I would be a very bitter and lonely person that changed no one’s opinion. Perhaps reasoning would be a better means of persuasion. I’ve been a vegetarian for over 17 years, but was a carnivore for 49 years before that. As Jesus said (John 8:7): He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

In regards to politics, the most pernicious of hate is when you detest not just the candidate but anyone who supports him or her. In relation to Trump this was disturbingly on display by media personalities, celebrities, academics, Democrat politicians (and some Republicans), and some really rich people: Trump is a Nazi-fascist-and just like Hitler, and guess what? So are YOU! As the current President said shortly before the election, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his (Trump’s) supporter's…” In fairness, I think most people, at least regular people, who vocalized hatred for Trump, didn’t extrapolate their hatred to the 10’s of millions who voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024. Trump actually got it right in 2017 when he stated, “But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.” Words of conciliation and unity we would do well to remember: in this recent election almost certainly the majority of Harris/Walz supporters didn’t act like lunatics, but those who did had massive platforms and made an ugly mess of it.

Curiously, hate offers many benefits: you are, by definition, better than the person(s) you hate; you are righteous; you can find community with people who share in your hate; you can be absolved of guilt and responsibility by blaming all your failures on the person(s) of your detestation. Best of all, hate doesn’t require any effort or investment- it’s free and easy, and doesn’t even have to be justified, just felt. It's like Hate is the ultimate Safe Space for those inclined to it. Making another Biblical reference, Jesus said something that was, and remains revolutionary (Matthew 5:43-44): “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies.” I don’t know if that ideal has ever been achieved, but maybe could inch toward that goal by trying not to hate our enemies, or at least not so passionately and vociferously.