https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/09/republicans-accuse-majority-americans-hating-america/

By Paul Waldman
Opinion writer
Jan. 9, 2020 at 1:01 p.m. EST

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the possibility of yet another war in the Middle East has brought out the worst in so many conservative supporters of President Trump. But even if that prospect seems to have been put off for now, it’s likely that the ugly impulses that have surfaced will emerge again and again as we approach the elections in November.

Democrats should decide now how they want to respond.

First, let’s take a little tour around the Republican authoritarian mindset in the wake of President Trump’s decision to assassinate Iranian general Qasem Soleimani:

Rep. Doug Collins said that Democrats are “in love with terrorists, we see that they mourn Soleimani more than they mourn our Gold Star families.” I have a vague memory of a presidential candidate attacking a Gold Star family in 2016; can’t quite recall who that was.

“The only ones that are mourning the loss of Soleimani are our Democrat leadership,” said former U.N. ambassador and future presidential candidate Nikki Haley. After it was pointed out to her that literally zero Democrats were mourning Soleimani’s death, she argued that “mourning” means wishing he were still alive, and anyone who criticized the decision to kill him wishes he were still alive and is therefore “mourning” him. That of course is not what “mourning” means.

When Rep. Pramila Jayapa said the administration had presented no evidence of an “imminent threat” that necessitated Soleimani’s assassination, Rep. John Rutherford responded by saying, “You and your squad of Ayatollah sympathizers are spreading propaganda that divides our nation and strengthens our enemies.”

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said, “The alarmists and apologists show skepticism about our own intelligence and sympathy for Soleimani.”

Rep. Mark Meadows tweeted that “the vast majority" agrees with the killing, while “Democrats are falling all over themselves equivocating about a terrorist.”

Republicans are quite certain that the American public shares not only their belief that the Soleimani assassination was the right thing to do but that anyone who disagrees must love terrorists.

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