Richard Nixon’s most potent weapon in his waning days as president was his ability to wrap himself in the flag and portray his opponents as bad Americans. I predicted years ago that Trump would ultimately do the same thing. He is just starting to prove me, and Dr. Johnson, right.
If you think this is bad, wait until the war starts.
The right, of course, had a completely different attitude about strident opposition to the government when Barack Obama was president. If you were to ask a reactionary why he views criticism of Trump, but not Obama, as unpatriotic, he would wind up having to admit that he thinks Trump is a real American, and Obama was not. In the final analysis, that is the difference between deep red and deep blue people; the latter view the former is second-class Americans, but the former view the latter is not being Americans at all.