MILLERSBURG, Ohio — As a career Army Special Forces officer, I have a thick skin and a sarcastic, borderline morbid sense of humor. It takes a lot to get under my skin. However, a political bumper sticker I saw recently in Canton appalled me to my core and inspired me to voice my opposition to Donald Trump and all Republican politicians who support him. Therefore, I ask political fence-sitters and Republicans not bewitched with Trump to vote for Kamala Harris and against any politician who voices his/her support for Trump.
The bumper sticker read, “Save America. Neuter a Democrat.” The owner is probably pleased he got an emotional rise out of me, but good people should be appalled by a sticker that celebrates something the Nazis did to their opponents. (Yes, the Nazis tested ways to neuter humans whom they deemed unfit for the master race. Eventually, they settled on work and extermination camps.) Furthermore, good people should be appalled the sticker promotes the Republican Party by denigrating the Democratic Party. At best, this person is ignorant and does not know the Nazis neutered humans. At worst, he embraces the Nazis’ belief that political opponents are sub-human and should be neutered or exterminated.
It’s easy to justify this sticker as a one-off, as a lone-wolf wacko with an anti-Democrat sticker. However, the top Republican, Donald Trump, has shown he condones political violence. Here are two examples: He’s stated he’ll pardon the people convicted of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; he was embarrassingly slow to condemn the white nationalists involved in the deadly protest in Charlottsville, Virginia, in 2017. Depressingly, very few Republican politicians have had the courage to stand up to Trump, so Trump’s hate-filled brand of populism has taken over the Republican Party.
Is the Republican Party ignorant regarding the hate and intolerance it has made acceptable? Or does the Republican Party condone political violence? Not opposing Trump either justifies the Republican Party’s ignorance, or it justifies the Republican Party’s embrace of political violence. Either way, it doesn’t matter, because either way is unacceptable. Therefore, if you’re appalled by a bumper sticker that reads “Save America. Neuter a Democrat,” and appalled a Republican Party supporter has invoked Nazi crimes for political gain, then support Harris and oppose Trump and any Republican politician beholden to him.
Vince Kaster is a retired Army Special Forces officer who served from 2000 to 2021. During five combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and while working in various places around the world, he saw the effects of oppression and chaos. He hopes what he’s written here will open people’s minds and help them think rationally about the upcoming election.
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