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Trump supporters in far-left Portland lose friends and jobs
Hot Air ^ | July 26, 2017 | John Sexton

Posted on 07/26/2017 7:33:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Earlier this week, PBS published a piece about three conservative women in the city of Portland. It’s an unusual perspective in a city that is overwhelmingly progressive. As you would expect, many of the locals aren’t kind to those with a different opinion. Helen Church became more active about her political beliefs after her son’s middle-school teacher told him that anyone who supported Trump was a racist:

Up to that point, Church’s activism consisted mostly of writing letters to local and state representatives, and sometimes the White House. But as she watched people on the left continuously denigrate Trump supporters, she also became more active online. She joined dozens of pro-Trump Facebook groups, and as she spoke up, she said, she began getting messages from women who told her they admired her courage…

As Church became more active, she was targeted online by people with opposing views; some even threatened to come to her house and hurt her. The comments unnerved her, but she mostly tried to ignore them. She knew that bullying happened on both the right and left.

That worked until one day last spring, when she posted a comment on a story online about how the Affordable Care Act had hurt people she knew. After she posted it, she recalled, she got a private message from someone calling her a racist and saying it was clear she wanted children to die.

Church, who also was criticized by someone on the right for not being patriotic enough, considered killing herself and might have if her husband had not intervened. Another woman featured in the story is Kathryn Townsend who lives in Washington state. She became a frequent attendee at conservative rallies after witnessing members of Antifa shouting at a Gold Star mother, i.e. someone whose child had died while serving in the armed forces. Eventually, she lost her job after Antifa posted information about her online:

Rose City Antifa listed Townsend as a person to watch in what the group called the area’s “racist rage revival club.” The listing included her photo and a warning that Townsend, who lived in Gig Harbor, Washington, a few hours from Portland, but visited regularly for rallies, was known for traveling “across state lines.”…

A few weeks later, as Rose City Antifa encouraged its followers to contact the employers of the pro-Trump rally-goers, to try to get them fired, Townsend’s employer received an anonymous message. The message asked if the company was aware a violent right-wing extremist worked there. Being listed and targeted at work scared Townsend, who offered to resign her position. Her manager accepted.

The last person featured in the story is Athena Brown a transgender woman who gradually got tired of the political correctness she experienced on the left and became a Trump supporter. But as she became more vocal about her views, she lost friends in droves:

In mid-2016, Brown decided to see if there were any Republicans in Portland with whom she could connect. She went to a Multnomah County Republican street fair, where she met a group of women who were immediately receptive. (The county includes the city of Portland and some surrounding suburbs.) “There was plenty of warmth and acceptance,” she said, more than she’d ever felt on the left. “I’m a trans lesbian atheist, and they are conservative Christian. But not one single time has my gender come up, unless I’ve brought it up.”

When Brown came out as transgender in 2013, only two friends stopped speaking to her. When she came out as Republican, soon after her trip to the street fair, she remembered being blocked by roughly 100 people on Facebook, mostly from the LGBTQ community, she said.

Portland is one of the most progressive cities in the country with one of the most active and most violent Antifa movements. It is also intolerant of people with a different opinion. That’s not a problem limited to the left of course, but it is one the left often pretends is limited to the right. In other words, the left’s self-image as tolerant and diverse doesn’t seem to hold up well in ultra-progressive Portland.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Conspiracy; Politics
KEYWORDS: antifa; democrats; liberals; oregon; trump; washington
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1 posted on 07/26/2017 7:33:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I would rather use a Leftist as target practice, then befriend one.


2 posted on 07/26/2017 7:40:36 PM PDT by heights
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I live right across the river from Portland in Vancouver, WA. I have to go there often for work and other things. I have friends on both sides. Don't talk politics with the left. It is pointless. On another note. I see Obama, Hillary, and Bernie stickers. No way would I put a Trump sticker on my truck. I love my truck and it would be damaged within 48 hours. The left is sooooo tolerant.
3 posted on 07/26/2017 7:46:19 PM PDT by MPJackal ("From my cold dead hands.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

4 posted on 07/26/2017 7:46:49 PM PDT by Baynative ( Someone's going to have to pay for these carbon emissions, so it might as well be you.)
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To: heights

“I would rather use a Leftist as target practice, then befriend one.”

Amen bro’. Fight fire with fire. NEVER back down.


5 posted on 07/26/2017 7:47:44 PM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists Call 'em what you will, they all have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

One of these women considered committing suicide because of these leftists...and she has a husband and son ???


6 posted on 07/26/2017 7:53:16 PM PDT by goodnesswins (Say hello to President Trump)
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To: MPJackal
No way would I put a Trump sticker on my truck. I love my truck and it would be damaged within 48 hours. The left is sooooo tolerant.

Start putting Trump stickers on liberals' cars, especially expensive ones.

7 posted on 07/26/2017 7:53:18 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: MPJackal
No way would I put a Trump sticker on my truck. I love my truck and it would be damaged within 48 hours. The left is sooooo tolerant.

Start putting Trump stickers on liberals' cars, especially expensive ones.

8 posted on 07/26/2017 7:53:52 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Last time I was driving through Portland I got stuck in their awful rush hour traffic trying to get to Washington. So I’m creeping along at about 2 miles per hour and I look at an freeway overpass and some soy fed 100 pound weakling is waving a Resist banner at all the traffic. Spontaneously both I and the guy in front of me roll down our windows and flip the little tranny in training the finger. He sees both us and kind of freezes up. I had worried about him tossing something, but seeing his reaction he was an utter coward who couldn’t even bring himself to do that.


9 posted on 07/26/2017 7:54:27 PM PDT by JohnyBoy
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I get tired of the obligatory mantra that says that violence and extremism exists on both the left and right. This has become almost like the fine print legal disclaimer at the bottom of a medication label. The only problem is, it’s not true. Even in this story of all the harassment she gets from the left, she feels obligated to say that she knows bullying happens on both the left and right. There is absolutely no comparison. The left is the most belligerently intolerant bunch of people I have ever seen. I don’t waste my time giving even 1/10 of a second of lip service to the “both sides” disclaimer. And I refuse to back down for the sake of “getting along” if someone else chooses to stupidly make the claim in conversation.


10 posted on 07/26/2017 8:12:05 PM PDT by Prince Caspian
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To: MPJackal

I always thought Vancouver would be a perfect place to live for tax purposes. Work there, no state income tax, and shop in Portland, no sales tax.


11 posted on 07/26/2017 8:18:56 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The probability that Civil War 2.0 will erupt is growing stronger.


12 posted on 07/26/2017 9:17:08 PM PDT by sourcery (Non Acquiescit: "I do not consent" (Latin))
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To: Baynative

Lol!


13 posted on 07/26/2017 9:22:31 PM PDT by sauropod (I am His and He is Mine)
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To: sphinx
Start putting Trump stickers on liberals' cars, especially expensive ones.

Just put one over every COEXIST sticker in the Whole Foods parking lot. These libs are so crazy, they'd probably deface their own car before they realized it was theirs.

14 posted on 07/26/2017 9:28:01 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (Freep mail me if you want to be on my Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar Ping list.)
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To: Rusty0604

Don’t bother. Oregon taxes Washington residents who work in Oregon.


15 posted on 07/26/2017 9:58:46 PM PDT by Cold Heart
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To: sourcery

“The probability that Civil War 2.0 will erupt is growing stronger.”

The problem with this is that they’ll eat their own if it were to go hot. It would likely start in cities. Rioting will break out and they’ll start to kill one another stealing stuff. Any of the liberal hoards approaching rural or, hell, even most suburbs will be put down at first sight.

I’m not going to sit here and fool myself that hundreds of thousands of good people would die in such a scenario ... But I can’t see liberals being *that* stupid. Once they’re unmasked and don’t have media optics that make these sick freaks look normal, they’re done for ... They have to know that.


16 posted on 07/26/2017 10:29:51 PM PDT by edh (I need a better tagline)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If you are in a deep blue state, you best keep your Trump support to yourself. It could cost you r job, livelyhood....even your life. Libersls control everything.


17 posted on 07/26/2017 10:33:07 PM PDT by Angels27
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Oregon used to be a conservative state until the loonies took over in the late 70's early 80's. Then the change started in Portland. They got rid of the aerosol in hairspray. The styrofoam to keep your burger warm from McDonald's. It was a turd rolling downhill from there.

Ed

18 posted on 07/26/2017 11:03:42 PM PDT by husky ed (FOX NEWS ALERT "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" THIS HAS BEEN A FOX NEWS ALERT)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Re “Portland is one of the most progressive cities..”

No. It is one of the most “Marxist” cities in America and is a leading contender for “The Most Hateful City of 2017”.

Nuke it from orbit just to be sure that the contagion of hate doesn’t spread any further.


19 posted on 07/26/2017 11:06:11 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Re “Portland is one of the most progressive cities..”

No. It is one of the most “Marxist” cities in America and is a leading contender for “The Most Hateful City of 2017”.

Nuke it from orbit just to be sure that the contagion of hate doesn’t spread any further.


20 posted on 07/26/2017 11:06:39 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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