There is an incredibly absurd column over at The Hill this morning that takes the idea of “Hillary won the popular vote” and turns it into “the people who voted for Trump are fascists.” This type of rhetoric is the very type of rhetoric that has made the voters of flyover country so irate, so tired of coastal cultural supremacy, that they have become (as the writer puts it) a “cauldron overflowing with contempt.”

A flyover state is the huge region between the coasts. As opposed to the eastern seaboard, northern post-industrial states and Pacific Ocean states. They’re overwhelmingly Republican, stanchly conservative, regressive right wing, evangelical Christian and working class, well, the loudest, most ill-informed of them are. The term wasn’t commonly used in a political manner until recently with the emergence of the Tea-Party and the election of Obama.

This is just the second paragraph, and the writer has clearly laid out a archetype – and one that feeds off the media perception of the region, and clearly not one based on real knowledge of the people there. It’s true that while I don’t necessarily agree with the electoral preference of these voters, I don’t think them ignorant. Just angry.

And for good reason. The people whom this writer represents, people in the media who have a contempt for the voters in flyover country, find themselves absolutely outraged when they, flyover country’s betters, dare to return that contempt.

Hillary Clinton garnered more votes than Trump, two million more votes. However, that doesn’t preclude flyover state Trump voters from claiming a landslide and mandate. In 2012 and 2008, Mitt Romney and John McCain received more votes while losing than Trump did in 2016. Yet American values Trump voters still proclaim a “make America great again”, Trump style mandate. They’re delusional in their belief that their views are more important, more valid, more ethical, and more patriotic than any other groups. They claim American Christian Values, home, God and country. White values. Any dissenting viewpoints are taken as literal acts of war.

Ah, so here we get back to the idea that the electoral process is flawed, that these ignorant voters aren’t a majority, and they screwed the better candidate out of the victory through a corrupt process. It’s amazing to me how some of the writer’s points, like the bit about dissenting viewpoints, are correct, while applying that correct statement to an incorrect premise, which we see in the excerpt below.

Anyone that questions the narrow vision of Middle America Christian values, being forced on three hundred twenty five million people of multiple cultures, religions, no religion, and a mosaic of ethnicities; is deemed ungodly and un-American.

It’s clear cultural fascism.

And there it is. There’s the bottom line: you people who voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton are just fascists. You want your will imposed over the rest of the country. Never mind that the clear majority of Americans have grown tired of many of the liberal policies put in place by the current Democratic administration, and never mind that the Democrats have been resoundingly defeated in three of the last last four federal election cycles.

Nope, you’re fascists, and you want to kill the gays and deport all people who are light brown or darker. You are Christians, perhaps your greatest offense of all (seriously, the number of times “Christian” is used as a negative quality in this piece is ridiculous), and you should not be allowed to have any say in how the nation is run.

You evil, evil people.