WARNING: Long. Possibly painfully boring.
Because I feel that this is about the most important thing that will happen in my lifetime (born: 1966), I'm going to write a few things and maybe a person or two might find some value there. I hope so, because this horrible turn of events makes me feel despair, and if I've learned anything, it is that solidarity is the antidote to despair.
* "To be fair, if you would just drop the " right wing" from your post I wouldn't see how anyone here could argue against it or feel attacked." No. Anyone who insists on saying that "all sides" are equally responsible is not only in denial, but immediately makes me wonder why they are trying to insist on something that is easily demonstrated to be untrue.
Reality: there is a violent, neo-nazi / right-wing movement in America. It is not at all mirrored by any left-wing, central-wing, chicken wing or Red Wing movement.
* There's no "free speech issue" when you show up armed to the teeth. That's not speech. It's a threat of violence - and in the case of Saturday, actual violence.
* We're supposed to be a nation of laws; part of what makes laws meaningful is equal application of them. Currently, the law is not equally applied, at all. In fact, through a combination of various double standards, excuses, and tortuous explanations, we see that our systems of law are being abandoned by our power structure.
The problem is that you can't have a democracy with the above. It just doesn't work. And as convoluted and frequently hypocritical as American culture can be, one of the most beautiful aspects of our country has been that we do trend back to democratic values as a society.
Not so much any more. This is not about "hey, I'm conservative, you're a liberal." It's about One True Way thinking, dehumanizing ideological and practical opponents, and violence. That's what fascism is.
I do not want to live in a fascist country. But a fair number of folks do.
This is going to be a problem.
