I lost my job after 17 years with one of the largest defense companies in the US. Long story short, Trump’s incompetence has led to literally hundreds of critical federal positions to go unfilled, including those who manage the awarding and maintenance of government contracts. This current lapse has led to massive layoffs across our industry, which included all 60 employees in our Orlando branch.

In case any of my Republican rivals want to gloat about me losing my job—sorry, I already have a new one. You see, I saw the writing on the wall a year ago soon after the election. Unfortunately, most of my fellow former co-workers did not. Most people in my industry are right-wing Republicans, and they were particularly gleeful that a Trump White House and GOP Congress would mean the floodgates would open for contracts within the defense industry. Instead, last week they found themselves out of work. (Even the guy who left a red MAGA hat in my office Nov. 8th.)

As is always the case with Trump supporters: his biggest fans get screwed the most.

But the good news, at least for me, is that I am now gainfully employed. The bad news is that I had to move temporarily to Texas. It was a great opportunity, so I jumped at it, but it meant a long, 26-hour journey through Trump country: the panhandle of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and lower Texas.

It was an eye-opening experience.

I have long wondered why Trump supporters were so incredibly gullible and stupid. Where are they getting all of this bad information drilled into them? I couldn’t believe it was just Russian troll ads on Facebook or white supremacist sites. On my trip, I found out. The answer is on the airwaves.

As I drove through Mississippi and Alabama, several FM stations carried talk radio programs that were some of the most vile pieces of filth I have ever heard. Yes, there were a TON of right-wing programs by established hatemongers: Michael Savage (real name “Weiner”), Laura Ingraham, Bryan Fischer, Sean Hannity. They all read from the same script—Hillary is really running everything somehow and immigrants and gays are bad.

Yet the worst were these little rinky-dink local shows that I found on several FM stations. One billed itself something like the “Common Sense Show”. The host obviously hates nonwhites and gays—but even worse were his fans. One apparently longtime caller he was anxious to get to called himself the “taxman,” and he literally went on a racist rant on air that ended with him cheering the hosts for taking on the “Jewish media.” The host never called him out for any of this. It was appalling.

Then came the ads—all designed to fleece the idiots. Everything from magic pills that will help all your ailments to my personal favorite—Reagan email. (Seriously, you pay these bastards a large annual fee to use “conservative” email that would otherwise be free.)

I turn to another FM channel. For this program, I didn’t catch the name of the show or the hosts. But the caller and host were casually discussing shooting liberals in the head. It’s okay because we are at war apparently and liberals are trying to destroy America. (I had thought the mentally deteriorating madman with nuke codes was the threat?)

What I noticed as a theme throughout listening to all of these shows was how patriotic and religious both the callers and hosts claimed to be. They claimed to love America and the anthem, as well as good Christian values. As a reasonable person listening, however, I got a much different message from them:

It’s only patriotism and Christianity if WE GET TO HATE SOMEBODY.

Nobody ever spoke of volunteering

Nobody once spoke of giving back to the community.

Nobody dared to talk about feeding the poor, or doing any kind of godly work or following any type of traditional patriotic tenet.

No, these were sick and filthy people who had the unmitigated gall to hold themselves up as patriotic, Christian Americans while casually discussing killing and hating their fellow Americans they had ideological differences with. The callers used a litany of racial, religious, and sexually oriented slurs against people who were different, and therefore deserved to be hated. They truly had no concept that Spanish-speaking Americans could be hard-working, or that Muslim-Americans just wanted the right to go about their day and do their work without being harassed.

I can think of nothing less patriotic. I can think of nothing less Christian.

We are running out of “special places in hell,” but I think there’s a reserved room for hucksters who spend their time trying to keep large masses of people ignorant, hateful, and paranoid. That is the true threat that this nation is under, and it’s all just so a small group of con men can keep fleecing their ignorant flock over, and over, and over again.