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It was inevitable.

This Memorial Day is the day when Dustin Evans, a conservative country “singer and songwriter”, who opened for Country Music Association Awards nominee Lee Brice and claims to be a “perennial favorite among touring bands in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains regions”, repeatedly insulted a veteran because of his political beliefs; aka, the very freedoms veterans fought for.

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Apparently veterans are only allowed to be Republicans. All others will be mocked, dead or alive.

I wanted to honor my World War II veteran grandfather on Memorial Day. He was very political – he couldn’t breathe without talking politics. So I tweeted the words he always said to us, “My Grandpa, a proud vet, used to start every family meal — yes, every — by saying ‘Republicans use religion to steal from working class.'”

It’s sort of hard to find a new low on Twitter, but then this happened (he since deleted this tweet):

@srjones66 Don't feel bad. You're not responsible for your grandpa's stupidity. — Dustin Evans (@DustinEvans1) May 26, 2014

So, every single veteran who disagrees with Republicans (and there are a lot of them) is stupid, according to Dustin Evans. This is his cheerful Memorial Day message of co-opting all veterans for his side, or “patriotism”.

That’s a “no” to honoring ALL who served.

He claims to be sponsored by US Smokeless Tobacco and Roper Western Wear. It’s a rare person with a public profile who will insult your beloved dead relative and then do it again after being called out. A veteran. On Memorial Day.

Dustin is that person.

When I responded to this total stranger that he was picking on the dead, he co-opted another veteran for cover and reiterated his insult against my Grandpa. So, doubling down, the country singer tweeted (and since deleted):

@srjones66 @JoeNBC I'm sitting in a room with a veteran, and he thinks your grandpa is stupid too. — Dustin Evans (@DustinEvans1) May 26, 2014

Dustin Evans’s stream is full of tweets mocking the President. His chief complaint seems to be that Obama can’t throw a baseball, which is just like being angry about the invasion of Iraq based on a lie, only not. Remember the Dixie Chicks?

After his double down failed, Dustin then decided to take refuge in making things up:

@srjones66 After calling my dead veteran grandpa a thief of the middle class for believing in God. Hypocrisy abounds. — Dustin Evans (@DustinEvans1) May 26, 2014

Mr. Evans has since deleted all of his previous tweets to me, though he issued no apology. Instead, he made sure I knew he wasn’t sorry, “Create whatever narrative you want, lady. I’m thankful for all our vets, and not everyone on the ‘religious right’ is a thief.”

Thankful for all of our vets who aren’t “stupid” or expressing political beliefs he disagrees with, that is.

Since Dustin believes that if I repeat his tweets, it’s “creating a narrative”, I’ll let them speak for themselves:

The double down, wherein we realized that he had not accidentally gone Westboro Baptist adjacent, but deliberately:

Dustin is still busy re-writing history. When someone told him he should right his wrong by apologizing, he wrote back that he wouldn’t apologize, and then pretended that he had not personally insulted my grandfather, twice.

He seems to have misguided faith in the delete tweet button, believing all traces of reality to have been erased:

@Mellynjess @srjones66 Labeling all religious republicans thieves is stupid because it's not true. I won't be sorry for stating a fact. — Dustin Evans (@DustinEvans1) May 26, 2014

Why did he delete his earlier tweets if he didn’t say anything that deserved an apology?

Dustin finds some veterans’ political beliefs to be a personal insult to which he can only respond with a personal attack. When he thinks no one is looking, only the Republican vets get honored (take it from Anthony Weiner; Twitter is not private). Others are mocked. This is low, even for a Republican.

Evans actually illustrated my Grandpa’s point. Using religion to steal from the masses and control them is hardly a new strategy, and it’s not a random accusation. It’s an established method of the elite, used throughout the ages. Dustin obviously doesn’t realize that this is not a statement about the people who fall for it, but rather the elite who knowingly manipulate their party members with religion in order to get them to vote for things that are no good for them.

Dustin has bought into the Fox poutrage narrative in which he and God have been insulted because not only do veterans belong to the GOP but God, too. However, it’s hard to imagine Jesus on Twitter cheering Dustin for sending random people macabre messages about their beloved, deceased veteran relatives and then deleting all of the evidence and so that he can deceptively play the victim.

The arrogance of conservatives assuming they own patriotism and God is astounding. See, I just don’t buy God as someone who has contempt for half of the country. I don’t buy that God is a fan of cowardly cruelty.

Republicans are the party that arrogantly insults dead veterans and raises cash off of the dead in Benghazi, a year after at least one of their mothers had already asked them to stop. If the shoe were on the other foot, we’d never hear the end of it. This is the party that uses “Hanoi Jane” some 40ish years later to pat themselves on the back for their “patriotism.”

If Dustin’s behavior is any example, we can be fairly certain that they’re not using religion to spread Jesus’ message.

Looks like Grandpa had a point.

Update: Mr. Evans sent me the following tweet:

.@srjones66 Thanks for the free press, but smart people will see through your bullshit, you troublemaking twat. http://t.co/AeALQKQReE — Dustin Evans (@DustinEvans1) May 27, 2014

Update: And Mr. Evans deleted that last tweet. So here’s the screengrab: