The right-wing Republicans needed a vaguely nebulous enemy that they can blame for everything wrong in America, so they chose a loosely-associated collection of individuals with no organizational structure and a general hatred of bigotry and nationalism to be their main bogey-man and whipping-boy.
They needed an enemy that is (1) so laughably inept that they can be ridiculed in every possible way, while simultaneously being (2) so adept at what they do that they are a threat to traditional right-wing Republican values, which include racism, sexism, corporate ownership of government, military deficit spending, and the right to bear artillery against unarmed targets.
So instead of calling anyone who opposes right-wing politics "anti-Fascists" -- and thus admit to the world that right-wing Republicanism is indeed a Fascist movement -- they come up with the word "ANTIFA" as if it was an acronym for some obscure global criminal organization like "HIVE", "KAOS", "SPECTRE", or "SMERSH".
This is only one reason why I vote for "Anyone Except Republicans" in every election.
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No love for Hamas, Hezbollah, Iranian Leadership, Islamic Jihad, other Islamic terrorist groups, OR their supporters and sympathizers.