You’d think Donald Trump was the first politician (or activist) to say something controversial in the public sphere.

People react to Donald Trump like they’ve never heard such horrible things coming from a public figure before. (And I don’t just mean leftists… many Republicans also rush to show their outrage.)

But if you’re a conservative, you’ve been listening to liberals and left-leaning politicians, pundits, and celebrities make outrageous, racist, sexist, ridiculous, and inflammatory statements for years.

Look at how much outrage there was when people heard President Trump on video talking about how you can grab women “…by the pussy.” Yet, President Clinton actually did before and throughout his presidency. And the people most outraged by Trump turned a blind eye to Clinton – presumably because he was on their side.

It’s not difficult to search online (using www.duckduckgo.com, at least… Google seems to suppressing such results) and find a laundry list of statements and activities from the left over the past 30 years. Democrat lawmakers have wished horrible things on Republicans. Ted Cruz and his wife were shouted out of a restaurant. Sarah Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant. Heck, a Democrat shot Louisiana Congressman, Steve Scalise, when he fired 60 rounds of ammunition at Republicans who were practicing for an annual Democrat/Republican softball game.

Antifa and the Occupy movements have been vandalizing and terrorizing cities for years. In more liberal cities like Seattle, San Francisco, or Madison, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a liberal protesting about something or other.

And if you’ve ever attended a liberal protest, it is not at all uncommon to watch aggressive protesters get in the face of people who may disagree, while yelling some very nasty and vile things.

But after years of watching this, I don’t recall hearing daily outrage and disbelief of how a person could say such aggressive or mean things.

Obviously, no one’s been paying much attention.

George W. Bush suffered some of the most abusive and hateful language for eight straight years. And conservatives spent those eight years frustrated as hell because he would never fight back. He would never defend himself, his political philosophy, or his voters. He was all about being polite and maintaining the decorum of the Office of the Presidency.

And now, after years of watching Republicans bending over backwards to show everyone how reasonable and understanding they are, suddenly there’s a Republican who’s not having it.

When one attacks Trump, he responds.

I think it’s safe to say that most of the conservatives out there excited about Trump probably wouldn’t advocating responding quite the personal way he does. But I think the excitement of seeing a Republican defend himself and all Republicans is outweighing the unnecessary meanness of how he does it.

But after decades of watching Democrats and Democrat activists say and do outrageous, in-your-face things, are we really that surprised when a Republican finally comes along using the same tactics?