Trumpsters, Here Is What You Own

If you are one of the millions of Americans who claim that Donald Trump is the right man for the presidency and will likely vote for him again in 2020, you have my blessing. However, there are the things that you have to agree with and own as your own views to be a Trump supporter. You may push back against what I’m about to say but it will just be a denial of fact, a very Trumpian marker.

First, you have to be O.K. with the denigration of a warrior who put himself in harm’s way, fell into the hands of a cruel enemy, suffered horribly at their hands for several years in spite of being offered leniency and returned to America to become a conservative and principled law maker. In fact, you have to agree that the torture of helpless prisoners is morally justified, ticking time bomb or not. You have to be O.K. with Trump’s tasteless, repugnant, un-patriotic denigration of John McCain. He did it and, as a Trump supporter, you now personally own it. You can’t weasel out.

Second, you have to feel that it’s acceptable to insult the parents of a dead Army Captain who gave his life for the American cause, murky as it was (is), in the Middle East. You have be O.K. with the insult based solely on political concerns, not the grief of parents who will never see their son again, ever. You have to own such behavior as irrelevant. Trump did it, you support him so you own it. No ducking the truth.

The Clown served his country in uniform (US Army, 1969-72) and has seen friends and family make the ultimate sacrifice at the behest of their country and considers the honor of these men besmirched by Trump. But you, you have to own up to your support for Trump’s insults to the fallen.

Third, you have to consider the unwanted fondling of women as simply acceptable “locker room” behavior. For you, apparently, grabbing a woman’s crotch unbidden is O.K. as long as it isn’t a woman who you know and love, such as a sister, a daughter, your wife, your mother or you. Suffice to say, women groped by Trump were someone’s daughter, maybe a sister, wife or mother. They just weren’t yours so you have to agree that such behavior is within your acceptable limits. You have to store the vision of “pussy grabbin'” away in your mental box of keepsakes but they are always there. Trump bragged about it and you own them.

Fourth, you have to own the notion that bullying is leadership. In truth, it isn’t. Never was. George Washington was a leader, not a bully. Eisenhower was a leader, not a bully. FDR was a leader, not a bully. History offers a long list of true leaders who convinced people to follow them without resorting to the threat of force. But history and current times are also replete with bullies who, through the use or threat of force, consider or considered themselves leaders. History has not and will not be kind to them. Examples: Henry VIII, Mussolini, Rodrigo Duterte, Castro, Mao, Putin, Andrew Jackson and Trump. Even if the bully is bullying those you despise, it is still bullying, not leadership. So, you have to be O.K. with bullying, so long as it is not directed at you I would guess. Your support of Trump includes the ratification of bullying in place of leadership.

Fifth, you have to accept and own the notion that the entire federal bureaucracy is corrupt and out to destroy democracy. No public servant can be excluded from this suspicion, especially if they speak critically of Trump. Criticism of a bully always results in retribution, as we have seen recently in the threat to rescind security clearances of his critics. I have known many federal employees over the years, White House staffers, FBI agents, Secret Service agents, IRS lawyers and military commanders to name but a few. In no case did I perceive that these people wanted anything but the best for the country. In your case, Trump supporter, you have to hold dear the world view that public servants can be, and probably are, public threats.

Sixth, you have to be O.K. with the removal of children from their parents and the distribution of those children to the strangers of foster care, with no plan for re-uniting these families; toddlers, teens, it doesn’t matter, so long as it is not your toddler or teen. You have to approve the concept that this is the only way to discourage additional desperate families from fleeing from danger in the failed states to the south or to thwart the vanishing small number who are “borrowing” children from smugglers to game the system. Trump did it and his supporters own the policy.

Trump supporters who will complain and explain why my assessment doesn’t apply to them because they don’t agree with (or own) some or all of these Trump notions, behaviors or policies are in denial. To continue to support Trump clearly indicates that these observations apply to you, in spite of your protests.

Trump supporters have to own these facts (and many additional ugly examples) and yet find a way to justify themselves. They can’t hide behind a thin veneer of “the means justify the end.” The means always matter.

Lest the reader think that the Clown doesn’t have issues with those leaders whom he would have or has supported, let me outline my ownership of various and known flaws of some of these leaders. Eisenhower was a philanderer, as was Kennedy, FDR and Bill “Elvis” Clinton. Grant drank to excess. Washington and Jefferson owned slaves and the latter kept a slave as a concubine. Lincoln was racist in spite of his actions to the contrary. I can know these things yet support their good-faith effort to lead the country effectively. All leaders’ private lives are flawed but until those flaws emerge as dangerous or destructive to the country, their flaws are private.

If Trump’s only moral or character flaws were adultery and racism (neither of which, the reader will note, I mentioned regarding him) then I could perhaps support him, albeit reluctantly. But his flaws are of an entirely different order of magnitude than anything experienced in this country to date. Trump supporters, some of whom will write the Clown with ad hominem attacks while also vehemently denying that any of this support/ownership issue is true of themselves are lying into the mirror.

Observoid of the Day: If you believe that all news is fake, your world view is built on propaganda.