I Will Not Hug Trump Voters

We the people have a president who told us, without embarrassment or shame, that the sun was shining as the rain was falling on our face. I’m assuming he knew he was lying. To assume otherwise is to acknowledge that we handed immense power to an individual who has virtually no handle on our shared reality.

In case we're beginning to forget who he is:

• Admitted abusing women (easy because he is famous);
• Publicly mocked a disabled person;
• Wondered why we can't use nukes in Europe because "it's a really big place";
• Advocated violence during his rallies;
• Refuses to show his tax returns;
• Admires Putin;
• Refused to say if he would accept the election results if he lost;
• Defended Russia against the US;
• Started the birther movement and then blamed it on Hillary Clinton;
• Proclaimed there was election fraud with absolutely no evidence;
• Wants to change the 1st Amendment and libel laws so he can sue newspapers;
• During his campaign said he was going to clear the swamp only to say after he won that it was a silly slogan and he was surprised people liked it;
• Called the media the enemy of the people;
• Attacked the legitimacy of the judiciary;
• Appointed the most inexperienced and wealthiest cabinet in US history;
• Is so intelligent he doesn't need intelligence briefings;
• Went bankrupt several times;
• Thinks Breitbart and the National Enquirer are good sources of news;
• Said he will be working so hard as our president that he will hardly leave the White House;
• Goes regularly to his Mar-a-Lago estate to play golf (at $3million a pop);
• Criticized Obama for playing golf;
• Conducted an emergency international situation meeting at a public dinner with other diners filming the event on their cell phones (Mar-a-Lago again);
• Tweets with an unsecured cell phone;
• Refused to divest in his businesses (for obvious reasons);
• Wants to ban Muslims from entering the US not for religious reasons but because they are Muslim;
• Wants to see the breakup of Europe and has little time for NATO (good news for Putin);
• Believes climate change is a Chinese fake news plot to harm the US economy;
• Believes all news is fake if he disagrees with it;
• Banned news organizations from a White House briefing;
• Brought a white supremacist fascist and neo-Nazis into the White House as a key advisor and operative;
• Is supported by the KKK, Nazi and alt-right individuals and groups;
• Accused Obama of high crimes with no evidence (he heard it from a rightwing news story and thought it worth tweeting);
• Is praised by rightwing leaders around the world – Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Udo Voigt, Gabor Vona, Rodrigo Duterte and of course Vladimir Putin;
• Said he knew more about defeating ISIS than all the generals;
• Said he had a secret plan to defeat ISIS in thirty days (we’re still waiting).

The above, which could go on and on, speaks to Trump’s character and competency. I don't really give a damn about his hair, his red tie, and his small hands, though some might argue all this is about his small hands.

Who to blame for this disaster? I’ve done a lot of wrong things in my life, but I didn’t vote for this bloated brute of a man. No, this is on those who voted for him. So, with whom does the blame and responsibility lie?

Source: Photo from American Renaissance*To start there are the KKK members, Nazis, alt-righters, racist, sexist, xenophobes, misogynist, gay bigots, etc. These people are easy to blame. They represent hatred and they voted for a hate filled candidate. While this hatred has an American brand and intensity, it is not unique to the United States. All countries have hateful and dangerous people and always will. Some people say it is healthy for these horrible people to come out in the open. I disagree. We will always have them. While we need to know where they are and what they’re up to, we control them through cultural norms and legislation. We do not give them a platform and thus credibility. Unfortunately, now here in American, and to a lesser degree in Brexit Britain, they are out from under their rocks and feeling strong. They’re even represented in the president’s administration, holding key positions in the White House. They voted themselves out from under their rocks, but they couldn’t have done it on their own. They got help.

They got help from Christian fundamentalists who voted overwhelmingly for Trump. 81% of white fundamentalists/evangelists voted for Trump, and in so doing proved that they were never about righteousness and family values, but always about power and politics. I don’t blame them for seeking power to realize there political and social desires. I blame them for their utter hypocrisy and the embarrassingly absurd justifications for voting for this man. We were told that his many affairs and divorces were God’s way of highlighting the importance of family. We were told that Melania’s many nude photos on the Internet were God’s way of showing us how beautiful is the human body. How they sleep at night is anyone’s guess, though sleep they probably do. However, the mask has been ripped off.

They got help from stupid Republicans. No, I am not saying all Republicans are stupid. And there are a lot of stupid Democrats, independents, greens, socialist, libertarians, and communists too. But stupid Republicans helped to send this dangerous mess down on our heads. I keep hearing how the Heartland was let down and I need to go to the red states to hear their story and have a big group hug (it’s my bet that a lot of Trump voters would not actually welcome a hug from me and some Second Amenders might rather shoot me first). Well, a lot of people have been let down through the years, but how could any rational person think a bragging blowhard billionaire who literally promised us everything was going to give a damn about poor, working, and middle class Americans? The man brags about living in a gold tower. I hope that his cabinet appointments (four Goldman Sach alumni in Trump's administration) and his first budget will enlighten the Heartland. Do I feel sorry they may lose their healthcare, or jobs, or libraries, or meals? Yes, of course I do. Am I going to carry the can for them? No I’m not. Time for everyone to step up and take responsibility because our democracy is in danger.

They got help from Tea Party extremists. The GOP is now an extremist party with little or no respect for democracy and the constitution (have a look at the House Freedom Caucus). Can’t convince Americans to voter for you, then stop Americans from voting, and then brag about your success. Can’t defeat the president through votes in Congress, then shut the entire government down. Don’t like the man the American people elected as president, then refuse to work. The present state of the Republican Party makes American democracy difficult if not impossible. They are excusing and tolerating this uniquely unqualified person and judgment must not be spared. Surely they know Trump is not qualified to be president. If they do not, then they are incompetent. If they do, then they are culpable.

And they got help from good old fashion old time Republicans. Yes there are a few of them left. I know a few myself. How did they vote for this man? Foremost was their hatred of lying Hillary. They were convinced that Clinton lied about everything. The fact that fact-checking organizations during the campaign season consistently reported that Clinton was the most honest of all the candidates, with Sanders right behind her, meant nothing. So, they voted for a man that fact-checkers concluded lied on average every five minutes. The irony is staggering. Did they not see it? Did they not see that “straight talking” was actually bullshit? Or was their hatred of Clinton so overpowering that they would have voted for a terrorizing Donald Duck. None of this speak well for a democracy in the TV and Internet age. We now have an administration that has a distain for facts, from lying at their own confirmation hearing to claiming almost everything is fake news. We should be worried.

 These old time Republicans also seemed convinced that running a hotel is the same thing as running a country that occupies a continent, has a citizenry of almost 320 million people, the largest economy in the world, the largest military in the world, a whole lot of national and international responsibilities. And apparently then bought Trump's line that he and only he, that straight talking wizard, could fix everything. Well, the deal maker couldn’t make a deal when it came to repealing and replacing Obamacare. After seven years and almost 60 votes, and with a large majority in the House, Republicans couldn’t kill the ACA. Trump said his first order of business as president was getting rid of Obamacare. The deal maker failed. Hundreds of congressmen and women who have their own powerbase weren’t intimidated by a shouting threatening supposed deal maker. The Unites States of America ain’t no hotel.

For those of you who voted for Trump and are happy about how things are going and want me to stop complaining for the sake of unity, I remind you of what you and the GOP did for the past eight years. You protested and refused to cooperate with the legally elected president. It was your right, though it might be argued that the Republican Party fell short of its obligations. I claim my democratic right and for you of all people to deny me that right is absurd.

For those of you who voted for Trump and are feeling uneasy, or even bad, about what you did and want me to give you a big hug, I ask you to look at the above bullet points again. You knew who he was and you voted for him. And I might also add, your president is under investigation by the FBI for possibly working with the Russian government and Putin to defeat Hillary Clinton. Your attorney general perjured himself during his own job interview. You ex-national security advisor failed to mention that he had been in conversations with the Russians and that he was working for a foreign government. Your US Councilor to the President speaks about alternative facts and that microwave ovens can turn into cameras. Your Secretary of State is skipping his first NATO meeting to go to China and Russia. I could go on, but why bother.

No, sorry folks. This one’s on you. No hug. No “it’s going to be okay.” If you want me to get on your side, then convince your party to get rid of this dangerous buffoon. You do that, than I’m in.

* American Renaissance appear on a list of 115 "white nationalist hate groups" published in the Intelligence Report of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Copyright © 2017 Dale Rominger