To be clear, when I write at Daily Kos I am not presenting news. I am documenting my thoughts as the travesty of Trump unfolds. Like Anne Frank’s diary...
What’s been on my mind lately is the continued and purposeful divisiveness, the chaos, that emanates from the White House. Trump’s ridiculous but loyal base is fed a steady diet of red meat, maintaining the salivation and hatred toward the other.
- Those fat, lazy, welfare blacks are stealing my hard-earned money.
- Those wetbacks are coming over here, stealing my jobs and killing my women and children, joining MS13.
- Those homosexuals are polluting the purity and moral character of our country.
- Those Democrats, treasonous for not saluting me.
- The liberal media showering the planet with fake news.
The other...
On the political and economic continuum, I fall on the left. Far left of Oprah Winfrey and Hillary. I am past identity politics and align more with class warfare thinking. However, I can sit down and have a pint of beer and discuss politics and economics with those on the far right, provided they are respectful and not assholes.
I imagine that dignity and respect matter, or ought to. The other, matters.
This is where I think Donald Trump and many who support him, most especially the Republican Congress, is simply wrong. Period.
Regardless of where and how I disagree with another on politics or economics, I am never empowered, nor is the other, to disqualify the human dignity of the other on any basis.
What I mean to say, Donald Trump is a jerk. This is putting it so mildly that I am pained. The man, and his core of enablers and loyal followers, have made efforts to denigrate the basic human dignity afforded to each person simply by their nature of being human. This is wrong. Period.
When I was a fire captain and a battalion chief, then later a school teacher, I always had the ability to influence the troops, the students, against each other or administration. Due to my formal position of authority, I could have turned the rank and file against each other or administration with a variety of leadership tactics.
I did not do that. I served to unite the troops, the rank and file, and my students toward a common and compelling vision that spoke to caring for the other and our community. I wielded my position of power and authority with care and responsibility.
Succinctly, I did not serve my own means, I served the greater cause of humanity; or, I tried with good faith effort.
Trump is an appalling character to me. More so, those Republican Congress, excepting Jeff Flake whom I have come to appreciate in earnest (despite our political differences), have floored me with their overt support of Trump. I can only surmise that the money from the big corporations must be rather compelling.
Most seriously of all, however, are the mass of white, evangelical Christians who have and continue to support Trump as if he’s part of God’s plan. This is ludicrous tomfoolery. These Christians are not under attack from Satan, they are under attack from their ill-formed rational thinking skills that they have negated, as if faith and reason were enemies. Becoming Christian is not synonymous with losing your common sense and ability to think. God, if she’s there, surely gave you a brain to use.
All of this to say, it should be clear that Trump is evil, if not criminal, but certainly a sinner within a Christian framework. I was taught that the means never justify the end. For those Republicans and evangelicals supporting this monster, shame on you. No matter what faith-wisdom tradition we hold to, the consequences of our actions are impossible to hide from.
When in positions of power, we always have the ability to divide or unite, to cause chaos or sow harmony, to do good, or to do bad, to love the other, or do demonize them.
Let it not be lost on me that Trump purposely sows discord and divides society toward his own egotistical ends. Trump is making American great again, in so far as it benefits himself and a small number of wealthy. This is not leadership. It is nowhere near the domain of presidential. He lacks statesmanship, diplomacy, and common human decency on all fronts.
The man negates the moral dignity of the other for political gain.
Sadly,
This is our current America.
Even the blades of grass bend with the wind in desire and listen for the first whispers of moral leadership to rise; they too, are hurting.
