Category: Donald Trump

Four Long Years

My readers of this (very infrequent) blog pretty much know me and know that I am not one to react emotionally and erratically to anything (Note: This is also a nice way of saying I have not found any new readers for my blog outside of my friends and family!). My opinions are measured and informed, and I tend not to get too excited or sure of my views easily. I am open to trying to understand nearly any perspective and to know where people are coming from. My positions on politics have changed quite a lot over the years, which helps me to understand and relate to a wide range of views, even many that I do not agree with at all at this point in my life.

It is important to keep that in mind as you read this: Ever since the election of 2016, I have been holding on to some degree of sadness and anger EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I love the United States of America deeply and have seen the people of my country turn over the most powerful office to a man who embodies the very worst qualities of a leader. And not only have we elected this man, but a large portion of the country is willing to turn over their powers of judgment to him – to accept what he says, and what he believes, over and above any actual evidence.

To abandon the idea of holding him accountable for his actions, but instead to support him at all costs, and to push back on the very idea of challenging him. To support what is good for him even at the expense of what is good for us as individuals and as a country. To demonize those within our country who believe differently not as people with different opinions, but as the enemy, and to view our motives as destroying America. To celebrate a style of leadership that is not invested in solving problems facing the American people, but instead is focused on making you hate and fear those who do not support Donald Trump fully and unreservedly.

I could write pages upon pages spelling out the justifications for why it is incomprehensible to me that anyone can accept the multitude of ways in which he has advanced the corruption of our political processes and demonstrated his complete lack of fitness for the most powerful position in the country. I could get into detail about his financial and political corruption, his focus on dividing us rather than uniting us, his unwillingness to even try to be a leader for everyone in the country, his assaults on the rule of law and the foundations of our democracy.

But that is not what this post is about.

It is about the idea that all of the efforts I have put into understanding why people support him has led to one theme throughout – supporting Donald Trump means believing that those who hold different political views are enemies. That if your fellow Americans don’t support the positions of Donald Trump, that if we hold positions to the left of the political spectrum, that we are a genuine threat to America itself and must be stopped at all costs. That you should fear ANY liberal, no matter how the term is defined. Whether that liberal is a democratic socialist like Bernie Sanders, a BLM activist like Colin Kaepernick, a Never-Trump neo-conservative like Bill Kristol, a long-time establishment politician who has worked with Democrats and Republicans alike such as Joe Biden, a Fox News journalist who tries to play it down the middle like Chris Wallace, or even a one-time radical libertarian like me who now identifies as a progressive – we are all treated not as legitimate elements of our political system whose views deserve representation but as enemies of the state who must be repressed to save our country.

I am not arguing that the left is flawless, or that there are not plenty of valid criticisms against many in the media, the Democratic party, or those arguing in the public square against Donald Trump. I understand the preferences many have on policy and judges. I get that there are plenty of those in the media who have spent 4 years over-reacting to many events. I get that if there is a Biden administration, particularly with a Democratic majority in the Senate, it will likely pass laws that many people will not like. I understand why many people were so frustrated with a dysfunctional political system four years ago that they thought a non-traditional politician with a business background could be effective in solving problems. And I know that past leaders have not been paragons of selfless virtue.

But ultimately the picture has been clear for years – if you strip away all the noise, we have a president who relies on fear and division to distract us from his incompetence and corruption. As well as relying on the sheer volume of awful actions to convince people that it is all noise. And I don’t know how anyone can deny that at this point. I have been questioning and challenging my own views for years. At this point though, what I question most is what to make of a country in which so many people still support this man. I am not one to apply any broad generalizations against people based on who they support, and I know people who are kind and decent to the people in their lives who nevertheless support Donald Trump. But I don’t have any reasonable explanations for why this is the case. And it hurts to see America come to this point.

I am not totally sure why I am writing this post. It is not to change anyone’s mind, and I am sure it will bother some people without offering any suggestions on what to do about it. I know that there are so many reasons I did not even get into about why people do not like Donald Trump, particularly many who have been directly targeted by the actions of his administration, that it would be fair to wonder why those are not addressed. For 4 years I have been carrying this weight of seeing people sacrifice so many principles for a man who is not worthy of any of them, and I simply had to share how it is affecting me.

Why I marched

Democracy is not just about having elections. Fledgling democracies around the world continually demonstrate this. There are a number of institutions and practices required to support and sustain a democracy in the long run. When a nation forgets this, they pay a heavy price.

I attended the Denver Women’s March today at the Capitol. Estimates ranging from 100,000 – 250,000 attendees speak to the energy that assembled downtown. I nearly came to tears on a few occasions at the passion and devotion to the greatness of our country that came through from my companions. This was a shared experience similar to attending a transcendent concert, but it touched on deeper emotions than even those that the Boss can evoke from the stage.

The most common and powerful chant I heard at the rally was “What does democracy look like? THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!”. And I came to a more powerful realization than I have ever had before of how important protest is among the practices that sustain a democracy.

We just lived through what is the certainly the most contentious national election in my lifetime, one that fundamentally divided people on a level I have never seen. But while this divide roughly adhered to party lines and had many basic disagreements about liberal vs. conservative, that is not at all what this election was truly about to many of us.

Donald Trump had many chances throughout his campaign to show basic human decency. But he consistently took the low road. He stoked fear and resentment of others to build support for himself. He blatantly lied at a level I have never seen from a politician, with no shame when caught in a lie. He showed that he cares most about himself, even while portraying his election as returning the government to the people. He has shown a contempt for even the most basic responsibilities of ethics in government, only a short time after promising to drain the swamp. He attacked the institutions and practices of democracy whenever they were inconvenient for him or dealt a blow to his ego.

My response is to use one of those most important of our democratic practices to say that these are not my values. To stand up with my fellow Americans and say that we believe our country is better than this. To say to those who disagree with me that I don’t hate you for disagreeing. But that if we are going to live in this society together, I need you to understand that I see the election of such an awful man and leader as an American tragedy.

And that while I understand that alignment on policy positions and hope in a new approach to solving our problems may put many in a position to give him more latitude than I will, it hurts me to see that so many people are unwilling to hold him accountable at all when he attacks the very core of our democracy and the humanity of so many of us.

This is no longer about the choice of Clinton vs. Trump. That debate is now in the past and I want to look at what we can and should do now. I will give him the benefit of the doubt when he earns it, but I will not look the other way when he opposes the core values of our country, and I will not brush away the terrible behavior he has exhibited already and the harm it has caused. I will listen to those of you who disagree with my assessment of Trump and will try to understand why you are not as troubled by him as I am. And I will expect empathy in return, and for anyone who wants to earn my respect to avoid name calling and to try to understand why others hold different views rather than rushing to judgment.