There's the Rub...

A new, nonpartisan, FB group popped up recently whose purpose is to encourage civil discussion from from both sides of the political fence. No name calling, just respectful back and forth to increase understanding.

A worthy goal.

“If only that were possible” I thought. Sadly, I’m not optimistic for the longevity of the group.

Regardless of how much I want to have a cool, rational discussion with a Trump supporter, I find that it always devolves into name calling from their side when they are unable to support his behavior. Even if there is some value in “he’s not a politician” which is questionable, or “he threw out the rule book” which is equally questionable, I’ve yet to meet a single Trump supporter who is able to logically and morally defend his behavior.

And there’s the rub.

Supporting Trump is more of an emotional issue. People are attracted to “manly” “bold” “decisive” and “in-charge” more than they are dismayed by the lack of logic, understanding or law in what he says and does.

We’re talking about a guy who is proud that he doesn’t read books.

Maybe it was the fault of the teleprompter or the rain, a person with a decent education doesn’t make the “mistake” of referencing airports in a discussion of the Revolutionary War.

Like a chain saw stored in the refrigerator, it is glaringly out of context.

He could blow up the Statue of Liberty in front of his supporters and burn the constitution, without repercussions. He does that figuratively every day.

And yes, Hitler and Mussolini started out the same way. The German people loved Hitler and would follow him into the Gates of Hell, which, of course, they did.

The new FB group may survive, but it won’t flourish. It assumes that the Trump people will be interested in engaging and logically answering “why?”. They won’t. When you can’t support the unsupportable you resorting to name calling or justifying Trump’s behavior by pointing to someone else. 

A Red Herring.

It’s like being caught stealing candy and saying all the other kids do the same thing.

Trump got elected because too many Democrats found Hillary to be seriously flawed, and I understand. The problem is that they failed to exercise their responsibility to vote.  They assumed her to be a shoe in, no way Trump could win.

Trump became president because those assumptive people stayed home in their Lay-Z-Boy recliners and couldn’t be bothered. According to the United States Election Project, nearly half of all eligible voters (46.9 percent of approximately 231,556,622 people) did not vote in the 2016 election.

If the Trump presidency has done anything of value, hopefully it has energized the opposition.

This stopped being about politics long ago, that pendulum swings, as it should. This is about decency, morality, upholding the Constitution and the American values that have made us great.

Our country is a melting pot.

We must remember that other than Native Americans, we are all immigrants.

The America I was raised in believed that a nation’s greatness is measured, not by how it serves the rich and powerful, but by how it treats its weakest members.

Left or right, I vote for content of character above all other qualities. Regardless of party affiliation, give me a president who leads by example, someone I can point to with my Grandchild and say: If you work hard and do the right thing, you can grow up to be like him or her.

Harry Truman once famously ssid: “The buck stops here.” He was more than ready to take the blame along with the praise.

Jimmy Carter leads by example every day, always has and still does.

Obama showed the world how a real man behaves with his wife and family. Mutual respect.  No scandals there.

I miss that kind of leadership by example.

I guess in some ways I’m as bad as the Trump supporters in that I won’t change my mind about that stuff. It’s who I am.

As Billy Shakespeare once said: “there’s the rub.”

I believe our current president would assume Mr Shakespeare was making reference to a massage parlor.

And there’s the rub.