Get the yardstick
Back seat driver.
What yardstick do you use to determine guilt or innocence? Right from wrong? As much as possible I try and use the same yardstick when dealing with people and issues. We live in a time when one person’s lie can become the truth for others. If they believe it then it’s true. Reality takes a back seat to truth.
If it’s wrong….
If it’s wrong for a Democrat to lie in office then it’s wrong for a Republican to lie in office. If President Clinton had lied about his campaign meeting and working with Russians during his campaign he would have been impeached and convicted. President Trump finally admitted that he along with his campaign had been lying and did in fact meet with the Russians. What did Republicans in Congress do? Nothing.
If President Obama had been caught on tape saying that he lied about the Ebola pandemic Trump supporters would have screamed from the rooftops.
Convictions
After the election Republican leaders switched positions on so many issues that they vehemently had opposed previously that Republican stalwarts are saying it no longer resembles the Party of conservatives.
Not one Republican primary candidate who denounced Trump kept it up once Trump was the candidate. For all the dithering and blustering that they have done about President Trump when at times condemning his reprehensible actions along the way they have voted in lockstep as a party in supporting him and every vile action that he has undertaken. They’re still doing it: they’ll be on television talking about horrible it all is and then vote to make it worse. Long on rhetoric. Short on having the courage of their expressed Evangelical Christian white convictions.
I can’t even guess at how many conservatives I have seen or heard talk about how much hate has been directed at poor President Trump and that no other President in history has had this much hate directed their way.
Really
Where have they been the last couple of decades? They have been pounding the Clintons for over thirty years and President Obama the entire time he was in office. Why in the world would they think that Democrats or any others of the groups that they have maligned would cut them any slack especially since Republicans have been in full attack mode for Trump’s entire Presidency?
Trump is hate personified.
The President encourages hate and lying on a daily sometimes hourly basis with his tweets. He advocates it at his rallies. He promotes hate and division. He’s good at it! Hate got him elected! He tweets hate on a daily basis. Don’t like the news? Lie about it. He insults people both common citizens and world leaders on a regular basis. He needs hate. He feeds off hate. It sustains him. Go read his tweets. They will forever be a stain on the official record of our country.
He may use brown people but he doesn’t like brown people. It was at his direction that the families of brown people are torn apart and brown children incarcerated. And the President of the United States has done it and will continue to do it with the full support of the Republican Party.
Button, button who’s got the button?
It’s next to impossible to safely talk about hot button issues on social media. People quickly divide into armed camps and start hurling word grenades. Trolls open fire almost immediately. They don’t need any warm up time. Innocent bystanders look for neutral territory and try to avoid being collateral damage. People often avoid sharing their outlook because they aren’t interested in the onslaught or fallout that might be incurred. None of this is new. Electronic communications just make it easier and quicker. We now have the capacity to alienate entire groups of people with the click of a button.
Here’s what I’m talking about. Republicans voted for a tax break for the rich of over a trillion dollars. That break was unfunded. If Democrats had done that in the previous administration, only given it to the middle class, it would have been wrong in the minds of those very same Republicans based upon their past votes. If it’s wrong for a Democrat to do it then it’s wrong for a Republican to do it.
Set in stone
I present my take on things not with the thought or intent that I will change somebody’s mind that is already made up but rather that I might present something or at least a perspective that others haven’t considered or find value in whose mind isn’t made up. Generally if a person is hardcore in a particular belief they aren’t going to be changing their position. But, although remote, change is possible even then. As examples an atheist could become a believer or vice versa.
The three gestures.
I am not blindly loyal to any country, President, person (except Jesus) or party. Never have been. In other words I’m not a ‘my country right or wrong’ type of person. If my country is wrong, like it was about slavery, then something needs to be done about it. The same holds true for someone holding a position of leadership.
Republicans in Congress talked about protecting the President, not about trying to find out if he is guilty, innocent or has committed treason. Blindly loyal Trump supporters aren’t remotely interested if the President is in the hip pocket of Vladimir Putin. They don’t care if he is. They don’t care if he lies.
Perspective
I have been reading a LOT of Trump supporter responses in various media and for the most part have found that they are lacking in coherence or logic; are in general hateful or threatening. Yes, the extreme left has the same capability. But the right has them beat hands down. Often rather than acknowledging or commenting on the issue at hand they will excuse the action, engage in deflection with some “whataboutisms” as in ‘what about Hillary’s emails’. Trolls respond just to troll. They apparently have no interest in civility or the truth. It’s how they find value in presenting themselves. Trolls like to threaten and bully on social media and in real life, well, because they can. They aren’t interested in bringing anything useful to the conversation.
We all approach life with a perspective unique to ourselves. This perspective is shaped by our life experiences and education. We grow. We learn. Sometimes. Sometimes we make or repeat mistakes. Sometimes things happen that have a profound effect on us good or bad. Each individual has a unique system of values. We have the capacity for good or evil and places in between.
We should try and err on the side of humanity.