“What’s Going On”?
I am confused. Have been for a while.
The job rating performance of President Donald J. Trump is by every objective rating system ever invented, the worst rating of any President in history, by a wide margin. It is a four-year administration known for little in the way of positive legislative production, and much in the way of scandal, corruption, and cover-up.
And despite this January 6, 2021 disgraceful insurrectionist riot, for which most observers believe Donald will be found to be guilty of incitement to riot, his approval ratings continue to be strong. This continued support is bewildering to me.
In order to clear up my confusion I decided to conduct my own tiny personal poll among a few of my friends with whom I am still on conversational grounds despite their political support of DJT.
For example, I inquired of a few of my military veteran friends (of various ranks), some of whom continue to support him despite their distaste for his cowardice dating back to Vietnam, and their more recent distaste which they liked even less concerning his” blind eye suck up” to Vladimir Putin’s bounties on the lives of our soldiers in Afghanistan. Their continued support surprised me. I asked some of my Jewish friends, some who are the aging children of survivors of concentration camps, and their continued support shocked me; and then the support still by my doctor friends, who are aghast at his handling of the covid-19 disaster, actually appalls me. Indeed, quite frankly anyone who cannot see the monstrous bigotry of Donald Trump’s entire being, which is so obvious to me, are becoming strangers to me, because a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for shameful attitudes and shameful behavior.
These supporters all offer their carefully thought-out reasoning, which to my ears are so well crafted that they also ring a little too hollow, like the dinner mate who is pretending to clumsily fumble around in his wallet for a credit card to pick up the check, or for some loose bills to leave the tip.
All of the people I have polled are white, middle class and ages 20’s to 70’s, and the only thing that I can figure is that the real reason they continue to back Donald is his racism, not that any one of them would ever admit or offer such an “obscenity” as a reason for their support of him. But my total lack of comprehension of their fealty leads me to inquire further. So, I tread lightly and calmly, and I politely suggest that perhaps the real reason is that they just prefer Donald’s animus towards people of color.
To a person the response to my very measured, but pointed suggestion is always a ferocious denial bordering on me being accused of offending their dignity as humanitarians… but despite their protestations, the notion that they “Doth protest too much” is never far from my mind. And these are the people who are the reasonable people, the intelligent people, the sensitive people, the good people who I would never suspect of harboring such bigoted beliefs, unconscious (or sub-conscious) as they may be. But they do support a man whose personal goon squad of trespassers, who he loves so much, adorn themselves with confederate flags and Nazi swastikas and other bigotry types of paraphernalia.
So, here we are in the year 2021 and 74 million people have voted for this poor excuse for a leader, and this even poorer excuse for a decent human being. Seventy-four million people voted for Donald Trump, and not all of those voters are the wild-eyed lunatic fringe that invaded the capitol last Wednesday.
I would like some high-priced, real smart, social scientist, or historian to explain to me just how this can be happening in the year of 2021 in an enlightened America. Why the hatred? Why the fear?
As Doc Rivers, the very, successful, black NBA coach recently so appropriately stated: “It’s amazing to me,” he said in a breaking voice. “Why we keep loving this country. And this country does not love us back.”
Indeed.
What’s Going On?
