Saturday, June 23, 2018

A Rant with Good Reason




In the midst of so much worry about children being taken from their parents at the Southern Border, yesterday I listened to Donald Trump describe their trek through Mexico to reach the United States. "They're strolling like it's Central Park," he said, "they're criminals infecting our country." 

This is so far from the truth I'm constantly stunned by how and why so many Americans believe him. There is  concrete evidence that almost all the families and children walking for days and weeks to apply for asylum are anything but criminals. These are folks who have left their countries because their choices ran out, and not just from poverty, but because of threats and episodes of lawlessness, murder, rape, people suddenly "disappearing."  

This is the reality but Donald Trump pounds out the message that immigrants are 'infecting' America and must be banished, that it's 'us' or 'them.' As a country, Trump's government has no interest in promoting or protecting human rights. To be living through this is unreal, disheartening, frightening, and thank god for this too--energizing.

Yesterday on Facebook a woman from my high school and a Trump supporter blamed the parents for exposing their children to roundup and lockdown by the United States Government. Several other high school classmates agreed with her that everyone has a right to their opinion and Trump is doing his best. I disagreed. 

Do we have the right to offer and support an opinion that contradicts facts and debases morality? Is it okay to say that slavery was justified and white supremacy is justified? How about Hitler--should we respect the opinion of anyone who says the Holocaust never happened? Should we justify small children being ripped from their parents and warehoused throughout the US because the US President  didn't plan for that or doesn't care that these kids will carry this trauma for the rest of their lives?  

And yet here we are. I'm well aware that this post is not fun to read and may not be read at all, same with my recent Facebook posts. But isn't that a problem? Are we numb? How can it be that more than 40% of Americans and 90% of Republicans support the lies and racism and inhumanity of Donald Trump? These are folks I went to school with, who had the same safe childhoods I did, whose parents were likely Democrats, as mine were. These are decent and intelligent people, except they've put their faith in a Fascist. These folks are furious Trump is being compared to Hitler and they believe nothing the special counsel is uncovering. These are folks who don't mind that Donald Trump is systematically dismantling our democracy and our diversity.

This is probably the lowest point in American History, certainly in my lifetime. Was the Civil War like this?

How is it that Trump supporters can be so misguided, so uncaring to the plight of others, so believing of a man who lies all the time? Do they care that their schools and children aren't safe, their communities are feeling the disastrous effects of climate change, their health coverage is in trouble, their allies in Canada and Mexico and Europe have been abandoned, and what we're told about Russia and North Korea are lies?

Questions. 

They hurt.

love
kj




17 comments:

  1. No, they do not care. They view themselves and this country as being under threat when the greatest threat lies within, at this point. I think both major parties are to blame for this though the greater fault lies with Republicans. They now resemble and behave like thugs and we are finally seeing the ugly underbelly of this country.

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    1. e, i’m always uncomfortable with the collective ‘they’ but I can’t disagree with your observations. the USA’s functional government has broken. Scary stuff.
      Love
      kj

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  2. Propaganda is a very seductive, dangerous tool and they are very good at using it. They have convinced their base that their version of America (white) is sacred and right and that everyone else is biased or misinformed. Scarier yet, they say some people are less than human - animals, infectious, criminals, shit house, etc. It is a pattern we have seen before yet many refuse to recognize.

    "No one ever recognizes their dictator in advance. He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship... When our dictator turns up he will be one of the boys and he will stand for everything traditionally American."

    - Dorothy Thompson (1935), American Journalist

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    1. 8, that quote is chilling, and from 1935. I wonder how we and the country will be in the aftermath. Germany survived. Will America? Will we be kind?

      I know too many people who justify Trump. It shocks me.
      Love
      kj

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  3. Bad times for the USA and the world. There are strange things going on. Since yesterday Erdogan is absolute dictator in Turkey. Here in the Netherlands people with Turkish roots were dancing in the streets. They still have a Turkish nationality because when your ancestors were Turkish, you are automatically Turkish and you can vote like you live in that country. The happy dancing people here who live in freedom in the Netherlands and maybe have been a few times on holiday in Turkey have sent the people over there from democracy to absolute no freedom because they voted for Erdogan. It happens and we are all looking at it and we are powerless. Let us hope common sense will return soon.

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    1. Wieneke, I confess to not knowing enough about the Turkish election so I much appreciate your perspective. What a damn mess everything is. Most Americans I know are shocked and disgusted. This week we now question the soveignry of the courts. I’m dtill trying to figure out the best path for my resistance.
      Love
      kj

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  4. Trump also accused them of "infesting our country."

    KJ, I've written two posts that are based upon Trump's border policy, but that more specifically about my attitude toward Trump's supporters, with the contemplation regarding the latter hurting me even more than my thoughts regarding the former because while Trump is but one evil person, those who support his evil number into the millions, so how can I possibly avoid concluding that only evil people support a blatantly evil president? I'm actually for strong borders, but when it comes to the knowing infliction of grievous and lasting psychological harm on children?--no way. But Trump leaves no middle ground. You're either a good person who makes him your standard of truth, or you're a bad person who can't even conceive of a day on which he does even one thing that is honorable.

    My last post was inspired by a comment from the post before that, the reader telling me for a second time that it's wrong to hate. But is it? I'm not a WWII era European Jew, and Trump is not yet a Hitler, but did my reader mean to suggest that those Jews were wrong to hate a man who was bent on their extermination? I don't know because, like most readers, he won't dialogue; he instead says things that I don't understand, and then he leaves. Period. He's just gone. It reminds me of a drive-by shooting, and it's the thing I hate most about blogging.

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    1. I agree with you 100%, snow. I too cannot fathom the support trump has and how those supporters justify the immorality ofvwho he is and what he’s doing.

      You know I lean toward optimism. And I don’t want to hate: I stop at that line. But i’m close. And this week, knowing the Supreme Court will now be tainted, i’m heavy thinking about my own rebellion—what I will and won’t do.
      Love
      kj

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  5. I posted something about the children being separated on my facebook page, but got a couple of people trying to justify Trump. Well, fair enough, I thought, they are living in the US and I'm not. I get angry when people outside the UK moralise at me about how Brexit is a good idea, when they are not themselves facing the reality of dealing with the issues in my country. But for what my opinion is worth, I think that there is absolutely no excuse for punishing and abusing children because of what the adults in their lives have done, no matter what the law says and no matter how much you disapprove of their parents. And it IS punishment and abuse to separate little kids from their parents. What really strikes me is the complacency of such folks, as though they did something really smart themselves in not being born in the wrong country or to the wrong parents.

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    1. Hi Jenny, welcome and thank you for an insightful comment. It’s almost impossible to reconcile that any Americans condone such abuse to anyone, let alone babies and children. And to ignore the plight of people seeking asylum is heartless.

      Our world has hit a rough patch. I do believe good outweighs bad in most people. And I pray for wisdom.

      Love
      kj

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  6. I don't understand the comments that are left on his facebook page about what a wonderful president he is. He is a lying, amoral, ignorant man whose incompetence prevents him from realizing how incompetent he is. It's frightening to be honest and it's contagious.

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  7. I am reading 1984 (the book) and even in the first few chapters, it feels like one is living the horror described in the book. Maybe we always have. Maybe our "leaders" have always thrived on propaganda and lies. All over the world. That is what is common to us all - we like to be led by false promises of grandeur rather than by honest admissions of problems. Our leaders must be invincible. That is how we elect the wolves and become the sheep. Hugs.

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    1. hdwk, I hate to think many of us are followers who like being led. Are we too lazy to stay informed? Passive? Since most people are moral, how do we get to authoritarianism? I may never understand. It seems like we’re programmed to need other people to be inferior. Why is that? 😡
      Love
      kj

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