There is certainly room for disagreement on the best way to run the country: nation-building vs. minding-our-own-business; multinational trade agreements vs. bilateral agreements; ignoring despotic regimes' abuses vs. taking action against them; the extent of the government safety net; eliminate regulations vs. more regulations; more or less immigration...and the list goes on. Many of these subjects can be negotiated and compromises can be reached. But that's not the way things are being done now, everything is a battle for the soul of our nation. The other side hates America. I put the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the Republican leadership.
Politics has always been a dirty game, full of betrayals and back-stabbing. But the partisan nastiness came to a head, not during Trump's mosh pit of an administration, but during Obama's. Whether or not you believe racism played a part (I do), once the Republicans took back first one house of Congress, then the other, their whole plan was to obstruct everything that President Obama tried to do. Not just the things where they were ideologically opposed to, but everything. In addition to that, they stood by while the Tea Party fanatics painted President Obama as not American or as a terrorist sympathizer when they weren't describing his policies a communism. They stood by while the future president Donald Trump stoked the "birther" nonsense. They refused to even hold a hearing on Obama's Supreme Court nominee and McConnell was quoted as saying that if Clinton were elected, they would refuse to confirm any of her nominees. They tied up Secretary Clinton in hearing after hearing about the deaths in Benghazi and stayed silent as she was tarred with the accusation that she was running a child sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor! They were willing participants in the demonization of the Democrats.
Then came Donald Trump, insulting his way to the top of the heap.
Trump tapped into the gullibility of much of America, Americans who were primed by years of conspiracy theories and character assassination to listen to the hatred and raw demagoguery that he spewed.
Although I was in no mood after Trump was elected to forgive or forget his misogyny, xenophobia and bigotry on the campaign trail, I thought for a brief moment that the immensity of the job would humble him. One of the first things that he said was that being president of all the people was very, very, important to him. But that humility didn't last long. And his supporters, despite frothing at the mouth in their frenzy to cheer on their new leader's hatred of the "other", were simultaneously in denial that he was spouting hatred. "It's the media" they would say, parroting Trump, despite virtually everything being readily accessible on video. Very little would turn out to be "anonymous sources".
Trump supporters excuse or rationalize his hatred, but they also brush aside his lies, either credulously believing them, even though they are easily disproved or debunked, sometimes by his own government, or decide that they don't matter because "it makes the liberals heads explode".
There's plenty to dislike about Trump, from his mocking of, well, just about everyone, to his cozying up to dictators while at the same time insulting our allies; from his threats to destroy some countries (North Korea, Iran) and invade others (Venezuela) while pledging to stay out of the internal affairs of others (Russia, Saudi Arabia); to his excusing the dismembering of a journalist who, while not a US citizen, was working for a US newspaper and a legal resident.
But lately, it's the lies.
Trump has always lied. He lied about where he got his money, about his success as a businessman, he lied about contacts with Russians. Trump lies even when he doesn't have to lie, when it's easily checkable. Lately though his lies seem to be targeted toward scaring his base into getting out and voting. He lied about nonexistent riots in California; he's lying about the Democrats wanting to cut Social Security when it's actually the Republicans who are talking about it. He's lying about an upcoming middle-class tax cut that can't exist because Congress is not in session, especially since it's supposedly ready to go before election day (oh yeah, he's studying it...hard). He lies so often and so outrageously that the safe bet is to just assume that he's lying until evidence to the contrary is presented.
So how can you trust someone like that? Even if he says something that you support, like tax cuts, how can you have any confidence that he's telling you the truth? The short answer is that you can't. He's untrustworthy. Yet millions of Americans think that the serial liar, who has screwed working Americans in business for years, is one of them.
A lot of Americans are stupid, a lot of them don't want to listen to reason, to logic, to the facts.
But some do.
I guess that's why I bother
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