Dear America,
I can't sleep sometimes because of my consternation over one single fact. Whether he wins or loses, over 70 million Americans will vote for Donald Trump in less than a month. Whenever politics is the subject there is hyperbole, but this isn't such. I have no doubt that Donald Trump is a psychopath, and a dangerous one at that. And it seems so obvious to me that I have trouble understanding how so many millions of people can ignore it, which suggests that there is something dangerous in them too and in the same way as it is dangerous in Trump. That he is willing to dissemble and outright lie about what the federal government is doing in response to the storms that have devastated our southeastern states, causing anxiety and dismay among people who already have overwhelming problems to confront--with which by the way the federal government is on the scene trying to help them contrary to Trump's utter lies--makes him despicable if not diabolical, and in the latter case, psychopathic. He will sacrifice anything and anyone in order to feed his colossal ego, rendering his narcissism dangerous to everyone to whom Trump has access in any way, and that includes those millions of voters who will vote for him, all of which means that the America in which I grew up is a thing of the past. There is a social virus plaguing us as a nation, and I fear that it is past the pandemic stage. I fear that we have passed the point of no return, and that win or lose, Trump will have degraded the American Way to the point of rendering it dystopian, which is a loss to the world too vast to quantify.
To some all of my expressions of fear will seem melodramatic, and to others they may seem to be nothing but partisan utterings, but I assure you that what I am saying here is sincere, heart-felt and in my estimation abundantly clear. Look at the conduct of Trump with regard to the storms afflicting our southeast. I was speaking to a project manager for a company that repairs electrical infrastructure and he is working in North Carolina now. He has been dealing with work being done in the mountainous areas of the state where life is often lived on a more fundamental scale than most of us are used to. He says that FEMA workers are dealing with physical threats from the ultra-rural residents of the area, apparently in consequence of what Trump has been saying about them. Of course, if what he has been saying were true, the FEMA workers wouldn't be there, but logic often fails to prevail in the midst of an emergency like a land-slide that all but prevents you from leaving your home to replenish necessary supplies. In such an environment and in such circumstances, bias is easily confirmed, and that seems especially true with Trumpers who adhere to conspiracy theories and have an aversion to those whom they consider elitist villains. They listen to radios and watch televisions tuned to networks like Fox and hosts like Inforwars' Alex Jones, and give credence without question to the apocryphal bias-fed "news" that they spew. It is no wonder that after seeing and hearing Trump shamelessly spreading the lies he has continually reiterated about federal aid to individuals being limited to a one-time payment of $750 and FEMA funds being diverted to housing immigrants from disaster programs that FEMA is implementing as he speaks, they believe him uncritically and ardently. And that kind of blind credence is not limited to those living remotely in the Appalachian hills.
I recently recounted contact I had during a vacation with an otherwise substantial professional man who, while tentatively denying that he believed Trump's lies about the 2020 election, was sufficiently hesitant in his denial that it was clear that he gave them at least tentative credence. And in light of other things he said about immigrants--mind you he was with his wife who is the daughter of south Asian immigrants--and people who benefit from federal aid, it was clear that he was a Trumper dyed in the wool. He was a nice guy, but I have no doubt that he will vote for Trump, and ironically, it seemed like his wife might too.
You might think that my glum assessment of our national destiny is an overreaction, or you might even be a Trumper sympathizer yourself. But the first question you have to ask yourself is whether you want to live your life on the basis of the truth. I broach that question because it seems to me that those 70+ million who will vote for Trump have abandoned their fealty to truth and are instead ready to be governed by the biases, bigotry and self-serving blather that Trump issues every time he opens his mouth. If they ascend to power, they will govern all of us on that basis. I despair for our American creed promising life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I fear that the American democratic experiment is about to fail.
Your friend,
Mike
I can't sleep sometimes because of my consternation over one single fact. Whether he wins or loses, over 70 million Americans will vote for Donald Trump in less than a month. Whenever politics is the subject there is hyperbole, but this isn't such. I have no doubt that Donald Trump is a psychopath, and a dangerous one at that. And it seems so obvious to me that I have trouble understanding how so many millions of people can ignore it, which suggests that there is something dangerous in them too and in the same way as it is dangerous in Trump. That he is willing to dissemble and outright lie about what the federal government is doing in response to the storms that have devastated our southeastern states, causing anxiety and dismay among people who already have overwhelming problems to confront--with which by the way the federal government is on the scene trying to help them contrary to Trump's utter lies--makes him despicable if not diabolical, and in the latter case, psychopathic. He will sacrifice anything and anyone in order to feed his colossal ego, rendering his narcissism dangerous to everyone to whom Trump has access in any way, and that includes those millions of voters who will vote for him, all of which means that the America in which I grew up is a thing of the past. There is a social virus plaguing us as a nation, and I fear that it is past the pandemic stage. I fear that we have passed the point of no return, and that win or lose, Trump will have degraded the American Way to the point of rendering it dystopian, which is a loss to the world too vast to quantify.
To some all of my expressions of fear will seem melodramatic, and to others they may seem to be nothing but partisan utterings, but I assure you that what I am saying here is sincere, heart-felt and in my estimation abundantly clear. Look at the conduct of Trump with regard to the storms afflicting our southeast. I was speaking to a project manager for a company that repairs electrical infrastructure and he is working in North Carolina now. He has been dealing with work being done in the mountainous areas of the state where life is often lived on a more fundamental scale than most of us are used to. He says that FEMA workers are dealing with physical threats from the ultra-rural residents of the area, apparently in consequence of what Trump has been saying about them. Of course, if what he has been saying were true, the FEMA workers wouldn't be there, but logic often fails to prevail in the midst of an emergency like a land-slide that all but prevents you from leaving your home to replenish necessary supplies. In such an environment and in such circumstances, bias is easily confirmed, and that seems especially true with Trumpers who adhere to conspiracy theories and have an aversion to those whom they consider elitist villains. They listen to radios and watch televisions tuned to networks like Fox and hosts like Inforwars' Alex Jones, and give credence without question to the apocryphal bias-fed "news" that they spew. It is no wonder that after seeing and hearing Trump shamelessly spreading the lies he has continually reiterated about federal aid to individuals being limited to a one-time payment of $750 and FEMA funds being diverted to housing immigrants from disaster programs that FEMA is implementing as he speaks, they believe him uncritically and ardently. And that kind of blind credence is not limited to those living remotely in the Appalachian hills.
I recently recounted contact I had during a vacation with an otherwise substantial professional man who, while tentatively denying that he believed Trump's lies about the 2020 election, was sufficiently hesitant in his denial that it was clear that he gave them at least tentative credence. And in light of other things he said about immigrants--mind you he was with his wife who is the daughter of south Asian immigrants--and people who benefit from federal aid, it was clear that he was a Trumper dyed in the wool. He was a nice guy, but I have no doubt that he will vote for Trump, and ironically, it seemed like his wife might too.
You might think that my glum assessment of our national destiny is an overreaction, or you might even be a Trumper sympathizer yourself. But the first question you have to ask yourself is whether you want to live your life on the basis of the truth. I broach that question because it seems to me that those 70+ million who will vote for Trump have abandoned their fealty to truth and are instead ready to be governed by the biases, bigotry and self-serving blather that Trump issues every time he opens his mouth. If they ascend to power, they will govern all of us on that basis. I despair for our American creed promising life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I fear that the American democratic experiment is about to fail.
Your friend,
Mike
Leave a comment