Shame On You For Shaming Trump Supporters

On a recent shopping trip, while waiting in the check-out line, I happened to overhear a ten-minute conversation between two older white males who voted for Trump, and their view of the world and of the man they wanted in office says a lot about these Trump supporters. Fox News had also recently aired a series of interviews their reporters had conducted at restaurants and other gatherings in the Southwest U.S. where they specifically spoke with people who identified themselves as Trump supporters, and they echoed almost exactly what these two shoppers were complaining about. 
        What these people think is that any assault on Trump is an effort to make them feel bad about voting for him. And they can’t stand it. They focus the whole thing on themselves; the hell with the country, the presidency, and the Constitution. All they hear about is the bad stuff Trump does and it’s not fair to hold them accountable. They want people to let “Trump be Trump” but stop reporting all the negative stuff that happens as a result of that. It wasn’t Trump’s programs that bothered them; it’s that those news organizations and people who don’t support Trump talk about them. And it revealed the core of what upset them.

Trump supporters are tired of being shamed.

        So what if Trump is not a role model, if he’s vulgar, if he’s crass, if he cheats on his beautiful wife, if he can only express himself with the vocabulary of a sixth grader, if he threw his support to Putin over his own intelligence agents, if he’s an amoral dummy. Stop shaming them because they chose him.

See, all that callousness, that racism, that sexism and xenophobia Trump expresses is not reflected in his supporters, they say. So turn down the volume and the indignation over Trump’s raising the White House US flag back to full staff as a final dishonor to Senator John McCain before his burial. Trump had that presidential right and could legally do it, so stop fussing about it. McCain was already dead, anyway.

        Stop trying to make them feel guilty over the Trump administration’s terror tactic of grabbing kids from immigrant parents and asylum seekers and throwing the kids in cages inside detention centers. Stop showing those revolting pictures of kids locked inside a cage. Boo-hoo. (Or as Corey Lewandowski said on TV in response to the comment “I read today about a ten-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was taken from her mother and put in a cage,” Zac Petkanas said, to which Lewandowski responded: “Womp womp.” Clearly, Lewandowski didn’t care.) They are sick of being shamed over not giving a damn about innocent children. It's those immigrant parent's fault, who cares about the kids. Remember, all that callousness, racism, sexism and xenophobia Trump expresses is not...NOT… reflected in his supporters…they maintain. 

        And stop shaming them for Trump saying the government did a ‘fantastic job’ during and after Hurricane Maria which killed almost 3000 Americans. It’s not their fault the Trump administration didn’t take the threat to Puerto Rico seriously and that the lack of response from FEMA was because Trump didn’t consider it a high priority because he barely recognized it as U.S. territory. So what if Trump went and played golf while Puerto Ricans were screaming for help? He has a right to relax. His job is hard. Yeah, they remember how Trump said he wouldn’t have time for golf once he got into office, but going back on his word is kind of what they expected from his unorthodox leadership style. “He’s his own man” is how one of them put it. Stop shaming them because Trump acts like a five-year-old and changes his mind like one. They know it. What are they supposed to do? Spank him?

Trump points to who he'll try to screw again

        Stormy Daniels did and she only got $130,000 for it. They aren’t ashamed that Trump paid off an adult film star, and a Playboy Bunny, and maybe a former housekeeper who bore him an illegitimate child, and maybe others, admitted on tape to forcing himself on women and even implying he grabbed them by the genitals, all while married to his third wife. Why should they feel shame for Trump’s infidelity, vulgarity, denial of payments and then confirming them, and hushing it up in order to sway voters to support him as the more ‘moral’ candidate? So what? At least Hillary isn’t president.

They are sick and tired of hearing about Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Mike Flynn, Carter Page…etc. As far as they are concerned, those people have nothing to do with Trump. To hear one person tell it, they are the best people Trump talked about. They’re just being unfairly persecuted because they used to be part of Trump’s campaign or administration. The Democrats were out to get them. Those people were just associates of Trump anyway, and so are thousands of other people. Are they going to arrest everybody?

And don’t get them started about Charlottesville. If people couldn’t see Trump was right, that there were bad people on both sides, then they just weren’t paying attention. Trump called that one correctly. [Translation: Protesting Nazis = Being Nazis.]

        Oh, and stop shaming them because of Trump calling out NFL players who kneel as a quiet protest against the murders of black people by certain cops. You’re just supposed to focus on honoring the flag. Even though the protests are non-violent, the protesters have a First Amendment right, plus kneeling is respectful to the flag (look at what soldiers do honoring fallen comrades), Trump must be right, that the players shouldn’t be allowed to kneel in protest and “get away with it.” The other one felt Trump was, maybe, wrapping himself in the flag to get revenge. It’s that “eye for an eye” thing that Trump considers the most important lesson from the bible. You see, in 1990 when Trump was a part of the United States Football League, he sued the NFL for $1.2 billion…and lost. He was awarded three dollars and 76 cents and a lifetime ban from the NFL.

Now do you understand why he attacks NFL players?

It has nothing to do with patriotism or honoring the military. He’s getting even with being banned from the NFL. Nobody does that to Trump! Stop shaming his supporters for his pettiness. Besides, they’re sick of wealthy NFL players trying to draw attention to something most Trump supporters don’t care about at all...dead African Americans - no matter who killed them. If Trump can make people want to stop going to the games because they don’t want to be subjected to the sight of a person kneeling during the anthem, and maybe even punish all those players by forcing the demise of the NFL, THEN, HURRAY…MORE POWER TO HIM. Trump is getting retribution for that NFL ban by belittling NFL players. So stop shaming his supporters because of what Trump does. It’s what they’d like to do, too, but they aren’t the president. So we have become pawns to a snowflake trying to force standing at attention on everyone in the name of his false patriotism that masks a deep-seated hostility to the organization that banned him...the NFL.

Trump supporters need to explain why they find all these traits in Trump to be desirable. Is it really to hide behind his failings and shortcomings in order to conceal their own? Then shame on them for supporting a bully, a bigot, an adulterer, a traitor, and a man who is teaching our children that dishonesty, arrogance, and narcissism can get you the presidency. So what if it’s turning our democracy into a third-rate reality TV show? Leave Trump's supporters alone. They have a right to be wrong regardless of their choice and to throw their support behind a man unfit to be president!

As I listened to them I wondered when did ignorance become admirable?

        How dare Obama be a decent man? Vote Trump!

What Trump’s supporters don’t seem to get is that the people who elected him, or who knowingly elect anyone they KNEW was a corrupt person, are not victims, but accomplices. Long after Trump is gone, history will remember all his supporters as enablers and cowards who kept quiet and let this travesty go on and on. It’s no longer about whether Trump has any decency, but if his supporters still do.
So own it Trump supporters, YOU are responsible for what Trump does. All these negative stories you hear can be laid directly at your feet because you helped put him in office.

Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton’s Incredible Offer

        On Monday, September 10^th, National Security Advisor John Bolton made a speech where he said the US would do everything "to protect our citizens" and threatened sanctions against the International Criminal Court if it goes ahead with prosecutions against Americans. Founded in 2002, the International Criminal Court investigates and brings to justice people responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, intervening when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute. The US is among several nations that have not joined the court.

          In the speech given in Washington, Bolton said: "If the court comes after us, we will not sit quietly." And that the ICC “is dead to us.” ICC judges and prosecutors would be barred from entering the US and their funds in the US would be sanctioned. No one is going to mess with any US citizen.

          Couldn’t be clearer how he feels.

          So how does Trump’s self-abasing praise for Putin’s offer at the Helsinki summit last July square with Bolton’s claim that the US would do everything "to protect our citizens?"

           At the summit, Putin proposed what President Trump described as an “incredible offer,” Russia would be allowed to question certain U.S. officials it suspects of interfering in Russian affairs, like former Ambassador Michael McFaul and Bill Browder (who was mostly responsible for the Maginsky Act), whom Trump considered turning over to Putin’s FSB. Trump even seemed excited about the prospect, calling it an "interesting idea."  

"The President's going to meet with his team and we'll let you know when we have an announcement on that," White House Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

        In speeches, interviews and op-eds, John Bolton has called Vladimir Putin a liar who aligns himself with America’s enemies, and whose country is a long-term strategic threat to the United States. So what was Bolton’s reaction to Trump finding Putin's offer "incredible" last July?

(Crickets)

        It was left to Sarah Sanders to respond. “It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it," Sanders said in a statement. It took Trump four days until he finally "disagreed with it." How do we even know Trump disagrees with this proposal, especially since it was made to him in sincerity and he originally said it was an incredible offer? Trump should tell us what was incredible about it. Of course, Trump didn’t bother to verbally disavow it himself, nor would Sanders. Trump didn’t say, do, or tweet jacksh*t. Sanders just issued a statement. When that didn’t put out the raging firestorm it caused, the State Department sent out spokeswoman-apologist Heather Nauert to try to undo the damage by telling a reporter that Russia’s request is “absolutely absurd.” That shows how tough Bolton and the Trump administration can be.
BOLTON...
SAID...
NOTHING

        Bolton will defend U.S. citizens even against the world…as long as Trump isn’t trying to sell them out.

        This is why Bob Woodward’s observations about Trump are so critical. Trump is a very real threat to the safety and well-being of every American.

A Quiet Coup d'etat Has Taken Place in the U.S. Government

We have had a bloodless coup d’état in Washington DC if the anonymous New York Times op-ed author is to be believed. Men and women we didn’t elect are running things any way they want, and they corral Trump like he’s a five-year-old claiming they are protecting us by doing so. They are talking about Trump’s behavior and character as being childish and they must keep him 'cribbed' to prevent him from acting on his impulses.

PEOPLE WE DIDN’T ELECT ARE RUNNIG THE GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT US FROM TRUMP.

One of Trump’s earliest cheerleaders in the Senate, Bob Corker, less than a year ago described the White House as an Adult Day Care Center where they swipe things off Trump’s desk so he can’t sign them and he forgets they were even there, just like what happens with an easily-distractible five-year-old. Corker has not changed his view on that. This past July, Lindsey Graham had to scold Trump on TV that “Putin is not your friend” like he was talking to a kindergartner. Graham has not walked that back. Is anyone in the GOP concerned about the optics of this? The man elected as the head of that party is being handled like a little child, and the GOP basically is saying “Yeah, we know. It’s been that way since day one. But we work around it and we get as much of our agenda crammed through under his name until someone comes along and figures out what’s really going on.”

SO PEOPLE WE DIDN’T ELECT ARE RUNNING OUR GOVERNMENT AND USING TRUMP AS A SHIELD.

Trump, who is being described as an amoral dimwit, is being used by the Republicans so they can do what they want almost unchecked. Keep in mind, the op-ed letter writer is proud of what they’ve accomplished so far, which, all things considered, isn't much. But of course it includes the program to terrorize kids by separating them from their parents at the border, the tax cuts rammed through last December of which 83% of it will benefit the wealthiest 2% of the population - like Trump – and add almost $2 trillion (with a “T”) to the deficit, and are now attempting to rush through a Supreme Court pick who is on record as saying that a president should not be subpoenaed or even investigated. The GOP is going along with forcing through and putting a man on the Supreme Court who will most likely get to decide cases regarding Trump’s criminal liabilities, obstruction of justice, and possible violations of ethics, security, and political power. Because if Kavanaugh says Trump is above the law, then the GOP gets the Putin-installed childish puppet to continue to cover for them for the next 2 to 6 years. Thanks for putting party before country, GOP.

PEOPLE WE DIDN’T ELECT ARE RUNNING OUR GOVERNMENT SO PUTIN CAN’T RUN IT.

Every U.S. intelligence agency (along with warnings from our foreign intelligence friends) clearly identified Russia as having infiltrated and influenced the 2016 election. Who did Putin’s meddling get elected? Trump is indebted to Putin one way or another. 
        And from people inside this administration, there have been repeated whisperings to reporters, analyses of his speeches, and detailed information given to reputable authors about Trump’s unfitness for office. So the adults in the room - these are supposedly Trump’s “best people” - have gently pried the government away from Trump like you take a toy away from a five-year-old. And through this op-ed letter, they have assured us they are doing it to protect us from Trump’s worst inclinations, like, say, aiding and abetting a hostile foreign power or violating his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, the nation, and the people who serve it by saying he believed Putin over his own intelligence people. The GOP wants to protect this charade so they can continue to govern in Trump’s place because Trump doesn’t appear to know what he’s doing. The letter implies they did this for altruistic reasons because they can’t trust Trump’s decision-making. Like we're in a plane with a disabled pilot spiralling toward the ground and the anonymous resistance member is able to reach up and tap the rudder pedals or nudge the throttle every so often to delay the impending crash. 

We did not elect these people. Aren’t Trump supporters upset that there is a quiet resistance to Trump’s inclinations? Doesn’t it bother them that the president is described as, and treated like, an unruly five-year-old? Do they support a coup d’état carried out quietly by unelected people who are now making governing decisions for them? They’re not doing what Trump wants; they are doing what they want. Trump is not in control. He’s being treated like a child because he appears to be acting like a child. They say they are doing it to defend the republic, and make it seem noble that they get to make all the decisions instead of the five-year-old. If you’re a Trump supporter, is that what you want the government to do? Keep him contained in such a way as to minimize whatever damage he can do? If you’re a Trump supporter why would you tolerate that? Either one…that he is being kept from governing or that someone is having to corral him and govern in his place?

WE HAVE HAD A VERY QUIET AND HIDDEN COUP D’ÉTAT CARRIED OUT IN OUR GOVERNMENT.

If Trump is not capable of conducting the affairs and duties of the office of the presidency, then get him out of office legally. That's what you can do. That is what you must do. Don’t take over and then tell us you’re doing it for our own good to save us from what Trump is trying to do. Present your case to the American people. We decide. You don’t.