Trump will give them their privileged positions back

I continually wonder why anyone would vote for Trump, baffled by how his supporters can ignore his crude comments about women, where grabbing them by the crotch is somehow considered locker-room-talk-acceptable, where women are simply aesthetically pleasing objects, should be punished for having an abortion, or are dogs, pigs, slobs, and disgusting animals. Where promises made and then broken about Trump releasing his tax records doesn’t upset any of them. Where he demands to know, three times in less than an hour interview, if the U.S. has nuclear weapons, why we don’t use them? (Apparently forgetting we DID in August 1945.) I was still searching Friday night when I happened to have a conversation with a newscaster at one of the radio stations where I work. My co-worker is a reporter for the news/talk station. We had a 15-minute window to discuss the current election and he talked about people he interviewed at a Trump rally last week in Sanford, Florida. What he told me confirmed what I had long suspicioned but had no concrete proof until these Trump supporters out-and-out admitted it.

People are supporting Trump because he is promising them that they can have their privileged positions back.

It doesn’t matter that he can’t deliver on any of it. He verbally soothes their ruffled feathers to let them know that they will once again have those lofty places on pedestals, and receive the preferential treatment they deserve. Just elect him and he will make sure they get it all back.

A white male and two females the reporter talked to identified themselves as evangelical Christians and they were thrilled that Trump has guaranteed them they will have their positions of power and privilege returned. It would make for a better world where biblical law was the law of the land, where other laws would be re-enacted to secure Christianity’s unassailable position above all other religions across the country, where stores closed according to biblical dictates; like no working on Sunday, where school-led prayers would be everyday occurrences, ten commandment monuments and plaques would be commonplace in government buildings, and the Supreme Court would automatically strike down laws that went against biblical teaching, like same-sex marriage and women holding a position of authority over men, like, say, president. (Guess who that was aimed at?).They did say Mormons, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, and others would be free to worship, just out of sight, out of mind… where any Christian could not see them.(Although one woman did say she was not in favor of it because those people worshiped false gods) They were also sick of seeing caucasians pushed to the side. Trump would fix that.

Another man was a former factory worker. He had completed 10^th grade but didn’t need college as he used to have a fairly good paying job on an assembly line in Michigan. He was angered about all the American jobs that were sent overseas and supported Trump because he would bring those jobs back. He was glad Trump would build a wall to keep all the Mexicans out. They were taking American jobs. The reporter asked him if his job was sent to Mexico…would it be returned by Trump…and did he want it back? The guy said his job was still in Michigan, but that his position has been automated. He had been replaced by a computerized machine. He was asked if he went back to get trained to work the machine. “Hell no,” the guy responded, “but we got to get our manufacturing jobs back. Those are American jobs!” What kind of pay would he want to do those old manufacturing jobs? He felt he was worth $25 to $30 an hour. The reporter didn’t mention that very same job in Mexico paid $8.50 an hour, nor was Jose coming here to take a job away.  

Another group holding up anti-gay signs said they were fed up with seeing LGBTQ people get so many rights that they didn’t deserve. They claimed the Pulse shooting in Orlando gave these people national exposure and changed the way they were seen in society. The reporter asked, “Should they be discriminated against?” “Well, they shouldn’t have the same laws and rights we have. It’s not right.” one man was blunt enough to say. Trump will repeal all those liberal laws so that his supporters are once again allowed to be politically incorrect and treat others with disdainful behavior and unethical actions. Hell, they’ve earned the right.

Trump's supporters are quick to condemn Hillary Clinton in the most derogatory and threatening manner possible. It gives them a fallback position. But it is because, like with religion, Trump makes one empty promise after another and his followers don’t need even a hint of evidence that he’ll deliver; he’s the only candidate who is telling them they can have their pedestals back and return to a lofty position of looking down on everyone else like it was meant to be in their dreams.

What a privilege.

The Coming Civil War

I hope I am wrong. I really, fervently hope I am completely off-base and that I’m worrying about nothing. But the signs are there that my worrying appears to be quite justified. I never thought this country could be threatened with ANOTHER civil war.

In the United States, we are about to elect a new president. Every other presidential candidate in past elections has gone along with the 240-year-old tradition that they would abide by the American people’s decision on Election Day. Even in the cases of very, very close elections like in 1876, 1960 and 2000, no candidate has, prior to this election, said that he would contest the outcome or even threatened to do so out of petulance, beforehand. And all of those candidates stayed within the framework of U.S. law.

Until now.

And what this will possibly lead to...is a civil war.

 On October 9, 2016, in his debate with Hillary Clinton, feeding on his assertion that the whole election system is rigged against him, Donald Trump refused to say whether he would accept the election results with “I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense, okay?”  He followed it up on October 20th by stating he would accept them...if he wins.Those are not empty words to his followers. He is telling them ahead of time that only he should win. If he loses, it proves the system is rigged against him. And since he will leave us in suspense when that happens, his Schutzstaffel-like followers will know he was cheated and act out everything violent they’ve displayed at his rallies, only now on a national scale. Think I'm kidding?

Remember cowboy-hatted redneck John McGraw who climbed past several people to lash out and punch Rakeem Jones, a passing protester being escorted out of the rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina? This will become a weekly, then daily, and finally, an hourly event. It may get even worse since afterward Mr. McGraw said on live TV that “Maybe next time we’ll have to kill him…” Several White Supremacist organizations and right-wing fringe groups have come right out and said there will be an armed insurrection if Trump doesn't win. So expect shooting, burning, drowning, hanging…it’s all good because Trump has his crack legal team ready to defend them. Besides, someone has to stand up to those ISIS-sympathizin’,America-hatin’,non-older angry white, "libtards" who won’t kowtow to Trumpism, in whatever form he decides in best for the nation.

Remember Shirley Teters of Asheville, NC, the 69-year-old grandmother on oxygen who was punched by a Trump supporter as the guy left a rally? Police were later informed the same man had grabbed and punched several other protesters inside and outside the building before slugging Shirley in the face, knocking her to the sidewalk and bashing her head against her portable oxygen tank. This will become an acceptable way of dealing with those people Trump supporters don’t like. If you don’t love the leader, you don’t deserve to be here...at least not without fresh blood pouring out of some wounds.

 Remember Trump himself bragging to his audience that he could shoot someone and not lose any support? The allusion there was, no one would stop him before or after he pulled the trigger because everyone loves him. He is giving his followers an open invitation to do the same. Find some liberal SOB who most likely supported Clinton…and shoot them...on Fifth Avenue. Do you think Trump is going to stop them? 

These are just the tip of an iceberg of hatred, violence, animosity, malevolence, and vengeance that will lead to a torrent of blood spilling. People who are not older white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (and even a few who are) yet have had absolutely nothing to do with Clinton’s success or Trump's failure will also be drawn into a fight or a battle just for living here...and they will pay dearly for it.

Trump commands not a group of supporters; he’s now their cult leader. They’ll follow him and do whatever he says as if he was Jim Jones, David Koresh, Charles Manson, Idi Amin, and Joseph Kony rolled into one. These men are or were demagogues. They thought they were the center of the universe; everyone else orbited around them and did their bidding. Trump will expect no less from his followers. And he understands what "low information" voters they are.

If Donald J. Trump loses the election...after whining and complaining that the deck has been deliberately stacked against him, the political polls and the media have been misrepresenting his support, the whole system is rigged, and that Hillary Clinton is a criminal, unfit to be president, and should be in jail, if not dead...his followers will not say “well, it was a tough election, but Hillary won. Let’s put aside our differences and work to make our nation the best it can be.”

They will want blood.

I hope I am wrong, but I am concerned that I am not. 

"Trump...command us. We will follow you!"