WWTW: The Orange Man Himself

October 19, 2021 / amoralegria / 2 Comments

Every week Fandango’s hosts a challenge, for those who choose to accept it, called Who Won The Week? It is the opportunity that fellow bloggers have to highlight someone in the news (good or bad) that takes the ‘prize’ for that week.

My choice is Donald J. Trump. On October 14, the former president (never again!), frustrated by the lack of proof of election fraud in the 2020 elections – dubbed the “safest” election in recent times (not to mention a record voter participation) – told his followers that if the “massive fraud” is not exposed, they should NOT VOTE in 2022 or 2024 as a sign of protest. In a statement on Wednesday, Trump said, “If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in ’22 or ’24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do.” Of course, other Republican leaders rushed to ‘correct’ this idiotic mistake by the man to whom they have given their overwhelming loyalty and tacit support as the leader of the GOP.

GREENVILLE, NC – JUNE 05: Former U.S. President Donald Trump exits the NCGOP state convention on June 5, 2021 in Greenville, North Carolina. The event is one of former U.S. President Donald Trumps first high-profile public appearances since leaving the White House in January. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, many conservative states have passed or are considering legislation to restrict voting turnout and have either fired or threatened state election officials, who have been besieged by threatening phone calls and messages (some have received death threats, including local election officials who are Republicans and Trump supporters) and many of these officials are being primaried by more loyal Trump supporters who would go along with falsifying results of future elections if Republicans lose in their districts.

If Trump’s supporters follow his directive – and there is little reason to think they won’t – it may not be difficult for Democrats to maintain and even increase their Congressional majority. That would be good for the Biden administration, who currently must curry favor with two conservative Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kristin Sinema, who seem to currently have the power to shape Biden’s “Build Back Better” comprehensive reconciliation infrastructure bill.

I don’t have high hopes that all Trump supporters will not vote in the midterm elections, but Trump has only one concern: himself. His fans still don’t get that he has no interest in improving their lives or helping the country; he only cares about himself, as a true narcissist. Even so, I like to think right now that maybe electing Democrats isn’t a lost cause after all, and for that reason, Trump gets my vote for the person who “won” the week.

SYW: On Laws vs Justice, Insurrections, & Artwork

July 19, 2021 / amoralegria / 5 Comments

It’s Monday and time for Melanie’s Share Your World questions.

QUESTIONS

Are justice and the law necessarily the same thing?

No. Laws are the rules we live by and justice is treating everyone fairly according to the law. Example: Marijuana possession has been made legal in many states, but before that happened, black people were more likely to be convicted and go to prison than whites. Even today, prisons are crowded with people of color, especially blacks, disproportionally according to their population. George Floyd died because of some petty charge about using a counterfeit $20 bill; then the police arrived and used bodily force even though he posed no threat to them. Even if George Floyd had had a record, there was no justification for what the police did. I can’t see that happening to white people. My son was once caught with weed paraphernalia and taken to a local police station. The police then called us to come and post bail. We did and he was freed. Later, the bail was reimbursed. Trayvon Martin was killed by a white wannabe cop and his killer was acquitted in the state of Florida. It’s clear that in this country, there is still less justice for people of color.

Which kitchen appliance do you use every day?

The refrigerator and the microwave oven. My husband uses the grind and brew coffee maker every day, but I can no longer drink coffee.

What is one thing you’ll never do again?
Get pregnant and have another child. I’m way too old!

What event escalated very quickly?

The Trump rally on January 6 that ended up as a insurrection and assault on our nation’s Capitol, during which rioters smashed windows, destroyed property, and killed a policeman. Five people died that day. What did Trump do? He dragged his feet on calling on the National Guard to help restore order, so in spite of pleas for help from lawmakers inside the building, no back-up arrived.

GRATITUDE (As always, optional)

Feel free to share something that made you feel good from the past week!

People have admired my artwork and one person even offered to buy one of my drawings of a cat. I wasn’t there at the time, but probably would have sold it. The circumstances don’t matter; I am just happy that people have been very encouraging about my artwork, and that is a great motivation to continue doing it!

SYW: On Telling the Truth, Freddie Mercury and Covid Vaccines

March 2, 2021March 2, 2021 / amoralegria / 5 Comments

It’s question week for me, and every week I look forward to Melanie’s Share Your World. Following are her questions for this week.

QUESTIONS:

Is every piece of truth worth telling? (credit to the magnificent Cyranny for this one)
No, not at all. Sometimes the truth is brutal. Telling someone they are fat, for example. It may be the truth but you don’t say it. Instead, you find a way to compliment that person with another (hopefully) true opinion, such as “I love your outfit!” or “That shirt looks great on you!” Can an opinion be the truth? It is if it is your true opinion! 😉

Important truths, however, must be told, brutal or not. Such as the fact that Joe Biden won the U.S. election for president. Such as Trump won’t admit defeat due to his pathological narcissism, which is why he continues to maintain that he won, and that makes him dangerous. Such as OANN and Fox have been lying to you. Who and how these truths ought to be told is another matter. If you want people to believe you are telling the truth, you must be believable to them. A left-leaning activist should not be the one to address the right-wing about what is the truth and what is not. It’s not just politics – people tend to believe what fits their own world view; this has been shown through study after study. Why do you gravitate to certain news sources rather than others that are also readily available? How do you know who is telling the truth? What if it is all a huge conspiracy? There are people who tend to believe conspiracies, but I am not one of them. And personally, although it’s interesting, I don’t really care why Oswald killed Kennedy. The fact that he did it is what determined the future.

I try to be objective when hearing people who claim to be truth-tellers, like the media I choose to watch or read (because those sources fit my world view, I guess – but I think it is more than that). Some things just don’t ring true. Giant conspiracies that would involve coordination between thousands of people across the globe just are not believable. The view of one scientist who is a friend of your brother’s wife’s cousin that climate change isn’t happening doesn’t hold up to the vast majority of scientists in the world who maintain that it is and we must do something about it. Take a moment before forwarding that Facebook post to think, does this sound like it’s true? There are ways of investigating what is the truth and what is not, and the process of learning this should begin in middle school when kids begin to do a lot of Internet surfing and research. Lies are disseminated when social media users feel drawn to a particular concept or meme, and then forward it to others they know who basically think the same way they do. We are all guilty of this, without exception, I think. But I have always had a streak of skepticism in me, and if it sounds too bizarre or ridiculous to be true, I check the source and then fact-check the information, if it’s important enough to me.

Big truths should and must be told, but small ones are up to the teller. Will telling the truth in this case just hurt somebody’s feelings or will it make a difference in their decision-making? If the former, don’t tell it; if the latter, one probably should. Withholding the truth should never be an excuse, only a reason.

Whom do you miss more Freddy Mercury or Prince? (if you don’t know who those people are, just skip this question. It’s cool).
I know who both of them are, but Freddie Mercury is not dead. He lives on in the body of one of my grandcats, an orange Maine coon mix who is very frisky, naughty, and loveable!

Freddie Mercury loves his new dog sister, Lydia, and likes to cuddle with her.

If you could only email or text people for the rest of your life (no other form of communication), which would you chose?
Email might be more practical, but it is also slow and easy to miss in the slew of emails I get on a daily basis and don’t have time to read. I love texting and prefer it even to speaking on the phone.

Would you prefer to work the midnight shift at a really creepy out of the way motel OR work alone for eternity?
Thank God I don’t have to make that choice!

Bonus question because yes, these are a weird bunch (no worries – I did Bushboy’s yesterday!) this week: What’s one secret you’re still keeping from your immediate family? (no details required. You could say something like “The lost weekend in 1982”. You can also answer “Why I NEVER keep secrets from my nearest and dearest!”).
That I never really loved my first husband. At least, I’ve never told my son (whose father is my ex) that. This may be an instance in which telling the brutal truth is not a good idea. I believe that when parents separate, it’s best not to always trash the other parent to the kids; be honest but try to be positive too.

GRATITUDE SECTION (always optional)

Please feel free to share something uplifting that you’ve experienced so far in 2021.
I wouldn’t call it uplifting but I am grateful for it – Dale and I have had both doses of the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19 with its 95% effectiveness rate! We both had a few symptoms: I felt general malaise for a day, with headache. I took a long nap complemented with extra-strength Tylenol. Now we both feel fine!

Most Americans to be vaccinated for COVID-19 by July, CDC chief expects | National | unionleader.com

SYW: Lawlessness, Adulthood, Conspiracies & Beautiful Places

February 3, 2021February 3, 2021 / amoralegria / 5 Comments

Melanie has some new thoughtful questions this week for Share Your World.

QUESTIONS:

If the government offered to suspend all laws, and law enforcement for 24 hours, letting you (and everybody else) do whatever you wish… Would you be in favor of it, or not?

Absolutely not! There are already enough gun-toting, crazy fanatics out there (and a few in Congress!) ready to make trouble without giving them one more incentive!

What would be the creepiest thing you could say while passing a stranger on the street? (We’re suspending the whole social distancing and Covid involvement in this scenario)

I’m not a creepy person so the only way to scare someone (if that were the objective) would be to act like a lunatic. I’ve had creepy things said to me, but I can’t imagine myself saying those things to others.

As a child, what did you think would be great about being an adult, but isn’t as great as you thought it would be?

Getting married and having kids. Don’t get me wrong – I have enjoyed both, but there have been plenty of hardships and bad moments. I wanted to have two children and teach them to be good human beings, and feeling proud when they graduated from college and started their careers. I thought I would never get divorced because I would find the right person, my “soul mate.” I also imagined myself having a perfect career. In the end, I got divorced from my first husband and married again when it was no longer feasible to have more children. I had only one child (although I gained a stepdaughter, but I didn’t raise her) and he has suffered many problems due to mental illness. He has had plenty of dead-end jobs but to this date has never fulfilled his career ambitions. I didn’t either, really. I wanted to be a writer or an international journalist. The closest I have come is blogging about places I have been internationally! (And the pay isn’t very good! 😉 )

What, in your opinion, has been blown way out of proportion?

Conspiracy theories. Not the fact that they are reported on, but the fact that so many people actually believe in them. If you really stop and think about some of these wacko scenarios, do you think they sounds realistic? Hillary Clinton running an underage sex trafficking business out of a pizza parlor? It just doesn’t sound plausible at all. Or the idea that the entire Democratic Party is part of a “deep state” plot to turn the United States into a communist country and control the people. Really?? Think about the vast number of people that it would take to pull this off without being caught. Or to promote the lie that the coronavirus is a hoax and mass shootings didn’t happen. Not only is this hurtful to those who have lost loved ones to Covid-19 and mass shootings, but imagine what it would take to actually pull these fake scenarios off, and never having anyone involved in them defect to the other side. Hundreds of scientists would have to have been coerced into promoting the idea that a fast-spreading virus is a hoax and that they (the Democrats, of course) would have to mount some incredible scenes of people in hospitals being tended by harried medical workers and stories they would have to tell about their feelings when they lost patients. Climate change is a hoax? So people are going to believe one or two fringe scientists instead of an entire body of thousands of scientists who can prove climate change is happening? Then one “outsider” (Trump) comes along to “take back” our country from these horrible Democrats who have no compassion at all, just ambition. It just doesn’t make sense.

Of course, there is never any proof for conspiracy theories but much damage has been done because an alarming number of people believe in them and a few feel it is their job to do something about it.

Gratitude Section (Optional as always)

Where is your ‘happy’ place?

Sightseeing in a place that inspires awe. In other words, traveling to foreign lands or being privileged to see places that make me grateful to be alive.

SYW: Good Riddance to 2020, and the State of the Nation

December 28, 2020December 28, 2020 / amoralegria / 3 Comments

SHARE YOUR WORLD 12-28-2020 – Melanie’s last Share Your World of 2020!

Pick three words to describe this past year. (please keep them PG. Thanks).
frustrating, appalling, anger-inducing

What were the best books you read this year? Or the best movie you saw?
The best books I’ve read this year are not new: I don’t normally read Stephen King, but I loved the novel 11/22/63 which I read for a book group. Other than that, I have read a lot of novels written in the 1990s set in ancient Egypt. Historical fiction is my favorite genre and right now I’m kind of obsessed with ancient Egypt. All the books written by Pauline Gedge are excellent. I also read some political books, including Mary Trump’s book about her uncle: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Once I’d read that I could predict how Trump would react to losing reelection – he wouldn’t and doesn’t accept it! But the best political/social non-fiction book I read this year was Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. I highly recommend it.

One of the best movies I saw was on Netflix, Social Dilemma – it’s fairly new, and I encourage everyone to see it. You’ll never look at Facebook the same way again! I don’t see too many movies, unfortunately. I saw some old ones that either I never saw before or wanted to see again such as Out of Africa (somewhat of a disappointment) and Dr. Zhivago (because I just finished the novel The Secrets We Kept about smuggling the manuscript of the novel by Boris Pasternak out of the Soviet Union). I enjoyed seeing Dr. Zhivago again, although the copy we got from the library had a lot of scratches. A lot of what I watch are news shows and videos we watch on our community broadcasting channels. Also PBS series such as Nova and Masterpiece.

Because there was lots of time for looking inward, what is one big personal lesson you learned this past year?
Perseverance – the pandemic has lasted longer than perhaps it should have due to mismanagement and lack of leadership. What galls me is how people just drag it on longer by refusing to wear masks (see answer to the next question). I have persevered by accepting what is. I don’t like wearing a mask any more than anyone else; I don’t like not being able to go out with my friends; I especially don’t like not being able to travel – but it’s what we have to do to stay healthy! I’ve read a lot of books and worked on my artwork, and have tried to take a walk every day that has weather I can tolerate.

Another lesson is gratitude: being grateful for the blessings I have, appreciative of people who put their lives on the line to save others, and not taking anything for granted. I see happiness in small things: reading a good book, watching flowers bloom, and baby chicks grow. Nature continues on as usual.

Do you think Covid has strengthened or weakened societal bonds?
I would love to say strengthened, and I think on an individual level, that may be true: developing or solidifying relationships, appreciating the different jobs people do that may put their lives in danger during a pandemic, and working together to solve problems. But societally, our country is even more divided. I am somewhat surprised at this. I am surprised that in spite of the federal government’s terrible handling of the pandemic, over 70 million people in this country voted to reelect Trump! Fortunately they did not prevail, but I am appalled at how people have protested the dumbest things, such as wearing masks as an infringement on their freedom. Sorry, but their freedom ends where the next person’s begins so they need to take some responsibility for their behavior and not infect other people when they leave their home! And the denial of science – there are still people who are sick with Covid, go to the hospital and when told the diagnosis, deny it and say it’s a hoax! Why don’t some people believe doctors and nurses who put their lives on the line to save others? It’s all become politicized and it didn’t have to be. Trump and his Republican lackeys politicized it, instead of helping to unify the people of this country in combatting it.

It’s really shaken my confidence in the citizenry of this nation as supporting democracy and our values, such as stewardship, responsibility, and compassion. It’s also made me fear we can no longer have a dialogue – there are alternate messages of what is truth. How can one dialogue with a person that doesn’t share the same reality?

What is a New Year’s Wish You’d Like To Share With the World?

May 2021 give us 2020 hindsight and may the new year bring us the light at the end of the tunnel!

Truthful Tuesday: Election Results

November 10, 2020 / amoralegria / Leave a comment

Frank, PC Guy, has posted his Truthful Tuesday Challenge. Here are the questions.

Have the results of the US Presidential election left you feeling relieved, apprehensive, hopeful, or some other emotion?
Relieved, definitely relieved, and hopeful that our country gets back on track. I am apprehensive at what Trump and his GOP lackeys will do in the next 70 days, and also very wishful for the Georgia Senate election in January. If Democrats win both those seats, they will gain control of the Senate. It’s a long shot, but I have already made a larger than usual donation to Jon Ossof’s campaign, and I will do the same for the Democrat in the other race, Warnock. If the Republicans retain control of the Senate, we will have to put up with Moscow Mitch calling the shots, getting nothing done, and Biden will have to issue an awful lot of executives orders!
Have you been surprised at all by the emotions and reactions of others regarding the results? No, I have been very happy and sympathetic at the outpouring of joy, released emotional reactions when the election was called for Biden-Harris, after a week of tense anticipation. I loved seeing people dancing in the streets in various cities and also some pretty awesome percussion bands!!

Biden-Harris supporters celebrate victory with champagne and dancing in the streets. Photo from the *New York Times*

On Sunday, we were out doing some errands and ended up passing (3 times!) an intersection in Schaumburg filled with Trump supporters on all four corners of Golf and Meacham Roads. I was surprised at how many people driving by honked their horns in support of the Trumpies’ “cause” – calling voter fraud and believing Trump’s lies and not accepting that he lost.

I remember in 2016, and ever since, Republicans have been saying that Trump has been “harassed” by opponents, who – they claim – have never been able to accept the outcome of the 2016 election. Trump’s Republican Party hides behind this excuse in order to not accept what the other side is claiming about Trump – mainly that he is unfit to be president, he is dangerous, he is a narcissistic bigot (Lindsay’s Graham’s words before Trump got the nomination), and criticizing all the damage he has done. They cannot accept the truth about Trump and his family, regardless of all the glaring evidence, even in the midst of a pandemic that he has bungled so badly. So I find it ironic that his supporters are now showing that they don’t accept the outcome of this election!

When we drove past the Schaumburg protest the first two times, I tried to counterbalance the honking by booing, sticking my hands out the window with thumbs down and yelling, “HE LOST! HE LOST!” Unfortunately, the horns drowned me out. The third time we passed, I simply ignored them.

Pro-Trump protest in Schaumburg on Sunday, Nov. 8. Photo from the *Chicago Tribune*.

Frank, PC Guy, in his own answer, expressed surprise that so many Biden supporters are still apprehensive and worried. I understand how they feel. We don’t know how Trump is going to spend the next 70 days pushing back on the results. So far he has started several lawsuits and ordered recounts in at least two states. He wants the Supreme Court, with his new conservative appointee, to rule on the legitimacy of the election. He is a very insecure and mentally sick person – accepting defeat is not in his DNA. Also, the close outcome of the election shows how divided our society is. How will this play out in the next few years? So yes, there is good reason to worry.

FOWC: Making Assumptions

July 11, 2020 / amoralegria / 5 Comments

The word for Fandango’s One Word Challenge today is assume.

I think many of the conflicts we have with others, and the rifts between large swaths of society in the U.S. today, are due to the assumptions we make about each other. When we assume things about others, we create or reinforce stereotypes. Here are some examples:

“I assume he is a racist because he supports Trump.”

Although it is hard to understand why a person who is NOT racist would support Trump, there are many people like this. Perhaps for them, racism is not a central issue. I mean, there are even a few Blacks who support him (that I really cannot understand!). While we may think such people are stupid, ignorant, or supporting a president whose policies go against their own interests, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they are racist. Many Republicans hold their noses and put up with Trump because they want to stack the courts with conservative judges or they want abortion to be further restricted or outlawed altogether.

2. “She is college educated, graduated summa cum laude, top of her class. I assume she would never vote for Trump.”

Wrong again! Can you believe there are smart, college-educated women who vote for Trump? We assume the profile of a Trump voter is a person who is ignorant, not well-educated, racist, unintelligent, probably disgruntled white male. While many (perhaps a majority) Trump supporters may fit this profile, we should not assume all of them do.

3. “My son’s friends surely will vote this year! They didn’t in 2016 and look what happened. After living through four years of this moron, they’ll be willing to wait for hours in line just to vote him out of office.”

Once again, we should not assume that turn-out in November will be huge. We assumed Hillary Clinton was going to be elected in 2016, and look what happened. Part of the problem was low voter turn-out. I do not understand why citizens would not exercise their right to vote, one of our rights guaranteed by the Constitution. If Trump is re-elected again in 2024, we will most likely have fewer rights than we have now. Our democracy is already flawed; four more years of this corruption and ineptitude would put democracy on very precarious footing.

However, the mid-term elections of 2018 did have a record high turn-out, causing speculation among liberals that this was an indictment of the Trump administration. And aren’t there millions of young people eligible to vote for the first time registering? What about the kids who were passionate to end mass shootings? What about all the American counterparts of Greta Thunberg? Climate change is an existential threat, and so is Trump.

I can tell these things to people until I’m blue in the face, but it doesn’t guarantee they will get their asses off their couches and go to the polls on a nasty cold November day. If we assume that people are going to vote according to their interests, we will also be disappointed. People vote against their interests all the time, whether they know they are doing so or not. Voting is not an objective process – it is most often quite subjective. People vote according to what they feel, not necessarily based on knowledge or facts.

And looking at this from the other side, what do Trump supporters assume about liberal Democrats?

Don’t assume we are all left-wing or socialists. Some of us are, but most are not.
Don’t assume that when we protest, we encourage violence. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Don’t assume we want to allow anyone to come into this country, including criminals, drug pushers, and rapists. We simply want an immigration system that is humane and respectful to those who seek asylum.
Don’t assume we are all in on some insidious plot to ultimately overthrow the U.S. government.
Don’t assume we all want to take away all your guns.
Don’t assume we want to encourage voter fraud by allowing people to vote by mail.
Don’t assume we want to “discriminate” against white people. I am white, why would I want that? We just embrace the ethnic diversity that our country has undeniably become.

I think most assumptions we make about “the other side” are based on our own biases and often are “projections” (saying that ‘the other side’ is doing whatever nefarious deeds that in fact your own leaders are doing).

What we need to do, instead of pushing people away by making assumptions about them, is to communicate with each other. Engage in a dialogue. We will certainly not always agree, and probably won’t change others’ minds about most things, but we can at least understand each other. We may even end up liking each other, sometimes.

FPQ #70: The 39% of Americans

May 23, 2020May 23, 2020 / amoralegria / 5 Comments

FPQ #70 is:

If you could choose anyone, past or present, and walk that proverbial mile in his or her shoes, who would you choose, and why would you choose that person?

I have been thinking about this question for a couple of days, since I read Melanie’s response that she would choose Trump and why. I thought her reasoning was good. Tonight after listening to the news of the pandemic, getting worse and more chaotic every day, and Trump’s response worse every day, I decided who I would choose:

A typical die-hard Trump supporter (such as a certain otherwise nice man in Florida that I happen to be tangentially related to)

Why? Because I cannot fathom how, after three months of the worst response by a national leader in the world to a worldwide pandemic, with over a million cases and almost 100,000 dead in the U.S. alone, anyone can actually listen to Trump and still support him.

I know that die-hard Trump supporters have been hearing for years that Democrats are the cause of all the problems in this country. The aforementioned “gentleman” has posted as much on Facebook. He states a problem that really has nothing to do with politics and then blames the Democrats. (The only thing he hasn’t blamed on Democrats is his wife’s terminal illness.) So with this conditioning, this group of gullibles is ripe for conspiracy theorists, the rantings of Rush Limbaugh and the lies of right wing media (as well as the half-truths of Fox). I understand that.

But certainly these people must be seeing what is happening all around them right now. What is happening bears no resemblance to the rosy picture Trump has been trying to paint. People are afraid because friends and relatives are getting covid-19 and some of them are dying. People are scared to go back to work where they could be exposed. Health care workers and hospitals are over-extended. Many of the Trump supporters’ friends and family, I’m sure, have lost their jobs and now have no health insurance. (Almost everyone was promised a check from the government to help with expenses during the pandemic. I don’t know a single person who has actually received one.)

Turn on the TV and they will see their “hero” Donald Trump. Every day he blatantly lies to us. He doesn’t know what he is doing. It is obvious to any thinking person that the man is completely out of his league during this crisis. First he tried to deny the seriousness of it, saying it would soon disappear. (Ignore a problem and it will go away – works every time!!) A week or so later, he was saying that the “warm weather” that would come in April would make it go away. Of course, that didn’t happen (nor was the weather in April particularly warm this year – no surprise there). Over the succeeding weeks, he continued to make one false statement or assumption after another.

My memory has never been very good, yet I don’t have trouble keeping track of these statements. So why is the average Trump supporter not beginning to have doubts about a president who can’t get the story straight and constantly contradicts himself or contradicts what is clearly happening in hospitals and workplaces all over the country?

He says he doesn’t “take responsibility” for any of the things that have gone wrong. Even if he were completely blameless, a real leader DOES carry the responsibility for the welfare of his/her country even when that leader has done everything correctly! Trump shows no sympathy, no empathy. Every time he is in front of the public, he is campaigning for re-election. About a month ago, when the CDC officials were still allowed to be present at his daily briefings, he actually had a propaganda video about how great a job he has done since January in handling the pandemic! How does this help the viewers get the information they need to carry on with their lives? If they have to stay at home, what good does it do to tell them how great their president is – why not at least show some empathy for what the people are going through.

When Congress passed relief bills, he took all the credit. He announced that everyone would get a check for over $1000 to help them through (not that that was enough, but still, it was a start), yet few people have received it up until now. He trashes the post office (which would be delivering these relief checks to people) because he is afraid of voting by mail.

He said “everyone who wants a test can get a test” and repeatedly has declared that the United States has done more testing than any other nation. In that case, why do we have the most cases and the most deaths of anywhere in the world? (And this without the widespread testing he claims we have.) Certainly some of these Trump supporters have heard stories of sick people who have gone to the ER to try to get a coronavirus test and were turned away because testing wasn’t available.

So even being indoctrinated by right-wing media, people are seeing what Trump is publicly doing and saying every day. Pence goes to the Mayo Clinic and won’t wear a mask. Trump is so vain he didn’t want to be photographed wearing a mask while visiting an auto plant in Michigan. He took it off within a short time, in violation of the company’s rules. Why do Trump supporters think this is a good thing, that it’s okay for him to put other people’s lives in danger and to disrespect the rules established in that place?

He claims he has been taking a malaria drug as a preventive measure for covid-19 (which is doubtful, but since he insists on it, I will assume he is for now), yet doctors have been saying that there is no proof that it works for coronavirus and in fact, can have serious negative side effects. He muses that maybe we should ingest bleach, because it works to sanitize our counters and toilets. Some really stupid people actually tried it after he said that. This is the thing your parents told you from a young age was dangerous to drink and kept it locked in a cabinet with child safety locks.

And now he is actively encouraging the states to “reopen” their economies and get on with normal life, even though it has already been proven that physical distancing and staying at home, and wearing masks in public, have been effective for at least containing the virus’ spread. I get it – people need to work, they need their lives back. But do they want to risk their lives and their loved ones’ lives so they can go back to drinking in bars and getting haircuts? Do they really want to send their kids to school or go to church if it endangers their lives?

So if I could “walk in the shoes” of an avid Trump supporter for 24 hours during the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic, I would do it. I really want to understand why 39% of the American population still thinks Trump has handled this crisis well. I really want to know why their reality is so different from everyone else’s.

Wanderlust & Wonderment

My writing and photo journey of inspiration and discovery

trump supporters