Friday, September 28, 2018

Riposte


This is a response to an individual who rabidly defended Brett Kavanaugh, insisting, with no actual knowledge, that he was innocent  of any sexual abuse of anyone ever, and that Dr Ford, who testified to contrary the had probably had something happen to her, but it wasn't "him."  Along the way she referred to me as a zealot for  disagreeing with her. She also, in true conspiracy theory style, flatly stated that Democrats were using  Dr Ford, a PhD, because they hated anything Trump ( and lets face it Kavanaugh is Trump's creature here. Of course she started with "You don't know me." 

Dear XXXXXXXXXX,

You are absolutely correct, sort of. While I don’t “know you” personally, I certainly do know you by your own words, which were either written in error or do reveal your attitudes toward to the discussion in point. XXXXX can confirm, and my writing indicates, that I'm not a "zealot." What I am is a fact based writer.  Nowhere did I, as you do throughout, assert opinion as fact. I do however, in your writing, see the continued use of "believe" in place of "know." I see an insistence of blaming/shaming persons who could well have remained silent and who gain absolutely nothing and stand to lose much, especially personal privacy for the rest of their lives, by coming forward.

Accusing the "Democrats" implies that an accomplished woman, a PhD, is so naive that she let herself be used (your words not mine), but to what end? The ruination of her life? You state that you believe that she had a “bad experience” but is so damaged that she doesn't know who the perpetrator was. Really? Kavanaugh has much to gain by lying and relatively little to lose. He will remain on the federal bench for life or retirement, regardless.

I cannot begin to fathom the motivation of those, especially women who blindly adhere to the Trump illusion. Certainly, any rational female, confronted with uncontroverted proof that their candidate slept with at least one woman, and that a porn star, while his wife was pregnant, might be forgiven for reconsidering their support of said serial adulterer. Of course, if you believe that Trump's attorney paid off the woman just out of generosity...! It's unfathomable that so much bad behavior doesn't seem to register with the real zealots of the far right.

When Trump said during the campaign, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," I honestly believed any intelligent Republican would pause to reconsider their blind allegiance. I was obviously looking through the wrong lens.

I mourn the death of the Eisenhower Republican party. I wonder at the reasons that Trump supporters maintain their slavish devotion, when I look at what he has done. Then, revisiting transference, I'm forced to believe, based on actions and attitudes that they support Trump initiatives because they feel and believe as he does. What are those apparent "core beliefs"? I say apparent since I find it hard to actually find any discernable core values in Trump world, but such as there are read as follows:

Immigrants are bad unless US businesses "need them" ("Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?")

Most women are liars, and powerful men, all moral (except Democrats) are under siege.

Although discredited by essentially every credible economist in the country, tariffs and trade wars are good.

The good will of the rest of the world is meaningless

When wealthy American businesses move to manufacture off-shore to maximize profits with accompanying US job losses, that’s somehow the Democrats fault. As a collateral to this, it is interesting that clothing such as Trump and his daughter manufacture overseas and sell in the US is not part of Trump's tariff gambit. 

Responsible mainstream media are now “left wing” if they disagree with anything Trump wants

Coal is “clean, beautiful coal” instead of one of the leading carcinogenic pollutants in the atmosphere

The environment is relatively unimportant and the EPA (created by the Nixon administration!) is just an annoyance to corporate polluters

Black people are just naturally lazy (“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks.”

Veterans don’t really deserve respect ("[John McCain is] not a war hero. He's a war hero - he's a war hero 'cause he was captured. I Like people that weren't captured, OK, I hate to tell you."

Incredibly and falsely inflated ego ("Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault." (Not if his fifth- grade writing is any indication. He never even made Dean’s List in college.)

"Show me someone with no ego and I'll show you a big loser." He must mean losers like Einstein, Hawking, Jonas Salk, Rosa Parks…losers like those people.

And, this lover of women on breastfeeding mothers: “You’re disgusting”

Finally, the “Trump economy?” The federal deficit, which Republicans screamed about when Obama was trying to dig out of the worst economic collapse since the great depression, will be more than 5% of GDP this year. This is a level never previously seen when unemployment was under 10%. Why is this happening? Good question, and here’s the incontrovertible answer. After constantly referring to “Tax and Spend liberals” as a campaign slogan, The Trump Administration’s budget reduced taxes (not so much on “us,” but a lot on the “one-percenters”) while greatly increasing spending. You've got more spending. You've got less revenue. And the deficit is just getting bigger and bigger, to the point where it will be at least a trillion dollars every year during the Trump administration and beyond." Some economist, huh?

So, in summary, one is almost forced to conclude that if you are a Trump supporter, these attitudes are ones you also embrace. If so, then I am truly sorry for you. If not, then maybe some introspection is in order. Anyone who points out these factual positions and asks, “Why?,” isn’t a Zealot, but a realist. The Zealot never asks why!

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