Curiosities

Curiosities

        There are aspects of some of Trump's more rabid supporters which are de facto proof that they simply have been gulled by a master of bloviation and bombast.

        We live in a retirement community which, while by no means all "Red," is undoubtedly majority Republican, based on the number of Trump stickers in evidence. Many of these individuals are former union members, now retired, who are able to live here because they had decent retirement plans and health  insurance, much of it negotiated in collective bargaining. Please don't misunderstand, some American unions have, in my opinion, been exceptionally greedy and have hurt the public perception of the labor movement, but  enough about the UAW and Teamsters.

        For a former Union employee to support Trump is to completely ignore  his consistent anti-labor actions and positions. Even his own product line is produced by non-union workers outside the US.  If you believe that Trump has any intent of moving production back here, you are delusional.  Trump is Scott Walker on a bad hair day as regards his position on labor rights.  He has, at times, simply used bankruptcy to avoid paying for work done.  He stiffed thousands of union employees in Atlantic City. This managerial genius (just ask him) has a deplorable failure rate. This is, in part, why US banks are leery of loaning him any more money.  Which brings me to the next issue.

        So where does Trump find financing? Why from Russian oligarchs like his apparent pal, Vladimir Putin. I was appalled back in  2001 when we heard this from George W. Bush, “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy,.... . . I was able to get a sense of his soul.”  That was hideous, and as Bush found out, a misimpression,  and President Obama has no such illusions. Meanwhile Trump owes money to some of Putin's high powered friends, and , make no mistake about it, Putin is no democrat. He has said that he considers the collapse of the Soviet union “The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”  These comments in 2005 are a mirror of the  man. Bush was still POTUS and Putin was waxing nostalgic over the anniversary of the end of WWII (The "Great Patriotic Struggle" in Soviet era history books. ) The memory of all of us needs to be jogged to recall that prior to Hitler's abrogation of his treaty with Stalin, the Soviets had been silent Nazi allies. There is little evidence that Putin's moral fiber is much stronger than "Uncle Joe's."  The Russians/Soviets have ever been political pragmatists. Trump as debtor to them is economically frightening, but  Trump in control of  nuclear weapons, having demonstrated that he is frequently incapable of exercising even a modicum of  control over himself,  is dangerous.  

        Finally, for now, I remain baffled at the rabid support for Trump of those who call themselves Evangelical Christians. Of course as some of us know, "evangelical " is a code for "we're right, you're wrong, our way or the highway."  If anyone is truly concerned regarding either candidate's moral stance  consider this. Donald Trump has only been to church (any church) since his teens, other than his three marriages, to campaign. Period. Of course early in the campaign, in true Trump style he commented that "we don't really know anything about her (Ms. Clinton's) religious activities." As he is prone to do, he shot off his mouth with no real factual basis for his comments, other than the desire to slur his opponent.  He did it to his Primary opponents,  and he has certainly done it to Mrs. Clinton. I have just related  above the entirety of Trump's affiliation with a church - any church - essentially none for the last 50 years.

        So what of, his opponent? Heathen, demon seed, apostate heretic? Well, actually no. Hillary Clinton was raised from childhood in the United Methodist Church, which she still attends when in a stable schedule. She taught Sunday school as a teen, and worked with church sponsored  children's groups even in college. At Wellesley, “Clinton regularly read the Methodist Church’s Motive magazine,”  she and Bill Clinton were married by a Methodist minister, and  in 1993, she joined a women’s prayer group. When Bill Clinton was President, the Clinton family regularly attended Washington’s Foundry United Methodist Church. Hillary Clinton spoke at the church’s 200 anniversary in September. In that address, she spoke about the Methodist churches she attended as a child, in college, in Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor, and in Washington, D.C., when he served as president. “In place after place after place,” Clinton said, “the Methodist church and my fellow Methodists have been a source of support, honest reflection and candid critique.”  During a presidential forum in 2007, Clinton said that “a lot of the talk about and advertising about faith doesn’t come naturally to me.” She said that faith “is something that — you know, I keep thinking of the Pharisees and all of Sunday school lessons and readings that I had as a child. But I think your — your faith guides you every day. Certainly, mine does. But, at those moments in time when you’re tested, it — it is absolutely essential that you be grounded in your faith.”

        To be frank, I couldn't care less about any body's religion except when they choose to flog me with it, but to choose Trump over Mrs. Clinton makes me wonder just how much Clorox,  these Evangelicals have been imbibing.