Scary Out There in Republican Land

I respect and would defend everyone’s right to pick the candidate they believe best represents their interests. I do, however, believe people often forget that their own interests are served when elected officials try to do their best for the entire country, fully realizing some things are a zero sum game.

With that said, I have to tell I’ve moved past being worried to being disgusted at the way some people are deciding on who to vote for, and I am especially looking at Trump’s supporters.

Of course they hate Secretary Clinton. She’s dishonest, email, and Benghazi. They simply won’t hear that their own Republican’s in Congress ran investigation after investigation (for no other purpose than doing political damage to her, and said so), but were able to come with nothing to hang on her. Because of my work, I know something about email management, and even about email management at the State Dept., and Secretary Clinton did nothing that wasn’t done by all the Secretaries prior to her. As for Benghazi, never mind it was the Republican Congress that slashed funding for Embassy Protection. When you explain all of this to them, it’s like they are little kids sticking their fingers in their ears and saying La La La La La.

They claim to be values voters, and claim the mantle of Christianity (usually their own personal brand) as the touchstone, but support a guy who’s had to respond to hundreds of lawsuits, has defrauded people, doesn’t even know how to read the Bible, let alone know enough of it to have a favorite verse even. In fact, the straw that set me to writing this post was one where a Trump supporter posted a meme saying, “Share if you agree with Duck Dynasty star Korie Roberston: We need someone in the White House who honors God!”

Someone points out that Trump isn’t a Christian. Her response, as it is with most of them, is that He was baptized, and only the person knows their relationship with God. (Boy, she should visit a conservative Methodist page I follow…those people know exactly how to decide who is and isn’t a Christian. Hint: It’s anyone who doesn’t believe as they do.) The commenter then points out, “His rhetoric doesn’t reflect a Christ follower.”

Now before I tell you her response to that, let me just remind you, this is all under a meme she posted saying that the person in the White House should honor God. Her  response to that was, “I understand that, I just trust God will help us and continue to watch over us all.” So, she understands his rhetoric doesn’t reflect Christ, but she supports him as someone who will honor God. (Bam…my head explodes)

Another commenter notes that Obama is his kind of Christian, which really sets her off, saying:

I did not vote for Obama and I’m glad I didn’t for I would have been a part of his tearing down this nation…He has over stepped his boundaries as President one too many times…If you want to talk about a bully then he is a prime example…with that I will also say that I do like Trump because I feel he can get our nation back to how things should be according to the Constitution and the laws that should be followed and people be held accountable for their actions which our current President has not been.

I ask her to be specific, and cite some of the laws she thinks President has broken, or anywhere he’s done something unconstitutional. He proceeds to post links to three highly partisan website, none of which are reliable news sources. They each purport to offer lists of all the laws he’s broken, and all the unconstitutional things he’s done. I proceed to respond to a whole bunch of them (I didn’t have all day to respond to each one), and this is what she comes back with to that:

You should know that most of what you say may be true to a point but I still stand and said that people don’t want someone like Trump for he speaks the cold hard truth about issues and so many want things ‘sugar coated’. If you think you can change my mind then you are sadly mistaken…(emphasis mine)

So no amount of facts or truth will change her mind that Obama has acted illegally and unconstitutionally, even though she concedes my point that he has not, and no amount of pointing out all the illegal acts Trump has committed will change her mind….BY GOD!

I responded to her by saying, ” I respect your right to disagree with me, and to vote for who you want. What I wish, though, is that people would be honest with themselves about the things they say. The meme above talks about wanting someone in the White House who honors God. You don’t seriously think that is Donald Trump do you? If you agree with all his policies and positions, fine, but please don’t pretend the guy is a Christian. That’s just insulting to Christians.

Her response (cut and pasted as is) was as follows:

As I have already stated I know his life is not that of a ‘perfect’ Christian, but I don’t feel that anyone can say if a person is Christian or not for you don’t know his relationship with God…only he and God knows that. I also don’t feel that he would be the worse person for the job. I don’t think that Hillary is any way shape or form of doing the job just as I feel that Obama has don’t more to hurt this country than to help…Trump is not a bully, he is just someone that can tell it like it is because he has no one saying he can’t say this or that. If he were as bad a choice as y’all seem to think he is then why has most of the ones that are in the GOP race say they would back him if he is the candidate they pick?

I love the idea that Trump isn’t a bully. This is what worries me. I really respect a person’s right to vote for who they want, but I am scared shitless that people base their decision on such false information and flimsy excuses. How the mighty have fallen.