Don't Hate Trump

This is such an interesting political time I cannot sit idly by and watch it unfold sans comment.  The Trump Corollary is in high gear and the impact of the presence of this man in our White House transcends simple models of conservatism and progressiveness.  He has via his own mouth and tweets diminished his possible positive impact on our country and accelerated the impact of base yearnings from those groups who are organized to hate other groups.  Undoing kindness, tolerance, understanding and unity he has poured gasoline on the fire of prejudice, hatred, intolerance and ignorance.  His staff and his party are abandoning his positions not right and left, just right, (the left never supported him).  Most interesting is his loss of support among CEO’s, the military and congressional Republicans.  There apparently is no group Trump is not capable of alienating, and unless your last name is Pence or Conway there are no individuals immune to his attack, including the mother of a murdered protester.  I know it would be safer to deal with loftier issues like Ann Coulter’s leg room on airline flights, but the effect of Trump is like the reverse of the great asteroid impact of 65 million years ago:  species we thought were long extinct have now re-emerged on the political landscape wreaking havoc in a world not prepared for their carnivorous appetites.

I believe the simple phrase, “Make America Great Again” encapsulates what we are now observing.  That phrase carried much meaning to many people in our country.  People who were discontent with progress and change and fearful of where they might stand when the smoke cleared were emboldened by that phrase.  It simply meant we are not great anymore.  We were, but we are not now.  And it means there was a time in our history when we were great.  The theory is we should return to the values and policies of those times and we will be great again.  Sadly, nowhere in our past were we as great as we were in November 2016.  The phrase has also come to mean that nothing done in the previous 8 years has merit and no one of the party of the previous 8 years has any sense.  There are two things Trump prays for at night, a Kenyan birth certificate and Clinton criminal activity verified in emails.  Neither will ever appear.

When were we great?  It appears we were great during Ozzy and Harriet, My Three Sons, Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best.  We were great when Anglos married Anglos, slept in twin beds, every household had a working father and a stay-at-home mom, and kids never went without a good school, good clothes and good meals.  Women knew their place.  Blacks knew their place.  Everything was fine. 

Frustrating to me is that so many things were horrible in those days.  Movies and TV did not depict real Americana.  Prejudice was institutionalized.  Women were kept under the thumb and chained to the kitchen sink.  Women were limited to clerical roles in the work place.  Bright women went to college and became nurses or teachers, service roles, not leadership positions.  Black Lists, casting couches, and separate racial bathrooms and water fountains were the realities of those days.  Children and adults with special needs were kept at home.  Pregnant women who were not married went to stay with a relative until birth.  Pregnant school girls were expelled.  No movie studio would cast a Black as a lead, nor a woman.  It was all about the handsome men and the starlets on their arms.  We were sick as a nation and blind to the notion that the phrase “all men are created equal” meant all men regardless of race and religion and gender identity; and all women. 

I think that is the America Trump wants to return.  He Rumpelstiltskinned the last 5 decades.  He awoke as Archie Bunker.  In reality, he is laughable as are the goons and family members surrounding him.  We can never return to those days and I think he must know it even if he longs for it.  I remember science fiction movies of that era and the scientists were all evil.  It was the regular guy who saved the day.  So Trump does not like science and would rather have people with no knowledge, experience, training or skill run the show.  After all, those are his characteristics.

When I think of human civilization over the past 4,000 years I recognize we have come a long way in the technology department, but not so far in the social department.  Early scientists were persecuted for announcing that the earth was round not flat, that the earth orbited the sun, not vice versa, and that life evolves.  It is only in the past 100 years or so that women have gained the right to vote and own property.  154 years ago slavery was legal in this country.  Around the world we still see women forced to cover their heads and faces and denied education, we see an active human trafficking trade, we see blatant racial discrimination and religious persecution.  We have not come so far that we cannot remember those days.

But here we have come far from the days of persecution to arrive at the days of reason and respect.  We must resist the return to those former days with everything we have.  We must confront the dinosaurs who are now apparently roaming free and let them know that their cause is not just immoral, it is extinct.  There are always those who long for what they perceive to be the good old days, but they do so with simple minds and antique memories.  Everyone who believes our best days were in the past should forfeit their cell phones and computers and Novocain.  Our hope is not in the past.  Our hope is in the future.  Don’t hate Trump.  Resist his rear view mirror vision.  Pity him.  Or better, just laugh at him.  Our future is does not lie in racism, misogyny, and anti-intellectualism.  Our best future lies with pushing the boundaries of science while expanding the civil rights of all human beings.