Never. Ever. If asked to defend a Trump presidency no less than 100 days ago, that would have been my answer. My answer is different today. Not because my opinion of the man has changed. I unaffiliated with the Utah GOP in 2016 over its support of then-candidate Trump. I have been a Never-Trumper since then. I have not voted for Donald Trump. And, yet, today I will defend democratic processes, differences of opinions, and the Trump administration. If that means I am defending the man, so be it, though I don’t think it does.
What has changed for me? You have. While “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is nonsense, your hate is real. Your greed is real. Your unquenchable quest for power is real. You’re the problem. Even Bill Maher knows you’re the problem.
Who are you? You are those who cannot separate personality from public policy. You are those who hate Trump, regardless of what he does, says, or supports. You are those steeped in financial greed who fear losing money through changes in domestic and foreign policies after 80 years of “tax and spend” and the military-industrial complex.
You convince yourselves that America is in a constitutional crisis. But it’s all a ruse to cover your hate, greed, and lust for power. “The market is crashing!” Is it? “We’re headed into a depression!” Are we? “The Executive branch is out of control!” Do you mean more so than when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president? “Our intelligence community is compromised!” Are you referring to the same intelligence community that likely killed an American president 60 years ago and, in the name of world stability, has overthrown foreign nations at will?
You are irrational. If you are a congressional leader of the Democratic Party, you are out of ideas – a whiny victim of a new era of common sense. You cannot possibly comprehend why the American people did not elect one of yours for president. Oh yeah, racism and misogyny. Never would it cross your mind that Kamala, just as Hillary before her, were horribly elitist candidates out of touch with the American people.
If you’re not irrational in opposition, you must be among those “rational” Republicans lacking public policy courage, smarts, and imagination – defenders of the 80-year status quo. Trump makes you uncomfortable. Angry constituents unnerve you and your cowardly answer is to not talk to them. You are pusillanimous “reasonable” men who reflexively cringe at the word “tariff” but lack any capacity to explain the necessary social and moral constraints undergirding free markets.
All of you are the problem, not Trump. But, of course, your political loyalties are noble, his are partisan, even as you stab your party leaders in the back at a moment’s notice while he stands by his people. Your billionaires are virtuous, while his are oligarchs.
While I am a Never Trump voice, I have long been an America First voice. I have opposed more wars than I have supported. As a young congressional staffer, I wrote a piece in 1991 opposing the first Gulf war that my Republican boss placed in the Congressional Record. Over my decade on Capitol Hill, in addition to opposing the first Gulf war and America’s excursion into Bosnia, I favored “fair trade” and twice supported Pat Buchanan for president.
So, permit me to explain to you what is going on. Donald Trump is attempting to undo 80 years of domestic and foreign policies that have subjected Americans to endless wars and seemingly unlimited national debts. Stability? Hardly, unless your definition of stability is making the same stupid mistakes over and over costing hundreds of thousands of American lives and trillions upon trillions of dollars.
The past 80 years of government spending and interventionist foreign policies have been a cancer now requiring radical surgery, including some forms of amputation. There is no other way to unearth a gargantuan and entrenched bureaucracy than through radical cuts and restructuring. “Oh, but we need those government workers to run our indispensable programs!” No, we don’t. That plaintiff’s cry is like the boy who killed his parents and then threw himself on the mercy of the court for being an orphan.
Ronald Reagan wrote an article, circa 1978, for TV Guide magazine (ask your grandparents) titled “Loyal Opposition” as he argued for civility despite deep ideological differences of the day. You who hate Trump are not the loyal opposition. You are disloyal to the American cause in your irrationalities and pettiness, perverse ideologies, feigned patriotism, and convenient constitutionalism. You can’t wait for him to fail. You don’t support the office and oppose the man. You dishonor the office, democratic processes, sound ideas, and civil debate – just to hate a man. Both shameful and un-American.
The Problem is You, not Trump
Never. Ever. If asked to defend a Trump presidency no less than 100 days ago, that would have been my answer. My answer is different today. Not because my opinion of the man has changed. I unaffiliated with the Utah GOP in 2016 over its support of then-candidate Trump. I have been a Never-Trumper since then. I have not voted for Donald Trump. And, yet, today I will defend democratic processes, differences of opinions, and the Trump administration. If that means I am defending the man, so be it, though I don’t think it does.
What has changed for me? You have. While “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is nonsense, your hate is real. Your greed is real. Your unquenchable quest for power is real. You’re the problem. Even Bill Maher knows you’re the problem.
Who are you? You are those who cannot separate personality from public policy. You are those who hate Trump, regardless of what he does, says, or supports. You are those steeped in financial greed who fear losing money through changes in domestic and foreign policies after 80 years of “tax and spend” and the military-industrial complex.
You convince yourselves that America is in a constitutional crisis. But it’s all a ruse to cover your hate, greed, and lust for power. “The market is crashing!” Is it? “We’re headed into a depression!” Are we? “The Executive branch is out of control!” Do you mean more so than when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president? “Our intelligence community is compromised!” Are you referring to the same intelligence community that likely killed an American president 60 years ago and, in the name of world stability, has overthrown foreign nations at will?
You are irrational. If you are a congressional leader of the Democratic Party, you are out of ideas – a whiny victim of a new era of common sense. You cannot possibly comprehend why the American people did not elect one of yours for president. Oh yeah, racism and misogyny. Never would it cross your mind that Kamala, just as Hillary before her, were horribly elitist candidates out of touch with the American people.
If you’re not irrational in opposition, you must be among those “rational” Republicans lacking public policy courage, smarts, and imagination – defenders of the 80-year status quo. Trump makes you uncomfortable. Angry constituents unnerve you and your cowardly answer is to not talk to them. You are pusillanimous “reasonable” men who reflexively cringe at the word “tariff” but lack any capacity to explain the necessary social and moral constraints undergirding free markets.
All of you are the problem, not Trump. But, of course, your political loyalties are noble, his are partisan, even as you stab your party leaders in the back at a moment’s notice while he stands by his people. Your billionaires are virtuous, while his are oligarchs.
While I am a Never Trump voice, I have long been an America First voice. I have opposed more wars than I have supported. As a young congressional staffer, I wrote a piece in 1991 opposing the first Gulf war that my Republican boss placed in the Congressional Record. Over my decade on Capitol Hill, in addition to opposing the first Gulf war and America’s excursion into Bosnia, I favored “fair trade” and twice supported Pat Buchanan for president.
So, permit me to explain to you what is going on. Donald Trump is attempting to undo 80 years of domestic and foreign policies that have subjected Americans to endless wars and seemingly unlimited national debts. Stability? Hardly, unless your definition of stability is making the same stupid mistakes over and over costing hundreds of thousands of American lives and trillions upon trillions of dollars.
The past 80 years of government spending and interventionist foreign policies have been a cancer now requiring radical surgery, including some forms of amputation. There is no other way to unearth a gargantuan and entrenched bureaucracy than through radical cuts and restructuring. “Oh, but we need those government workers to run our indispensable programs!” No, we don’t. That plaintiff’s cry is like the boy who killed his parents and then threw himself on the mercy of the court for being an orphan.
Ronald Reagan wrote an article, circa 1978, for TV Guide magazine (ask your grandparents) titled “Loyal Opposition” as he argued for civility despite deep ideological differences of the day. You who hate Trump are not the loyal opposition. You are disloyal to the American cause in your irrationalities and pettiness, perverse ideologies, feigned patriotism, and convenient constitutionalism. You can’t wait for him to fail. You don’t support the office and oppose the man. You dishonor the office, democratic processes, sound ideas, and civil debate – just to hate a man. Both shameful and un-American.