People seem to think that Donald Trump is refreshing, a breath of fresh air in our political arena. He tells it like it is, no holds barred - he speaks his mind. Many people find that refreshing.
Donald Trump is more honest than most people, certainly more honest than most politicians. I’m serious. I do not mean to imply that Trump doesn’t lie - he lies all the time. In fact, it is easy to see that he is lying; he is lying openly, so to speak. He doesn’t cover it up, he knows that we are smart enough to realize that sometimes people in the government lie, and so he just lies, assuming that people know he should be lying and they will be fine with that. Ironically, they do this because they trust him. Why do they trust him? As I said, he is honest. He is honest the way toddlers are honest.
Is that enough? Is that a high enough bar for the leader or our nation? Should we be considering the contents of what is comprising his honesty?
For example, most people - let alone people running for office - even most school children understand that it is shameful behavior to mock a disabled person. Trump did this, it is on film; but, he denied it. He is smart enough and open enough to tell a lie in that situation. Of course he didn’t mock the disabled person - it being on film makes no difference. We are adults, honest enough to realize that this is a situation where a lie is in order. Why? Because, after childhood, only a defiled pig of a human being would ever mock a disabled person. So, he lies, because the truth is horrific, and nobody really wants that; to deny is the most honest option - the one everybody expects. And, again, his mocking a disabled person is on film, it is easy to find. Everybody knows he did it, including him, and everybody knows he has to deny it. So, he just denies it.
Isn’t that refreshing?
Or, usually it would indicate profound smallness of character for a person to dishonor veterans of wars, to disparage prisoners of war, and that would particularly be so if the critic had themselves managed to avoid fighting in a war. That kind of an attack is reprehensible - no decent person thinks that way. That being the case, isn’t it amazingly honest to openly say exactly such things on the campaign trail? Yes! That is ever so honest. And ordinarily that would put people off, but it is just so open and no holds barred, and people seem to love that. Nobody else but Trump is honest enough and bold enough to hold our veterans of war in contempt with words spoken in public. And he even got away with it - he is the president of the country.
Isn’t that refreshing?
In my youth at school, I remember being taught that the Bill of Rights is enormously important. We hear about the 2nd Amendment quite a lot lately, as if it is the most important one. Yet I also learned that the founders put freedom of speech and freedom of press first. Donald Trump calls the press that does not agree with him “fake news”, even enemies of the country. In Russia, when people speak out against Putin, they find themselves buried in the courts, or buried in the prisons ... or just buried. Donald Trump hates and maligns free press, he hates free speech that disagrees with his own, in direct contradiction to the First Amendment. This seems to me a dereliction of duty and probably treason.
But he isn’t hiding it. He is attacking the First Amendment openly, speaking up about how a free press is bad for the country.
Isn’t that refreshing?
Most people would agree that saying racist words should become a blight, a political and social liability. Here in America, apparently, it makes one a hero, particularly to white supremacists and white evangelicals. But what is striking is that Trump doesn’t hide his racism, he merely tells it like he sees it. Trump is honest about his disdain for Muslims and Mexicans at the border, some of whom are not rapists and criminals. Trump is honest about his affection for white supremacists.
It is just so damned refreshing. I can hardly stand how refreshing that is.
Trump is an antichrist, by which I mean there is literally nothing about Donald Trump that is like Jesus. Nor is he even like a decent human being. But he is honest about that; he isn’t hiding any of it.
Isn’t that refreshing?