Trump and his hypocrisy
The hypocrisy of the way Donald Trump and his supporters think is astounding. It is the primary reason he has yet to accomplish any legislation of significance despite having a majority in both chambers of congress. No previous president has enjoyed a majority in the House, Senate, and Supreme Court and accomplished nothing. His perceived victory last month in the House on a new health plan is DOA in the Senate. In fact, they won’t even bring up the issue until next year and even then it won’t be until after the mid term elections.
Trump was elected to clean up the mess and drain the swamp in DC and what has the result been? He continues to give blind support to the people he put in place and who turned out to be in bed with the Russians. He’s fired anyone who has not pledged blind support to him and instead chose to do their jobs, which included investigating the connection between Team Trump and Russia.
During Trump’s short time in office, there has been an increase in hate related incidents like the one that recently involved LeBron James. Worse, there have been more physical attacks in this country aimed at citizens whose only crime was to look like a Muslim or who did not speak English than there have been terrorist attacks. One could easily argue, under Trump, his supporters have become the ones who feel empowered to inflict terror on innocent people. We are now at a point where American citizens have a much greater chance of facing an attack on their freedoms by Trump’s thugs than we will ever see from any group abroad.
President Trump’s decision to drop out of the Paris Climate Agreement is a decision that put us on the same side as Syria when it comes to protecting the environment of our planet. In other words, he is on the same side as Assad on yet another issue. I say another issue because Trump has no problem leaving innocent men, women, and children behind to be killed by Assad’s army, even when they are the victims of chemical attacks.
Trump told Europe and the rest of the world he does not care about climate change, clean air, access to drinkable water or the consequences of destroying the planet in the name of corporate profit. He has told Americans to forget about creating new jobs in the area of clean and renewable energy, an area where we can actually grow our economy and lead the world toward a better and more efficient future, because he prefers the old and outdated way of relying on oil and coal.
In other words, Trump has made it clear America comes first no matter how many allies we piss off and no matter who it hurts down the road.
However, when it comes to fighting terrorism, Trump is all about teamwork. Trump expects NATO members to pay their fair share of the cost of defending Europe even though he is unwilling to have the U.S. do it’s fair share in protecting the health of the planet. He also expects European nations to share intel with us regarding terrorist activities while finding nothing wrong with giving them the middle finger with protecting the environment.
He fails to understand or care that while to a paranoid guy like him, protecting us from terrorist attacks at home is important to him for re-election purposes, preventing the destruction of the planet is important to the leaders and people of Europe. There is no “You scratch our back and we will scratch yours” with Trump unless it involves money for him or his family members. He really expects France, Germany, England, and the rest of Europe to be our serfs and follow his lead.
Trump’s opposing bringing in Syrian refugees of any kind has to please Assad in Syria. Trump, and his followers here at home, actually believe there is nothing hypocritical about not doing our share when it comes to protecting the health of the planet, the well being of refugees, or even the health of our own citizens while insisting our allies help us to protect ourselves from terrorist attacks like the ones that recently took place in London.
Trump also cannot let go of his predecessor and seems to only want to undo anything that has Obama’s name attached to it. He knows his core supporters hated the eight years of Obama rule, many for no reason other than because Obama is black. He is smart enough to play to the hatred of that core which is why they were unable to remember how they regularly hung or burned Obama effigies, but will never forget what Kathy Griffin did.
In fact, they will use Kathy Griffin to justify why they were over the top with Obama as if to think we will fall for an argument that says they knew in advance what hateful people the left were so they actually were right to mistreat Obama.
Their delusion spills over to Hillary as well. They just cannot get over the fact that more Americans voted for her than voted for Trump. Somehow, they would have us believe Trump won an overwhelming victory based on the electoral vote. You hear nothing from them today about getting rid of the Electoral College because it is outdated. In fact, they are relying on it even more for 2020 by trying to pass legislation at both the state and federal levels to make it more difficult for citizens to vote in elections because they know groups like the poor, minorities, and disenfranchised are the people they want to prevent from voting against him.
His supporters want more access to guns and fewer laws that place restrictions on using them when they feel “threatened” (code for filled with hate toward the above mentioned voting groups). They are for limits placed on the media to prevent them from reporting the facts and implications of Trump’s agenda. They would have us believe the “mainstream media” is colluding against him and that is what is behind their “made up” stories of Trump colluding with the Russians.
Trump wants us to believe he is cleaning up the mess of Washington D.C. politics while he has quietly granted waivers to ethics rules that prevent his top people from profiting off their work and connections with Trump.
Finally, despite all of this hypocrisy, Trump and his people paint themselves as having the moral high ground while courting the evangelical block of voters who meet his criteria of being white, hating any group that is not Christian-based, and having no problem with telling others how to live their lives while doing just the opposite.
What Trump and his people fail to grasp is that while perhaps many of us did not take his 2016 campaign all that seriously, he won’t be afforded that luxury next time around. He won’t face a candidate with the unfavorable ratings that Hillary had.
Should Joe Biden run, Trump will face a man who is not just liked, but admired by many for his service to the nation as well as for his experience. Trump’s hate will play into Joe’s likability.
In short, Trump’s hypocrisy, while scary to his detractors, is like a cancer that goes unchecked. Eventually, that cancer destroys the body it lives inside and I have no doubt it will be the undoing of not just Donald Trump, but the people who are most loyal to him. It may take time to get our lives back on track, but we will. Until then, it is up to each of us to hold firm and support one another and know we have survived much worse things in our history than Trump and we will be stronger and more unified once we survive him.
All photos are YouTube screen shots
Top photo: President Trump announcing U.S. is pulling out of Paris Climate Agreement.
Jim is a life long resident of California and retired school teacher with 30 years in public education. Jim earned his BA in History from CSU Chico in 1981 and his MA in Education from Azusa Pacific University in 1994. He is also the author of Teaching The Teacher: Lessons Learned From Teaching. Jim considers himself an equal opportunity pain in the ass to any political party, group, or individual who looks to profit off of hypocrisy. When he is not pointing out the conflicting words and actions of our leaders, the NFL commissioner, or humans in general, he can be found riding his bike for hours on end while pondering his next article. Jim recently moved to Camarillo, CA after being convinced to join the witness protection program.