I have an acquaintance who writes a blog that is useful for little in terms of gaining knowledge but does provide helpful insight into how closed the minds of Trump supporters are and how utterly disturbed the conservative minds are.
I consider myself to have some unique insight here, as I was a conservative voter for some 26 years. Three things drove me away from the Republican Party and conservatism in general. They were:
1) The war in Iraq.
2) The teabaggers’ unimaginable stupidity and selfishness starting with their astroturfed “movement” in 2009. The coopting of symbols from the American Revolution and utterly useless ideas about finance and taxation revealed a level of ignorance in America that had never been seen before in our history.
3) Coincident with the teabaggers was the unimaginable cruelty many Americans showed in the 2009 healthcare debate. Cruel and selfish are the specific words I used then, and I will continue to use them now. It was the final event that converted me into a progressive, and I will never go back. Witnessing corporate malfeasance up close and personal and watching the descent into madness that began when Trump came down the escalator in 2015 verified the correctness of my change of heart.
I write about Trump today to give a rebuttal to the linked blog post and the utter folly the author displays by defending the indefensible when it comes to Trump. The proof is easily researched, but for whatever reason, this author is either too lazy to do the research himself or is just callously ignoring it because it undermines his argument. Long story short, the things that he says that are lies about Trump are not lies at all. To believe otherwise is just a statement that one is not paying attention to what the psychopath and his supporters are saying.
Here is a listing of the claims I will proceed to demolish:
- Trump is not anti-Semitic.
- Trump is not a threat to democracy, and he is not an authoritarian at heart. ( This is the most dangerous and flawed assumption that he makes.)
- Trump is not a racist.
In each case, he clings to thin threads that ignore the underlying facts related to Trump from his life, both before and after he ran for President. Those three assertions are so false that they demand a response.
So, let’s get on with the flogging, shall we?
Trump is not anti-Semitic—utter trash. Trump absolutely is anti-Semitic. He clings to anti-Semitic tropes like a man clings to a lifeline at sea. The examples of this are many. The most recent display of his anti-Semitism is when, at a rally, Trump said Harris skipped Netanyahu’s speech because she “doesn’t like Jewish people.”.
Aside from the fact that Kamala Harris’ husband is Jewish, Trump’s comment ignores the fact that there was a valid reason not to be present for Netanyahu’s speech. It is inappropriate for the Speaker of the House to invite a foreign leader without the consent of the Head of State ( which Speaker Moses is not). Not to mention that boatloads of Israelis despise Netanyahu and want him gone. (Netanyahu’s approval rating is something like 15%). It’s also worth noting that whatever was done to Israel on October 7th has been avenged 39 times over in the months since then.
Putting that important technicality aside, one should also bear in mind that his statement here, along with many others, repeats the anti-Semitic trope that Jews have a dual loyalty, and if they criticize Israel, they are somehow not Jews. He came right out and said that the same day when he said he could not understand how Jews can vote for Democrats.
There are plenty of other examples; while speaking to a Jewish group, Trump once referred to Netanyahu as “your prime minister.” Can’t get more overt than that.
But wait, there is more.
At a White House Hanukkah party in 2018, Trump said Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence went to Israel, “and they love your country. They love your country. And they love this country” — the implication being that “this country” is distinct from “your country.” Trump has regularly spoken about American Jews as if Israel is their country rather than the United States.
Speaking about David Friedman, Trump’s Likud cheerleader and incompetent ambassador to Israel, he referred to Friedman, who is Jewish, as “your ambassador” while in the company of American Jews. While that could perhaps be understood as him referring to an American’ ambassador rather than Jews’, Friedman is the only ambassador Trump has used this construction for.
A lot more facts about Trump’s use of anti-Semitism are available, but we have equally important false statements to fry.
2 Trump is not a threat to democracy, and he is not an authoritarian at heart. He absolutely is. You accept the author’s lie here at your peril. Donald Trump was the most anti-democratic president in American history. In a second term, God forbid, he will be even more dictatorial.
Two words: Project 2025.
An authoritarian is someone who uses power to gain more power, often exploiting gray areas in the law to do so or ignoring the rule of law outright. Project 2025 is the road map to provide a fig leaf to do this and give a thin veneer of cover to actions that are, and have always been, unacceptable in the American polity. His public statements indicate he is incredibly frustrated with using the system as it currently is. When he comments, ‘Yeah, I’d like to be dictator for a day,’ that indicates he does not value the democratic process as the American political system has traditionally viewed it.
Or we should consider Trump hosting Viktor Orban, a bonafide authoritarian ruler, even though Trump is no longer a head of state. Trump has repeatedly praised Orban — who, to put it mildly — is a bastard.
Trump has earned no benefit of the doubt. So let’s take him at his word that he absolutely means what he says in those few moments when he actually constructs a semi-coherent sentence. Not to mention that it’s not just Trump; it is a group of pretty despicable people that he will bring with him. People who have made no attempt to conceal their contempt for decency and constitutional democracy. ( Stephen Miller, for one).
It is mystifying that anyone could defend Trump as being anything but an authoritarian when he and his sycophants have said:
They want to round up undocumented immigrants and keep them in mass deportation camps.
They want to use the federal government to target their enemies.
They want to destroy the freedom of assembly and make it harder to protest against him.
Violating the First Amendment protections on Freedom of Religion is all through Project 2025. We can already see zealots in Louisiana and Oklahoma teeing up issues on imposing religious doctrine on people.
Eliminate Posse Comitatus and use the active duty armed services to do his bidding.
Many more items prove Trump’s anti-democratic bent and desire to be a vindictive strongman. The assault on democracy takes many forms. In the United States, it is called Project 2025.
And let’s not forget, the Roberts Court on July 1st literally gave Trump a license to steal. Of course, he will be a dictator.
To say otherwise is to lie to oneself and others who have the misfortune to read it.
And finally, we come to lie 3) Trump is not a racist.
Trump is a fucking racist and has been since the 70s when he discriminated against black tenants in real estate. His appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists should have cemented the idea that Trump is indeed a racist and a bigot.
In his first campaign, Trump repeatedly made explicitly racist and otherwise bigoted remarks, from calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists, to proposing a ban on all Muslims entering the US, to suggesting a judge should recuse himself from a case solely because of the judge’s Mexican heritage. He continued that trend in 2020 — specifically using racist buzzwords when talking about both COVID and Black Lives Matter protests. And do we want to forget his rampant birtherism?
Trump’s racism is deeply baked into his psyche. Like his lying, it is a part of who he is, and it will never change. As far back as 1991, Trump was quoted as saying, “ Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys who wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.” In 1997, he confirmed it when asked about it in a Playboy interview.
There are plenty of other documented examples.
It would be one thing if Trump misspoke one or two times. But when you look at him in depth, a clear pattern emerges—one that suggests that bigotry is not just political opportunism on Trump’s part but a real element of his personality, character, and career.
It is not something anyone should want in a Presidential candidate.
The great mystery of this sad era is how blindly people allied themselves to a worthless and defective person when other people were available who did not carry the amount of baggage that Donald Trump does—some of whom actually have real public policy experience. Yet the cult—for eight years—has allied itself to a bonafide enemy of the Constitution. Like their hero, they defend lie after lie — even when proving those statements as lies is quite easy. Political history did not begin in 2015, and Trump is guilty of everything one says he is not. Even worse, they seem proud of being wrong.
These people have nothing to offer but their own fear.
