So, Trump's top cabinet picks so far: Stephen Bannon - white supremacist, misogynist, over all pig; Jeff Sessions - supporter of the KKK (white supremacist); James "Mad Dog" Mattis - hyper-aggressive general ready to stomp out the world; Ben Carson - neurosurgeon who knows nothing about housing; Betty DeVos - pro-vouchers for private schools with no education background or experience; Steve Mnuchin - Goldman Sachs hedge fund guy (what? Didn't Trump bash Hillary...); Reince... Preibus - a strong member of the swamp Trump swore to drain, a Washington insider; the list goes on...each appointment terrifying. And I wonder what the people I know who voted for Trump are thinking now. How are they denying his racism and misogyny at this point? What do they think of the broken promises about going outside of Washington and Wall Street for his team? And what do they think of the rest of their team - Paul Ryan's sacking of SSI and Medicare, for instance? Are any of them suddenly worried about their own disability checks? Their own jobs with the public school system that will be phased out? I doubt any of them are reading my posts at this point, but I am honestly curious about these things.
I got the following comment from a friend:
I still read your posts. Not worried. I don't comment because I feel you are too entrenched in your view point and you really don't want to hear another side. That's fine, I still adore you. I think everyone at this point is sick of the bickering - we agree to disagree and let's go get a chai and call it good.
No answers, so I tried again:
I respect you choice not to answer my very real questions, but I am disappointed. You said I an entrenched in my POV and I am, indeed, but here I have made an attempt to find out how these things are being explained (and so much more) by the people I know and value and you don't want to tell me. Maybe you don't know. These are some of the things that frighten me most about Donald Trump - racism, sexism, war, education.
She has not answered me. This is what I cannot seem to accept. If you vote for someone, you should be able to answer basic questions about that person, but Trump supporters will not. They seem to have taken their stance of silence from their leader, a man who offered no policy answers, no financial answers, and no answers regarding his personal beliefs. If you, a Trump supporter, ignorantly thought his racist and sexist rants were a campaign strategy, then by now you should see that they were not and perhaps question your vote and yourself. But I am not seeing that. What I am seeing is people so deeply entrenched in their privilege they will not see the threat to others until it hits them personally. And still they deny their own hidden racism, their own privilege, while appropriating the cultures of those very people they have turned their backs on. I find that hard to forgive.
Pastor Niemoller spoke, famously, after Hitler's fall:
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me." |
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