Trump's greatest contribution to American culture: indecency

Eddie Glaude, Jr., a Princeton professor and author of the just-released book "We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For", used a phrase that grabbed me deep in my psyche:  a "coalition of the decent'.  While Glaude's book was an exhortation for African Americans to take individual leadership on behalf of civil rights and personal freedoms, his words could be applied to the current political discourse that has bothered me for a long time. I could never put it u it until I heard Glaude use the phrase "coalition of the decent".  The rise of Donald Trump has given partisans an excuse and a green light to behave indecently in expression and act disgustingly. We need a "coalition of the decent"  by leaders and citizens who rise above economic and political self-interest, or as a country we will continue to sink into the Trump moral mudmire by excusing and tolerating his indecency.  

Exposure of such shows of indecency by Trump's supporters reached a crescendo recently as former high-profile critics of his unfitness to be president again flip-flopped and pledged allegiance to Trump.   Among them were Chris Sununu, Governor of New Hampshire, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC, and Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr, reaffirming his support of Trump.   Sen Tom Cotton of Arkansas, once a respected, carefully phrased, intelligent conservative, went ballistic and exhorted violent and painful retribution against some pro-Palestinian civil disobedience demonstrators, proposing that vigilante citizens glue the hands of protestors blocking bridge traffic to the rails and not bother to call the police. 

Trump's third middle finger raised at anyone he perceives to be his enemy and/or a threat to his ability to amass power for himself is bad enough of a behavior pattern, but it becomes virulent through the megaphone of his partisan media and his social postings.  It says much about how little his crowd roarers value decency. MAGA sycophants are a reflection of Trump himself, cheering his self-serving disrespect and hatemongering with approval and support of his use of violence. I cannot imagine any of them wanting their own children to grow up to be like Donald Trump.  In fact, my guess is they would not even tolerate that kind of adolescent disrespectful, disruptive tantrums and lies from their own children.

Recently, some businessmen told me they still support Trump. I find this unsettling and an example of how a sense of decency gets lost in short-sighted self-interest.  Some had told me earlier, something similar: "I know Trump is a *** ( flawed, rude personality), but I want his tax and regulatory policies that will help my business."   I think these business people know an a *** when they see one but are still returning to the Trump fold because they think they are trading the "a****" part for the old-style pro-business administration that the GOP provided in the past.  They are fooling themselves.

They are instead flirting with a business mess that a Trump win in the next four years will be consumed with chaos (the nicest words possible) and conflict. If Trump tries to consolidate dictatorial power, fighting off lawsuits in courts, he does not completely control it yet, causing civic undress as he tries to upend civil and voting rights, creating a climate of uncertainty for how this will end. Uncertainty is the greatest enemy of business investment. Moody's already downgraded the US credit rating because of this prospect.  This is likely to result in so much conflict, nothing will get done to enact Trump's agenda, especially if the House goes blue which is widely predicted. 

(ABC George STEPHANOPOULOS in his interview with Chris Sununu:" So just to sum up, you would support him for president even if he is convicted in classified documents. You would support him for president even though you believe he contributed to an insurrection. You would support him for president even though you believe he's lying about the last election. You would support him for president even if he's convicted in the Manhattan case. I just want to say, the answer to that is yes, correct?SUNUNU: Yes, me and 51 percent of America." )

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-4-14-24-white-house-national/story?id=10921537

https://news.yahoo.com/bill-barr-warns-horror-show-131012326.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/17/barr-vocal-trump-critic-says-he-will-support-republican-ticket-november/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/16/tom-cotton-gaza-protesters

What I really think of RFK Jr, updated April 18 2024

Robert F Kennedy, Jr. is more than a political spoiler and a Trump tool. He is nuts.  His family has disowned him and supports Biden. They consider RFK, Jr. dangerous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Px99_fIlAI 

RFK, Jr. has built his following on anti-vaxx.  I try hard as an opinion writer not to use inflammatory language or to disrespect "the other side," but this goes beyond politics. It goes against my grain as a mother and grandmother.  I am so old, I remember what it was like before polio shots, measles shots, and other horrors of childhood experiences. I am so grateful my children and grandchildren escaped these life-threatening childhood traumas. (All are all adults now)  I was about 8 when I had measles, the bad kind, and to this day, I remember how sick I was and how I feared being brain-damaged or deaf if I did not stay in bed, as my mother told me.  I remember elementary and middle school vacations, unable to go to swimming pools, movies, or any gathering places, or even being restricted to my own two blocks of neighbors because of fear of ending up in an iron lung or worse, as some classmates had done, because of polio.  I remember classmates in my eastern Oklahoma school having TB and having to go to the only treatment of that time, a sanitorium.  And now we have anti-vaxxers, who are happy to have their children and grandchildren live like it was 1940-1950's. That is a mental disease that has infected both GOP and Democrats.    Children have no choice. They are at the mercy of their parents and their judgments. In my opinion, parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated are irresponsible.  If you, an adult, make that choice, it is yours, but stay away from me, please, if you have any symptoms.

 Those exempted from my disrespect are those who are known to be allergic to them.  My doctor told me that if the vaccine had egg yolks, the results would have been worse than the flu for me. Strangely, after having the Asian flu in college and being awfully sick, I have never had a bad case of the flu since, even though I never had flu shots. I am lucky. COVID RSV shots did not have an egg base, so no problem.  In short, a physician's advice is still valuable.  Your own or based on social media, not so much.

If you think vaccines cause learning disabilities, take it from the Mayo Clinic. It's your genes. Dyslexia - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic

and no,  COVID RSV shots do not alter your DNA  or cause cancer, per Sloan Kettering.  2023-2024 COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness, Side Effects, Safety, and More | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (mskcc.org)

Measles Complications | CDC

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Democrats are beginning to take RFK JR as a threat, a spoiler

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/kennedy-family-members-endorse-biden-rfk-jr-rcna148303

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4245980-kennedy-family-members-call-rfk-jr-s-independent-bid-dangerous-to-our-country/

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/crank-politician-family-rfk-jr-kennedy-gosar

Why the US does not, should not, have a national church

 Here is why the US does not have a national church.   Dictatorships and religion are a toxic mix.

So many wars had been fought over religion in England when our founders were contemplating what kind of a country this new land would be.  Some of our forefathers were protestant, and others were not.  When the country was first settled in the 1600s, it went through periods in some colonies that had established their own state religions.  We know the stories. Perhaps those who claim this was a Christian nation so, therefore, we should have a state religion has to face the fact that what was considered Christian in one colony was not the same church in another, and it is clear from the militancy today exhibited by the newly minted white Christian nationalists there is no room for those who are Christian, but not with the same interpretations of the scriptures or even with the same priories.  I have given this much thought and let me repeat some  excerpts from my prior blog postings.

How freedom of religion came to be in the Bill of Rights was because of the diversity of experiences in the original colonies. The pilgrims famously sought religious freedom to practice their own brand of Christianity, but it was freedom for them, not everyone. Some colonies like Massachusetts had established state religions with results we ought to remember, such as  Salem witch hunts, hanging or burning at the stake of heretics,  The Scarlet  Letter,  and Puritan overreach causing breakaway founding of Rhode Island by Roger Williams for religious freedom. The success of the Virginia and Pennsylvania colonies not having a state-sponsored religion had been triumphant in keeping internal peace. Fresh in the founders' knowledge of English and European recent histories were centuries of war between protestants and Catholics, the root of many conflicts. 

Christian Nationalists are waiting in the wings for the second coming of Trump as they seek to get even more political power to make their theocracy become a reality. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/20/donald-trump-allies-christian-nationalism-00142086 They are already in positions of political power and are making plans to implement their movement by using the government to do their converting on their behalf.  They are already planning to ride on the skirts of MAGA into the White House which will give them access to all of the reins of power. Those part of the Christian Nationalist movement like Speaker Mike Johnson, were third in line to the presidency. advocates theology that has something in common with the Taliban of Afghanistan that sets medieval rules and uses government to enforce what they believe is acceptable and unacceptable behavior in all phases of citizens' lives, private or public,   MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: The GOP is becoming the American Taliban?

The most recent realization of the Christian Nationalist extremist to use government power to force the vast majority of women to bow down to their ideology is banning in-vitro fertilization. in the meantime, the state gets an F in infant and maternal mortality. https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/reports/alabama/report-card

So far as education is concerned, Alabama ranks near the bottom, number 45, as well, in the rankings of states. https://wallethub.com/edu/e/most-educated-states/31075

Alabama also ranks as the 49th lowest state in per capita income.  https://www.statsamerica.org/sip/rank_list.aspx?rank_label=pcpi1

Alabama ranks in the top ten states depending upon federal funding as part of their state budgets. https://www.moneygeek.com/living/states-most-reliant-federal-government/

 The Alabama ban on invitro fertilization is a backdoor attempt to say life begins with an embryo, not at viability. It lays to groundwork for banning any pills taken early in the abortion process and even to ban contraception. " In all, fewer than 15 percent of fertilized eggs will result in a birth..” per the National Institues of Health. Frozen eggs are potential human beings but rarely become actual ones until it is implanted in a human and develop successfully. Jul 14, 2020 per the National Institute of Health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7670474/#:~:text  The logic escapes me: ban the potential of birth by those who supposedly treasure life. The assumed  purpose however, is  to get the Trump-dominated Supreme Court to rule their way to pave the way government to control even more of reproduction rights 

From a November 2. 2023 blog posting:    I am grateful I do not live in a theocracy. When we became a nation with the adoption of the Constitution, the separation of church from state was at the top of the list of the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment to the Constitution clearly says the government cannot establish a religion, the foundation statement of the separation of church and state. ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ")  The Christian right has been active in narrowing the interpretation of the First Amendment, and the Christian nationalist movement has made it a goal to eliminate this separation altogether.  Even Jesus referenced separating loyalties from government and God on matters of taxation.: "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:21 NASB). 

 

"Trust" is a key word. in this 2024 election year

 "Trust" is a keyword in this 2024 election year, and in a recent political ad, Pres. Biden used it when he stated he can "trust women" in matters of their control of their health and abortions. He is on to something. Trust is a powerful word that rings bells deep in human psyches. Trusting a political leader to do good or to do something that benefits you is a positive message.   You can trust someone to help or harm you, to do good or evil. You can trust others to do good or evil, too. You can trust someone to act a certain way when the chips are down or wonder which way the knee jerks at the moment ormeets a political need critical to staying in power. at that time.

  There are some dark and troubling sides to the kind of trust Trust demands. Trust as a factor is not confined to one or two issues but to many.  It is a theme Biden could use in other issues as well.  Whatever works for Trump, he considers it is fair and right in his mind and to many who pledge allegiance to him as loyal followers. There is one area we can trust Trump to be and do. He is open and public about his plans to amass more power for himself and his threats about how he will take revenge against those not supporting him. You can trust him to do this because it is a technique that has enabled him to amass political power even since he has left. the Oval Office. 

You can trust him to defy laws and order. Lies and twisted reality, ignoring evidence to the contrary, are fine tools if they serve his purpose, even when there are inconvenient facts. Trust him to always tell you his version of the truth.  Claiming he is above the law is necessary to be powerful, unlike any of his predecessors in 250 years. Trust him to succeed because he needs to break laws to be successful. 

When it comes to public policy issues, you can trust him to do what benefits him politically, even if he reverses himself at dizzying speed. Keeping up with his ever-shifting positions and about faces on public policy is a challenge. Which is it: Yesterday's position or today's tweet on abortion. Above all, you can trust him to take revenge and retribution if you break his trust.  You can trust him to appease and pander if it works for him.  Flattery and bootlicking by those loyal to him work, so it should also work in foreign policy in dealing with foreign affairs, especially as it applies to Ukraine and NATO,  as he appeases and cozies up to those who want to control America's policies.  

Once the defender of the faith against abortions and in an unfamiliar pose of being pious, Trump read his polls, and now he decided to be squishy on abortion.  What laws he would sign would depend on what would serve his political interests on that day. Trust him, he asks women.  Why should they? 

He knew the fear he whipped up about the threat of immigrants and still does. Trust him, too, on the threat of immigration that is so imminent and a crisis. Fentanyl. Crime. Murder. Raposts/ Poisoning our blood. Remember? When Biden embraced many of the GOP planks in the Trump border policy that were humane but that only needed funding to address the "crisis", the crisis appeared to be not so much of a crisis, after all. Trump torpedoed the Senate's bill because 'fear of immigrants" might go away as his best re-election tool. Even those who never met an immigrant believe his very words. Fear them. Stop them. He, only he, can fix it. (He had four years in office and most of the time a willing Congress, but failed then, too.) Trust him anyway,

 By contrast, Biden is old and steady at the wheel. tweaking a bit here and there, but there are no surprises. He always returns to long-standing beliefs that reflect his personal beliefs in his years in powerful political positions. If there are problems to address, fund his ability to address them, and above all, those policies must be humane and not cruel.  That democracy is better than dictatorships was not even questioned until Trump came along.  If democracy did not serve Trump's lust for more power, then a dictatorship would plot with think tanks like 2025 to achieve it by day one. Biden can be trusted to preserve the kind of democracy that we have had for 250 years. 

 Friends and foes are expected to be law-abiding as well. Biden is a standard law-abiding citizen who has a long track record, and "the Biden crime family," anything more than an attack slogan to offset all of the court findings of business fraud of Trump's own family, has failed because of a lack of any evidence and when witnesses failed to materialize.  Tighten up border policies? OK; fund sane administration of laws that still give refuge in America for those fleeing oppression and dictatorships,   and be humane and empathetic about it. Cruelty is not a weapon he employs.

What we can trust is Biden's long consistency on many issues.  There are no surprises.   He is a steady hand at the wheel. Revenge is not a tool he has used; willing to forge coalitions and bipartisan agreements with those who may not have supported him on other issues. He has always favored hard-working blue and middle-class folks if he favored an economic group or demographic. Tax policies should work to their benefit.  Trump gave huge benefits to the rich with his tax cuts and pledges to keep them if re-elected. No surprises there.  Biden thinks that inclusiveness and minorities deserve a leg up. He has a lifetime of civil rights support. No surprises there, either. Impious Trump is recently invoking God and their ideology, forging alliances with white Christian nationalists supporting favoritism to those practitioners at the exclusion of "others.".. Biden, lifetime practitioner and follower of Catholicism. is no instant conversion.  Biden has always believed that foreign policy and national security depend on strong alliances and recognizing those who are our adversaries.  Boot-licking and flattereyTrump sees his own ticket to governing and putting America First. He lusts after the power dictators like Putin and Orban have. He seems to see the US becoming their satellite and fellow traveler is the best route for American security. After having been in a position to gain wisdom for 50 years of leadership as a Vice President and head of foreign relations committees in the Senate, Biden is no fool. He has been consistent. No surprises.