On one of the routes from here to the Cities is a unique sign. You might have seen it. It’s been there for a few years.
On a curve is a quaint country church. Out front is an admonition to “Love thy neighbor.” A quarter mile past that, on the bed of an old pickup truck is an 8 by 4 brightly painted sign that says, “TRUMP 2024 F— YOUR FEELINGS.” The “F” word is fully spelled out on the sign. It rhymes with duck.
The juxtaposition with the quaint church is jolting. That is, if we are able to be jolted anymore. We all know discourse in this country has turned darker and coarser. The man whose candidacy we’re supposed to “F” our feelings about deserves a large amount of credit for that.
Maybe that man liberated you to tell people exactly what you think, no matter how obnoxious that is. F other’s feelings anyway.
Please don’t read this if you are a supporter of Donald Trump. I long ago gave up the notion I could persuade anyone about anything. I’m not going to change your mind about Trump if the last eight years haven’t. This piece might upset you. You don’t need that. You already have to worry about illegals knifing you in your kitchen and your children forced to have sex change operations at school.
Stop reading and be on your way. Have a good day, and I’m OK with your feelings.
This is for the rest of us who just don’t get it. It is the synthesis of a thousand conversations I’ve had since 2016. Many of those were with Republican friends who also don’t get it.
Why this man? Why Donald Trump? No one in my lifetime has risen to prominence insulting and mocking people, calling them names. No one has been as disparaging and derogatory. No one has promoted violence openly like him. I’ve followed politics since Barry Goldwater. No one has used such vile words to describe others.
He’s not even clever. Trump refers to California governor Gavin Newsom as “Gavin Newscum.” If your sixth grader did that, you’d roll your eyes and hope they grew out of it.
Recently I read a Christian writer’s rule for speaking. “Always ask before saying something if it is true, if it is kind, and if it is necessary?” Listen to Trump. He certainly says a lot of things that are untrue. We used to call that lying. Kind? Necessary? Not much.
Yet, this man is the Republican nominee for president for the third time. We don’t get it.
Yes, I have Trump Derangement Syndrome. I want nothing more than to never think about Donald Trump again. No person has demanded attention so unceasingly for these many years. I’d compare him to a squalling baby in his desire for attention, but babies grow up.
In my life, I have voted for both parties. Since Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party, I have become actively a Democrat to stand in opposition to that. I love our little group of Brown County Democrats, tilting against windmills and fighting the good fight.
I am not some left-wing crazy person – I voted for George Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney for president. I have deep respect for John Kerry and Barack Obama, but for various reasons voted for those Republicans. All those men are decent and honorable. It’s interesting that Bush, Romney, and McCain all ended up on the outs with Trump. Trump has ridiculed all of them, as he does anyone who won’t bow at his countenance.
I knew vaguely of Donald Trump before 2016. I knew his rich playboy image and that he was considered a buffoon by New Yorkers. He had a reputation for cheating people in business and cheating on his wives.
Trump was given a fake persona for “The Apprentice,” which I watched for about 10 minutes. He was linked to conspiracies. He promoted the death penalty for the wrongly convicted Central Park Five and pushed the stupid notion that Obama wasn’t born in America.
Trump was famous in all the worst ways. I ignored him as much as I could.
I tried to keep ignoring this unpleasant man in 2016. I thought highly of many of the fifteen Republicans seeking the nomination that year. I might have voted for Jeb Bush. I kept telling friends that Trump would go away, and that the Republicans would choose one of that highly qualified group.
Trump made fun of a disabled reporter. He mocked John McCain, saying he was a loser for being captured in Vietnam. Is there a greater American hero than John McCain? Trump told all of us that when you’re famous, you can grab women by their private parts.
At each of those, I thought, “Well, that’s the end of the Trump candidacy.” It would have been for any other person. When those slid off Trump like raindrops, I knew this man had secret powers I sure didn’t understand. We didn’t get it back then.
Speaking of private parts, Trump recently went on at length about Arnold Palmer and his, well, you know. That is two references to private parts in this column, which is two more than I have ever used before. Hopefully, two more than ever again.
On a serious note, the Republican Party historically stood strong with our free world allies and against tyranny. That was constant from Eisenhower to Reagan to Bush. The current nominee criticizes NATO and has a weird affection for unelected dictators. He is fearful of Russia in a way that Reagan never was.
The current nominee talks about deporting eleven million people, rounding them up into containment camps. He threatens to jail journalists and speaks of the “enemy within.” You don’t have to be a history major to see echoes of dark times in the past.
Again, we don’t get it.
Many Republican leaders have spoken the truth about Donald Trump, how beyond the pale he is. Dick Cheney is one of them. Dick Cheney! Has there ever been a more Republican Republican? I wish our Minnesota Congresspeople would join him. They haven’t. We’ll see how history judges that.
For years, the Republican Party said that character matters. I truly hope that Republican Party comes back.
We don’t get it. But you know what we can do with our feelings according to a sign on a truck.
