Michael McKearney
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What do you take away from this election? Well, off the top of my head a couple things come to mind. One is: very close to half of this country voted for the current President. As a stand alone statement that’s not such a big thing. But when we are talking about this President that speaks volumes, and loudly. So far, over forty eight percent of voters went for Trump. It could be more by the end of all the counting of ballots.
Forty eight percent so far voted for a man whose list of transgressions is long, very long, who lies daily to such a degree that professional mental health experts openly question his fitness for the job. Some stating his unfitness for the job just for his capacity to lie, his penchant for lying. The tired, weak refrain of many Trump supporters to this is: “all politicians lie”. Well, yes, everybody lies, including YOU Trump supporter. But people don’t lie nearly to the degree Trump does. And some, I would argue most of us, feel badly about lying. Don’t like to lie. Feel, if not very uncomfortable, then somewhat uncomfortable about lying. We spend serious moments of time teaching a child not to lie; a cornerstone of being a responsible and good parent. Lying is a failure to oneself and the moral code which hopefully guides us.The overwhelming majority of us just don’t feel good after having lied. Whether it be a little “white” lie or a big whopper of a lie. Each time we do it flakes away a bit of us, and if continued it chips away at who we aspire to be, want to be. And if continued to the degree this President lies we’ve lost ourselves. There is no soul. No guiding moral compass to direct us to be for more than just ourselves, which is absolutely a requirement for leadership as we have come to understand it as Americans. All that is left is an empty, vapid vessel of anger constantly fighting for the sake of fighting and lying to protect…, itself; but itself is nothing. There is no moral code. There is no ethical aspiration. And yet, here we are, nearly half of the country voting, enthusiastically voting, for a liar of pathological proportions.
The Washington Post has assiduously tracked Trump’s lies every day throughout this Presidency. He has topped roughly 22,000 out right lies, non-truths, and false statements (and still growing)in his 1385 days as President. That works out to be roughly 16 lies, non-truths, or false statements a day; everyday. No Sundays off. These aren’t little lies either. They may not all be whoppers, but they certainly aren’t little “white” lies. If any of us, Trump supporter, Trump hater, and everything in between had performed and lied in our job and our lives the way this President has we would be fired from our jobs, banished from our social circles (that is, if any of us had the gall to show our faces in public again), we would be relegated to the margins of society. And rightfully so. Yet, Trump is embraced by nearly half of the country to be President.
The other thing that comes to mind is the pollsters are not nearly as accurate as one would hope. They are venturing closer to being wrong more, and dangerously so. But how can they be so off in their numbers, assumptions, and conclusions, etc? They are given the information. They plug it in to their models only to find them to be off by a fair bit. I can’t be too hard on them as they are only working with the information they are given. I can only conclude when people are polled with questions about who they are voting for a goodly percentage are lying about supporting Trump. I think people are ashamed, embarrassed, and/or do not what to admit they are supporting Trump. Why would that be? Let your logic follow that one. Obviously, not everyone is e.g. the bearded, heavy jowled, Trump wonder boys racing up and down the highways and bi-ways in their Trump flagged pick-up trucks like some hootin’ and howlin’ Johnny Reb chargin’ across some 1860’s South Carolina cotton field to join battle with a northern blue-state, Yankee boy. These guys willingly want you to know their support of Trump. Thank you, gentlemen. But to those that are a little more reticent shall we say, they have chosen to lie. It comes full circle with Trump.
This country has some serious reflecting to do on who we are. I’m not just talking about Trump voters and supporters. All of us need to make some sort of an attempt at understanding what has produced this President in this moment with the visceral, hateful reaction from all sides. If we truly love this country, and I do, we need to take a hard, hard look. Particularly we white people. Are we really who we think we are? Or, are we deluding ourselves in to thinking we are something we are not? This current President thinks he is something he is not. Proof he is living a lie
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