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“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought, which they avoid.”
Søren Kierkegaard
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Now that it appears the psycho-pathological liar, narcissistically crooked Trump will soon return to twitter to reintroduce his unique level of toxicity to the world I decided it was time to thank him.
Yeah. In his general absence from public rhetoric Trump has made me grateful for a variety of things.
I am reminded of the importance of competency.
I am reminded of the importance of dignity.
I am reminded of the value of integrity.
I am reminded of the importance of preparation.
I am reminded of the fact democracy is fragile.
I am reminded of the understanding that the freedom we enjoy in America is unique … and always embattled.
I am reminded of the importance of listening without judgement and judgement based on facts.
I am reminded of the fact that conspiracies have no factual basis and, yet, can be confused as such in a mainstream way.
I am reminded of the unfortunate truth that truth itself can be suffocated if:
- a lie is big enough, or
- the lies are relentless.
I am reminded of the ultimate truth: one person can make a difference … for good or for bad.
I am reminded of the importance of decency.
I am reminded of how strong a country is and how much bigger it is than one incredibly flawed & misguided individual.
I am grateful that Mr. Trump has reminded me of so many things I believe we had taken for granted.
And while I am grateful for so many things I found an awesome letter, written during his scorched earth morally vapid 2016 campaign, from someone online who is also grateful for a variety of things:
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Dear Mr Trump,
It’s taken me a while to realize this and to admit it, but I’m grateful to you.
For the past few months I’ve spent a good deal of time lamenting your campaign and the poison it has so effortlessly generated. I’ve watched our country imploding, our public discourse become polluted, our political climate grow ever more corrosive, and wrongly assumed you were to blame.
It’s only lately I’ve come to understand that you haven’t manufactured our current national ugliness—you’ve simply revealed it.
By saying the irresponsible, mean-spirited, ignorant things you say so freely and so frequently, you’ve given other like-minded people license to do the same.
You’ve opened up the floodgates for our corporate sewage to flow fully. People no longer conceal their vile mess, they now revel in it, they broadcast it and retweet it.
You’ve made bigotry and racism socially acceptable again and that has been a kind of twisted gift because it’s allowed me to really see people; not as they pretend to be on the surface—but in the very depths of their wounded, weaponized hearts.
Over and over as your campaign has persisted, your supporters would tell me that they like you because you “speak your mind”. It wasn’t until recently that I’ve realized that you speak their minds. You’ve given credence to their prejudices and made those prejudices go mainstream.
Thanks to the terrible ground you’ve broken, politicians, pastors, friends, and strangers, both in person and on social media now regularly out themselves as hateful, intolerant, and malicious—and they remind me just how close they are to me, just how deep the sickness in us runs, and just how far we have to go together.
You’ve emboldened people to be open about things they used to conceal for the sake of decorum, and though it turns my stomach, I know that this is the only way we can move forward; to have that cancerous stuff exposed fully so that it can be dealt with. Our progress as a nation is predicated on authentic dialogue, no matter how brutal and disheartening that dialogue is.
In other words, you’ve let us know what we’re really dealing with here and while it’s been rightly disturbing, it’s also been revelatory. That’s the thing about that kind of harsh light: you’re forced to see everything. Beauty and monstrosity equally illuminated.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think you’re the least qualified, least knowledgeable Presidential candidate we may ever have had participate this far into the process, and if you somehow were elected I’d fear gravely for the world my children would inherit—should it survive your Presidency at all. I believe you’re reckless, bitter, and completely reprehensible; the very worst kind of bully.
But whether you win or lose, you’ve already allowed me the blessing of Truth; about me, about you, about other candidates, about our nation.
And in the process you’ve also shown me that I am not alone in resisting you and this ugly thing you’ve revealed about us.
You’ve generated an equally loud, equally passionate response to it and this is where I find my hope these days.
I find it in those for whom equality isn’t just a cheap buzzword, it’s the most precious of hills to die on.
I find it in those people who refuse to be silent in the face of our impending shared regression.
I find it in those willing to be more bold in defending the inherent value of all people.
I find it in the growing army of those who will not tolerate hatred as a core American value.
I find it in those who reject violence as our default response to dissension.
I find it in the ever rising voice of people who will not let malice and bitterness represent them in the world.
Today I find my hope in those who, like me, will not be complicit in allowing bigotry and intolerance to become a source of national pride, because we’ve seen where that leads.
Yes, Mr Trump, you’ve unearthed our hidden sickness and you’ve allowed it to go viral.
You brought every awful thing about us out into the open.
And for this—I thank you.
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While I am constantly mortified by what Trump did to the presidential process, the presidency itself, democracy, America’s position in the world, and our constitutional rights & freedoms, I tend to believe one of the most egregious actions he did was by doing all of that lying and destroying any semblance of the overall standard of respectful discourse a civilized society typically has.
But.
I am grateful he has come along and reminded us of all these things by showing us what the bottom of the barrel looks like.
I am grateful for his avalanche of lies and half-truths, manipulations and peddling of fear because it reminds us all that truth and hope is actually a brighter vision.
I am grateful because his promise to recover the past in simplistic tripe it is ultimately shown as the fiction offered by ‘merchants of clever cheats.’
I am grateful he offers a simple formula “to make your target audience feel good by offering up what is a fantasy to them, but a horrendous injustice to others” because it permits those who know how to articulate the true complexity of reality to speak up.
And, mostly, I am grateful because you cannot solve a problem until you actually recognize a problem. And while he himself is a problem to be solved <which I assume Time itself will deal with> he has uncovered all the problems I have listed above which we should now put our big boy & girl pants on .. and solve.
I have said for years now with regard to Trump that there is really only one word to describe him and whatever he does – carnage. His only plan is to destroy everything in his way. and in his wake, as he sits in his lonely penthouse, i.e., carnage.
I even warned people that when he was finally gone from public office that the next president will be faced with dealing with that carnage.
And I actually thank him for this too.
Yeah. I do.
This will force a new generation of leaders to stand up, speak out and rebuild from the carnage.
This will force a new generation of leaders to, well, lead.
This will force a new generation of leaders to take what was broken and build anew.
This will force a new generation of leaders to embrace a belief that we are actually stronger together rather than apart, a group of people aligned is stronger than an individual focused on self interest and working together is essential to progress.
The strength of a country is defined in how it deals with its worst moments. Trump represents the worst, represented the worst and in his wake he left us with the worst. I say that because, well, he is coming back. Twitter is a megaphone for all his shit.
In closing.
Just a reminder of some Trump trash.
30,573 lies over his 4 year presidency. I begin there to head off any false equivalence, “all politicians lie”, because Trump was in a liar zone of his own.
Also.
-Trump university a sham and a scam and stole money from people
-regularly performed verbal fellatio on Putin
-Russia/ Putin considered him an Useful Idiot
-filed bankruptcy 6 times; sucks at running businesses
-indebted to Russian/ Chinese banks since US banks ceased lending to him
-couldn’t even turn profit running a casino; run out of town in Atlantic City
-claimed tax returns can’t be released due to IRS audit
-lied; IRS claims no rules against releasing tax returns
-lied about being a billionaire, value of his properties and wealth
-sued thousands of times for stiffing small businesses/ contractors/ workers
-said his own sacrifice on par with those of Gold Star families
-dodged draft by claiming bone spurs
-cannot remember which foot afflicted with bone spurs
-McCain was only a war hero because he was captured
-mocks NY Times reporter who has epilepsy
-gonna build a wall and Mexico will pay
-chummy with racists, White nationalists, KKK
-raised dumb sons who are chummy with White nationalists
-refused to repudiate David Duke/ KKK contingent of supporters
-surrounds himself with unhinged far-right advisors
-birther-in-chief
-directed campaign funds to his own businesses
-uses campaign media coverage as free infomercial for his new hotel/properties
-tells blatant lies and denies lies even with video evidence
-often flip-flops within hours or on same day
-needs handlers to keep him from saying crazy things
-has thin skin, keeps Nixon-like tabs on perceived enemies
-said maybe US shouldn’t honor NATO treaties
-said we should have stolen Iraq/ ME oil after Iraq War
-sued for housing discrimination against Blacks, lost but denies guilt
-lied about weight and height so as not be tagged as obese
-used charity money as slush fund to settle lawsuit judgements
-used charity money to buy tacky painting of himself
-said his ’80s man-whoring was his personal Vietnam
-cray cray right-wing Supreme Court appointees affect policy for next 30 years
-disparaged top Generals as dumb and embarrassing
-knows more about ISIS than the Generals
-possible sociopathic/ psychopathic/ narcissistic personality disorder
-posed as own publicist; bragged about imaginary sex life with celebrities
-borderline anti-vaxxer: lied about a child getting autism 1 week after being vaccinated
-constantly says global warming a hoax; denied it in debate
In the end.
Giving Trump a megaphone when he is a con man, fake, pathological liar, amoral bully, incoherent word salad deliverer, seems like it is not a good idea for society in general. But. Thank you Mr. Trump for reminding me to get my head back in the game.