To Open The Sky

A Rant about Recognizing Reality

6 November 2024

I am not surprised by such statements now. I understand how deep the strains of bigotry and misogyny run in this country. I also understand how many American citizens are poorly educated, and I understand that certain powerful people want more citizens to be poorly educated because that makes them easier to fool.

But yet I am startled by the magnitude of support for Trump, and utterly astonished that he won reelection yesterday not only in the Electoral College but in the popular vote. There are several metaphors for the situation our country now finds itself in. The one I like goes something like this: "I never thought," says a woman who voted for the Face-eating Leopard Party, "that the leopards would eat my face!"

This country, this America that I live in, is bigger and more important than I am. I think most Americans feel that way. But Donald John Trump does not feel that way. By his words and by his actions, repeated not just during the four years when he held the Oval Office but throughout his life, he has shown us this clearly over and over again. Trump cares only about himself; he has no sense of duty or responsibility. He demands loyalty from others but will not give loyalty to others. He does only what he thinks will advance his interests.

Trump said that in June 2019. It is an exact quote; you can look it up. However, that is not what Article 2 says. Trump lied.

I have disliked Trump for a long time. When he began his campaign in 2015, I knew right away he was unfit for the presidency. Everything he has done since confirms that assessment. I collected information on his misconduct and the ways he was enabled by other members of the Republican Party, both citizens and elected officials. I created Web pages to document those facts. As this election approached, I created other pages to summarize the situation, hoping to convince more people that a vote for Trump is a bad idea.

Here's another attempt to do that. It's aimed at the people who voted for Trump thinking he would, this time, keep his promise to help the people he calls "the forgotten men and women." It's a vain hope. Trump has kept only two of the promises he made before his first term: he cut taxes (mostly on big corporations and wealthy people), and he appointed conservative Supreme Court justices to repeal Roe v. Wade.

I'm not going to put a lot of data on this page. I think the working people who voted for Trump don't care about data. I think they hanker for a strong man who will sweep in and fix all their problems. Trump is canny at convincing people he will do that. He won't. So I'll skip the chapter and verse. I'll just repeat what should be flat obvious to everyone: Trump is a liar and a con man. He only cares about helping himself. He will work with people who help him, but only so long as they obey him without question. Those who think his near-miss in July or his victory has changed him are fooling themselves.

I don't think people being uninformed about Trump is the problem. Everyone who voted for Trump this time — even those 18-year-olds voting for the first time — lived through Trump's first term and the four years that followed, when he never dropped the Big Lie that he had won in 2020. They have no excuse for not knowing what Trump is or what he will do.

I'll probably get some pushback for this and the other pages I've put up about Trump. Have at it; this is still a country where anyone can criticize an elected official — or whoever criticizes that official — without penalty. I hope it stays that way. That is why I'm doing this. I want to see my country remain prosperous and free, and I want to be able to hope the children and grandchildren of people I love will have a livable future. Trump threatens all of that — for everyone.

So here's the bottom line: