If you wanted a good explanation of why I have never voted for Donald Trump and don’t like him as a president, you don’t need to go much farther than his remarks at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service. Consider this passage:
He understood. He really did. He understood what was right, and he was right about that. A lot of it was based on common sense, by the way, Charlie wrote back to the staff member saying, I’m not here to fight them. I want to know them and love them, and I want to reach them and try and lead them into a great way of life in our country. In that private moment, on his dying day, we find everything we need to know about who Charlie Kirk truly was. He was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry. I am sorry, Erika. But now Erika can talk to me and the whole group and maybe they can convince me that that’s not right. But I can’t stand my opponent. Charlie’s angry. Look at that. He’s angry at me that he wasn’t interested in demonizing anyone.
The emphasis is mine. Perhaps Mr. Trump was just employing a rhetorical device (it’s called a “dichotomy”) but I take him at his word. I believe he hates his enemies.
I don’t hate anybody. Anybody. Not only does my religion forbid it but I believe that hatred makes you that much less of a human being.
I don’t oppose people. I oppose ideas. I don’t hate the people who advocate policies with which I disagree. I hate the policies and the ideas behind them.
Trump is a piece of shit human and the ultimate narcissist.
I had a discussion over this general issue with a close friend who is a rabid Trump supporter. He told me that he hated some Democrat. (At this point i dont really remember who.) I told him that unless he knew them personally there wasn’t a good reason to hate them, that he was probably mostly reacting to an image created by their opponents. By the same token, if you think some political is absolutely wonderful, never lies and is the only person who can make everything wonderful you are also reacting to a created image that is false.
There is no one I hate now. If someone tortured my kids or grandkids I suspect I would hate them for a long time.
Steve
Evidently, Trump has some sort of dementia, and is in decline. The ideal President for the apparatchics.
How many sane, functioning presidents have we had since Eisenhower? I count only Kennedy and Nixon. I am old enough to have some memories of Eisenhower, but I have pretty good memories of his successors.
PS. The removals of Kennedy and Nixon mark the coming to power of the Deep State.
Come now people! None of us has enemies who have tried to kill us. Trump has.
William, you are arguing that two wrongs make a right. They still don’t.
It is easy to hate, and it is easier to hate each subsequent thing. I am a hater, and I know how to hate, really well. I try not to be a hater, but it is baked into my DNA. I am not proud of it, but I am not ashamed of it, either.
It is hard for a hater to not hate. I try to overcome it by trying not to assume the worst in people. Giving people the benefit of the doubt is more for my benefit than the other person’s. Doing so, helps to keep the hate at bay.
It is unbecoming of the President, Senators, Representatives, Governors, or any high ranking official to speak that way publically. The President should not hate anybody. He represents those he loves and those he hates.
Besides, President Trump professes to be a Christian, and as our host has noted that is forbidden by his religion. I dislike politicians using religion for political gain. There is a Commandment against that: Thou shall not use the name of the Lord in vain. Of course, that would require beliefs and actions to be aligned, but my understanding is that is no longer fashionable.
I sometimes can feel excited or even angry, but hate is draining and pointless.
Trump when young fell under the spell of his attorney Roy Cohn, influenced him strongly and with the stories out about Cohn , may have even been raped.
The real problem is our spineless congress, and the failure of the Democratic Party to enlist a viable alternative.
Putting party before the people and their country is a recipe for failure.
No Dave I am not arguing that two wrongs make a right. I do not see a equivalence between murder and hate. I am saying don’t judge someone’s emotional response to events one has never experienced themselves.