A questionable following

It is very convenient. The president sends out a social media message, and his loyalists show up in droves to yell and march; meanwhile, he waves as he drives by … en route to the golf course. While he tees off on the green, his followers surround an election center or state capitol, or create more social media postings, ensuring that their commander’s message is heard. During this course of events, though, someone gets hurt, someone instigates violence. The stakes are higher than in golf; people are in harm’s way, even being arrested or hospitalized, while the president is relaxed and safe.

What the president’s followers receive is seemingly unequal to what he receives, his own on-call group of volunteers doing his dangerous bidding. Yet, they listen and snap into action. Why? It may be about having their opinions legitimized, being heard and in the spotlight, noticed by the television reality star president who knows how to manipulate people to stage a good show.

Do his civilian loyalists get pay or food after their countless hours protesting? Do they have great jobs like his government loyalists, easily affording groceries and medicine and a roof over their heads? Have their family members or friends or they themselves been untouched by COVID? Have their children or grandchildren been able to go to school? On the president’s watch, does he make sure these people face minimal suffering by ensuring that their home states can handle all of these issues?

All people of the United States of America deserve to be safe, relax once in a while, and “play their game of golf.” Life is short, and even more so now during this pandemic, a pandemic largely ignored by the president … a hole in one in one and another death, someone’s loved one gone forever. Who will follow? tracey NOTARIO Longmont