Trump’s stupefying support
Watching the Republicans support President Donald J. Trump in the face of his wellearned impeachment is stupefying, and it has led me to consider other crazy scenes and scenarios of support for America’s most corrupt, immoral, dishonest, racist, ungodly president in the nation’s history as we enter an new presidential campaign year.
No. 5: Blacks supporting Trump.
I used to think one of the more bizarre things I could see pertaining Trump was the sight of the token black strategically behind the president as he speaks at one of his rallies.
Granted, according to a
Pew Center 2016 exit poll, less than one in 10 black voters gave Trump their vote in the last presidential election. Still, that seems too many to be sane.
Why would a black person support a person whose racist rhetoric encourages these same people sitting beside you to show enmity to you elsewhere? I can’t imagine feeling comfortable at such a rally.
No. 4: Jews supporting Trump.
Twenty-four percent of Jewish voters voted for Trump in 2016, according to the Pew Center poll. While his words and policy support the existence of Israel, and while he can readily dismiss claims of anti-Semitism by evoking the name of his Jewish son-inlaw, his rhetoric of hate encourages the white right-wing groups that carry tiki torches and chant “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Va., along with and the bullets at the synagogue in Pittsburgh and other anti-Semitic attacks.
Jews supporting Trump in America today is like Jews supporting Hitler in the 1930s.
No. 3: Hispanics for Trump.
Twenty-six percent of Hispanics voted for Trump, according to the Pew Center. I can only surmise that, when Trump called Mexicans those terrible names, his Hispanic supporters presumed he truly only meant Mexicans. However, to Trump and his supporters, all Hispanics are Mexicans and illegal immigrants, whether they are citizens or not.
No. 2: Women who support Trump.
Four of 10 female voters voted for Trump in 2016. Clearly the Access Hollywood tape had no effect on the women who chose Trump over Hillary Clinton. While certainly one should not vote for someone based on being of the same gender, surely Trump was not the most advanced choice.
No. 1: White evangelical Christians who support Trump.
Of all the bizarre things the nation has seen, none perhaps tops that of evangelical Christians in their support of Trump. Pew Research Center exit polls from 2016 showed 81 percent of this group voted for Trump
Either Donald Trump is more powerful than God, or he is God — at least so it seems to those white evangelical Christians who willingly support him.
How can one support such an immoral, mean-spirited, dishonest person? Does anyone see anything remotely religious about Trump? The recent Christianity Today editorial that called for Trump’s impeachment was long overdue.
How many of the Ten Commandments has he violated? Yet, they still support him. There should be one more commandment: Thou shalt not worship nor support a president who is racist.
Racism has always been more powerful than religion. Indeed, the latter r-word has been used to justify the former r-word. Slavery showed this to be true, and save for a few flashes in the pan, America’s existence as a nation in the years since slavery continues to bear this out.
Not that it will make a difference to the white Christians who support him. Like the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule has also vanished.
No. 1a: Americans for Trump.
How can you be an American of any group who supports a president who disingenuously wraps himself in the American flag while so blatantly flaunting the Constitution of the United States? How can you support someone who supports dictators, cares for himself first and America last, while serving as a poster president for how not to instill the best values of citizenship, civility, honesty and fair play?
I’m stupefied.
Frank Harris III of Hamden is a professor of journalism at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. His email address is frankharristhree@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at fh3franktalk.