Anger and Hatred
So what are our disaffected coastal elites and other
liberals/progressives resisting, obstructing and sometimes resorting to
violence about? There is a judiciously
legislated temporary stay still in effect on Trump’s immigration restriction
and there are still protests at the airports.
Do these people know what they are protesting about? It seems to be just anger and hatred. The
stock market is at record highs and U-3 unemployment is low. U-6 Underemployment is still high, but this latter
affects mostly the flyover country who voted for Trump and not the six figure
latte sippers who voted against him.
Altruistic liberals/progressive say “it’s not only about
filthy lucre, it’s about our American values”. (Of course they’re not sitting unemployed or
flipping burgers in Youngstown, Ohio).
And unfortunately, these so called supporters of American values pervert
these very values by the actions they take against free speech by resorting to and
supporting rioting, violence and property destruction, as recently happened at
Berkeley and NYU and against Betsy DeVos in DC, and continues to happen in our
streets, airports and public places.
Another great concern about the Trump administration is the
continued use of executive orders and memoranda to change the course of the
country. Charges of “dictator”, “fascist”
and other derogatory epithets abound. Do
they not remember that Obama weaponized this sort of executive action with his
“I’ve got a pen” statement? Also can we
not remember how impossible it was to criticize any of Obama’s actions? Attempts to do so would be immediately met
with charges of racism. It seems that
anything goes against Trump, including attacks on his family, even though all
first families have been spared abuse in the past. How does attacking the ten year old son of
the president and ridiculing the English speech of his wife preserve American
values?
It’s this sort of continuing hypocrisy that is making some
of us, who are not such great fans of Trump, apologists for him. It’s also this hypocrisy that is turning even
more Americans away from these “resisting” liberal coastal elitists. And the Democrats and liberals continue to
shoot themselves in the foot by their obstructionism and hypocrisy and
perversion of our values (like free speech).
Instead of healing their party, which is on the verge of becoming a
strident, obstructionist minority nonentity, they continue to rip it apart further
by immature and ill-conceived emotional reaction against the personality of the
president. And that is a shame because
loyal opposition of the issues is a mainstay of our democracy. But we have no loyal opposition. We have instead this constant beating,
visceral hatred against the people leading our government. Issues are of little import. Hatred based on personalities is what we see
in our opposing coastal liberals. Just read
the NYT opinion pages and watch CNN for a while for confirmation of this.
After a while anyone seeking balanced news, and not just
support for their own views, can see after watching CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC,
and after reading the New York Times, Washington Post, and other liberal rags,
that these news sources are almost commercials for the liberal left. Trump has brought them to task and stressed
their bias to the public. And the public
is not stupid. They can see the slanted
so called news, and either eschew these sources or take them with a grain of
salt. It is no coincidence that Fox News
consistently outstrips its competition in the TV ratings wars.
We’re becoming a leaner, meaner, more nationalist
country. This is no surprise. It’s what was promised and what the country
voted for (and spare the popular vote bit, the country is not run by a California
plurality). We may need to give up some
of our dearly held government programs.
Some of our values will be affected.
Others will be strengthened. Not
all of us will be happy. But it seems
that we have a dynamic, if flawed, leader.
If we can get congress to advise and consent rather than obstruct, and
to pass pertinent reform legislation to either support or limit the executive,
the country can’t fail to advance for the good of all. They should do similar for the judiciary. A full Supreme Court vetting the executive
and legislative process has to have long term benefits for our country.
Hopefully this hatred of Trump and his government will
subside and we can get back to real issues.
There are rational voices in the democrat party. Unfortunately these are not Pelosi, Schumer,
or grandstanding hot heads like Elizabeth Warren. If the democrats can get back to being a
loyal opposition party rather than an instrument of insurrection, we may indeed
be able to accomplish a lot for the America we all love.
Ray Gruszecki
February 14, 2017
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