Sadly Predictable
AJ Robinson

US Presidential Candidates, 2020, Joe Biden and Donald Trump

As Tuesday night, 29 September 2020, was the first presidential debate, I thought I would look back over the last four years and make some observations. Over the course of the Trump presidency, I slowly came to realize how bad the state of America is and how it’s deteriorating.

Haters know only how to hate.

Although I knew Trump had a devoted vocal base, it took a long time to understand the level of complicity of other Republicans. His core followers do not seem to care what he does, just that he hates and hurts the same people they want to tear down, which is sad. We must accept there are people in this country consumed by hate.

Haters only know how to hate. Hate is all they do. Maybe, in time they will fade away, into ding basements and dank, abandoned garages, but don’t count on it.

Recently I came to understand the thinking of the other Republicans. It is sadly predictable. Each group has their agenda and that’s all that matters, which is how Trump won the 2016 election.

Conservative Christians, an oxymoron if I ever heard one, want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe versus Wade so they can outlaw abortions and control women, whom they likely fear. They hold their noses, metaphorically speaking, when it comes to the ethical and moral failings of Trump and vote for him. Moscow Mitch McConnell and other conservatives want to stack the entire federal court system with conservative judges, so they ignore the gross failings of Trump and support him.

Republicans don’t weigh shortfalls of Trump.

I’ve known all of this for some time, but I was always confused as to how they could reconcile all of his failings and still support him, especially as more and more of his crimes and sins came to light. For any normal president, certainly Obama, any one of these offenses would have been enough to bring them down. Just today I finally got it, Republicans look at the score sheet of his shortcomings and simply see a count, but don’t assign any weight to Trump failings.

Here’s how it goes. Trump colludes with the Russians to win the election, which is one point away from him. He then appoints conservative judges; this is one point for him.

These two items are not of equal value in the scheme of Republican thinking. Although I appreciate a political party wanting to advance its agenda, first loyalty is supposed to the nation. Trump has literally committed prosecutable offenses and his minions are okay with all of them because of what amounts to counting and not weighting.

They add up his negatives. They add up his positives. They combine the two and end up with a positive number. Then they conclude Trump’s their man, QED.

Folks, here’s what you need to do: each Trump attribute needs a value, such as one to ten. Appoint your judges: maybe a 5; lower taxes: a 7; traitor to the nation: -10 and so on. Do the math and come up with an answer.

However sad to say, we all know the chances of this happening. Even the recent revelation about Trump only paying $750 in federal taxes may not have an effect. I’ve already heard pundits say, “It just confirms what a brilliant businessman Trump is.”

I don’t know. I tend to think there are plenty of working-class people who will not find it fair that they pay more in taxes than he does. After all, although we all hate paying taxes, most of us understand that taxes are the price we pay for a civilized and ordered society. I know that my taxes go to police, fire fighters, the schools, roads and utilities and countless other elements of our country.

Now sure, I want to pay as little as possible, but I also want to be reasonable. I’ll pay my fair share; you pay yours. Rich people pay more taxes and Trump pays much more. That’s not how it seems to work, is it.

Republicans are sadly predictable.

Yet, once again, I’m not ready to bet the farm on this. As I said, Republicans are a sadly predictable party before all else, even our nation. That is saddest of all.