#83 - I Am Guilty Of Treason Too

I watched President Trump’s State of the Union speech last week.  I honestly didn’t want to, but I felt compelled to hear what he had to say.  I thought maybe I would learn something meaningful, but only half way through it, I realized I was wrong.  I would never learn anything from Donald Trump.  I was incapable of doing so.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some moments in his controlled speech, that if the words had come from anyone else’s lips, they would have sounded downright presidential.  But coming out of the mouth of Donald Trump, the words were empty and hollow, just meaningless sounds emanating out from a despicable human being.  And as I sat there listening, I realized I was too far gone.  I would never believe anything he would say. For me, too much water had already flowed under this bridge, and there was no way I would ever swim back up stream.

For me, the collective body of work of Donald J Trump from the past year and the rest of his sordid past had left a lasting imprint on me that will never go away.  Most of all, it left the heart-breaking sadness that at a critical time in our country’s history when we needed a leader to bring us together, his actions and his words, both of which were equal parts chaos, incompetence and selfishness, would only pull the country further apart. 

For me, there was simply no way he would ever be credible.  There would never be any trust. The constant repetition of lies and gross exaggerations had taken its toll.  I had become incapable of believing anything he said.

I acknowledge that I must take personal responsibility for this entrenched perspective.  I was not always this way.  I am not proud of it, not at all, and I know there have been times in my life that I have been critical of others for this very same behavior.  But I also know, that I didn’t get here on my own, and I know that there are many others out there like me, numbed by the behavior of this child-like, egotistical moron, who happens to be the most powerful man in the world. 

This child-like behavior was on display again last night in Cincinnati, Ohio when - his political surrogates will say - he jokingly referred to the behavior of Democrats in Congress who stoically refused to clap, stand or smile at any of the empty words emanating out of the President’s mouth, as ….treasonous….Ha, Ha, Ha.

This is the way of Donald Trump.  Take a divide, make it bigger, gin up your base and consider it a victory. 

I understood why the Democrats had refused  to show any sign of emotion that night. They knew that as soon as his pre-written speech had ended, Donald Trump would go back to being Donald Trump, without missing a beat, and we would all be worse off for it.

And I concluded that as I fully share their perspective, their sadness, their anger, and most importantly, guilty shared their behavior, that must mean, that I am guilty of treason too. 

Send out for the hangman.  He is going to be a busy man.