Make America Hate Again?

I don't usually delve into politics in this blog because I am naive and, compared to those who follow politics closely, relatively uninformed.  Were I to get into a political discussion (translate: argument) with political pundits, I would feel unarmed.  My only claim in the political arena is, as with art, I know what I like.

I am, however, a critical thinker.  No one tells me what to believe.  I do that homework for myself.  I once considered myself an independent voter.  I still do, but the Republican Party has ventured so far from what I feel is right and just and of importance to the zillions of us who are not millionaires that I no longer vote Republican.  Unless the GOP gets real, I won't vote in that direction again.  I guess that makes me a Democrat.  Long ago, I came to understand that people on the right and people on the left (Republicans and Democrats) simply are not wired the same.  Their brains and their values and their behaviors just don't match.  And that is something I DO know something about.

I've spent much time in my life studying why people do what they do, and why they think what they think.  Therein lies my interest in politics, and ONLY that.  When Donald Trump declared a campaign for the US Presidency, and then announced that Mike Pence, the Governor of Indiana, would be his running mate, I was relieved.  I just knew that Trump couldn't win, and having Pence on his slate would rid Indiana (where I live) of a governor that took us back 50 years in laws.  I was wrong.  Trump/Pence won.  Thus, I have spent the past year trying to figure out what happened to America that "we" got totally hoodwinked by a narcissistic fraud.  (I wonder if Germany wondered the same thing when an insane Hitler came to power....)

Trump's campaign slogan was "Make America Great Again".  Right off the bat, I had to ask, "When was America not great"?  What could Donald Trump possibly bring to us that we didn't already have?  Apparently, I misjudged the fear of those who feel that something is being taken from them by government.  Welfare?  Fraud!  Food stamps?  Fraud!  Immigrants?  Not welcome!  Control over female reproductive systems?  Not our problem!  Controlling access to guns?  How dare you suggest that we should be restricted in our Constitutional rights!  Funding for veterans?  They are heroes, no matter what!  Homelessness?  Their own fault!  Drug addiction, homosexuality, obesity?  All a personal choice!  Any religion except Christian?  Infidels and unable to be trusted! And so it goes.  All of this doesn't make America "great again".  It takes America back 50 years or more.  Probably more than my lifetime, in fact.

Hate crimes in America have increased considerably under the Trump administration.  I once believed that we, as a country, had moved beyond most of the prejudice.  Once again, I was naively wrong.  Prejudice isn't gone.  It's just been masked.  The election of Donald Trump seemed to give folks energy to act on their discriminatory behaviors.  (In fact, many of those who have been filmed with hateful actions credit Trump with their newfound freedom to do so.)  This isn't something that Trump caused.  It is something that has always been there, but Trump created an environment that made it okay.

So, as of today, I'm not so encouraged to believe in the intelligence of America or Americans.  All I see out of the Trump administration is power and hate.  Doesn't work for me.  But guess what?  I won't be alive all that much longer.  Americans need to understand that we are all in this together.  We may disagree, but it is time to stop being divisive and get the hate out.  I'm all for Make America Safe Again!!!!