For most of my adult life, U.S. politics has ebbed and flowed at the local, state, and federal levels. Democrats come and go, as do Republicans. Prior to Donald Trump riding down the escalator in 2015, there was never a time when I feared what the Republicans or Democrats might do to our country. Trump changed everything. Overnight tens of millions of Americans became enamored with Trump’s bombastic rhetoric. Today, it is almost impossible to have civil discussions with MAGA supporters over policy differences. We now have a man running for president who is threatening to arrest (or deport), prosecute, and incarcerate anyone who disagrees with him, including people in the Republican Party. Trump has even threatened to pull the broadcast licenses of networks that fail to confess fealty to him and only report in ways that are unfavorable to him.
Sadly, it seems as if many Republicans, and even non-voting citizens, are unable to differentiate between facts and lies. What do we do when we no longer have a common knowledge and understanding of facts; politicians such as J.D. Vance even admit to making up lies to advance their political agenda — as in the case of Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Twelve Facts About Donald Trump
☑ Donald Trump is a pathological liar.
☑ Donald Trump is not a Christian.
☑ Donald Trump is a misogynist.
☑ Donald Trump is a xenophobic racist.
☑ Donald Trump is not a self-made billionaire (if he actually is one).
☑ Donald Trump is a narcissist.
☑ Donald Trump is a failed businessman, having filed for bankruptcy six times and closed numerous business ventures.
☑ Donald Trump has sexually assaulted numerous women.
☑ Donald Trump will use anyone to get what he wants, discarding anyone who refuses to play along, as former cabinet members will attest.
☑ Donald Trump’s stated economic policies will raise the federal deficit, increase inflation, and fatten the bank accounts of the one percent.
☑ Donald Trump has early signs of dementia.
☑ Donald Trump’s promotion of strong-arm world leaders and dictators is not in the United States’ best interest, nor is his threat to withdraw the United States from NATO.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I said he had early signs of dementia last time, but now he’s infected the Republican party
Most of the list that describes Donald Trump could easily apply to some preachers who have sprayed spit at me from behind the pulpit. Yes, I’m talking at you IFB. Maybe he reminds the MAGA crowd of their MOG back in their home churches. That would make it easy for me to understand why they follow Trump blindly and slavishly defend his behavior.
Four years ago I would agree with early signs. Now, no. He’s fallen off the edge. Nothing but soup in his head. He’s not just mean and awful and a threat to the nation, he’s lost his mind.
And Donald Trump has threatened to use the National Guard against people on the left. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-suggests-using-national-guard-military-against-enemy-from-within/ar-AA1seZ8j?ocid=BingNewsSerp.
To rewrite Mary Poppins, stupid, calloused, fragile, sadistic, sexist, shallow, POTUS.” 😉
Having lost 2 grandparents, an Uncle, an Aunt, and 3 Cousins to WW 2. I had a great curiosity about how Germany, a highly educated country, sank into the dictatorship of an obvious racist authoritarian, sociopathic, tyrant, theif, and homicidal maniac The clues were everywhere and yet it happened. The clues were shrugged off and enough people, never a majority of Germans, made it possible for him to seize absolute power, Now we are looking at much the same scenario. Trump managed to get power with a minority of Americans suporting him. He failed to seize power when the majority threw him out, and not for lack of trying. The next time he might succeed. The unthinkable has happened before and it can happen again. The nuclear codes could end up in the hands of a pathological loose canon. Interesting times we live in.
I once read a story, where an elderly couple who had ended up in East Germany after the war were asked by a correspondent why their generation supported Hitler. After some apprehension, the husband answered, “with everything happening around us, we were scared to death.”
Trump and his allies rely on fear. Fear of illegal immigrants and crime, fear of “men going into women’s bathrooms and locker rooms”, fear of the far far far left. The same groups Hitler targeted along with Jews.
I was curious, so I also researched how Catholics were affected by Hitler’s regime- things didn’t go well for them either, many religious ended up in concentration camps. But they didn’t suffer nearly to the extent that Jews and other disfavored groups did. Hitler, although baptized as a Catholic, hated the church because he perceived them as weak. Many bishops at the time were critical of both Nazism and Communism.
I say this because many American Catholics, with their single issue mindset (abortion) think they can support a person with Donald Trump’s character and they will somehow benefit, or at least be protected from what they perceive as a new persecution from the left.
IMO the “left” in this country are not rabid communists or anti-theists, but instead focused on the opposite- equal rights and dignity for all people. Trump ironically is more reminiscent of Joseph Stalin, who was persistently paranoid about the loyalty of everyone around him, who never apologized or acknowledged the atrocities he caused, who found new enemies in every group that he perceived as “competition”.
Exactly, Bruce, but it seems like the fans of charlatans like Trump are the last to admit they’re wrong. I only hope enough voters who are wise to Trump’s scammy behaviorista show up at the polls. I know I will.
Dutch Guy and John S, I have also noticed the similarities between Hermany in the 1930s and the US today. My grandfather and 4 of his brothers were drafted into WWII to fight the Axis powers. Over the years, I have had an interest in the era leading up to WWII (and I’ll admit, I focused more on pre-WWII Europe than on Asia). Here we are looking around at our neighbors gleefully supporting someone who may not be a modern-day Hitler but who has surrounded himself with a stable of wannabe Nazi leaders who are more than eager to imprison those who don’t align ideologically, to shut down true journalism, to strip rights away from women, LGBTQ people, immigrants, workers, all in service of technocratic oligarchs and Christian nationalist leaders. I think the desire is to force women to become breeders of a compliant workforce to serve large corporations, feeding the greed of uber-wealthy business owners at the head of large monopolies with no regulations. That’s where they’re headed. Read Project 2025 – it tells you everything they’re planning.
Another thing that Trump isn’t is anti-abortion. Much social conservatism starts with that very issue. I see MAGA on Facebook say, “I’m 100% with Donald Trump.” Oh really? So you’re pro-choice!? Trump is famous for overturning things like NAFTA and then putting in almost the same policy. Trump overturned Roe vs. Wade by nominating Federalist Society judges tested for orthodoxy, and now that the poop has hit the fan and become a losing issue for Republicans, Trump now talks about a “number of weeks”, which is pretty much identical to Roe vs. Wade. Democrats should seize this policy issue to divide the Republican vote. The only anti-abortion candidate for President is Randall Terry.
This is not to say that a Trump 47 Presidency would actually have “a number of weeks” as federal law. Not by a long shot. In fact I dare say that theocratic shenanigans would be a huge part of the Trump 47 legacy.
Obstaclechick just as I was getting in the door I plugged the radio in and NPR news had something on about fascism and trump. How many Christians are paying attention to the fact that he has a book by Hitler on his nightstand about Hitler’s new order. Not the Bible or the KJV one. He doesn’t even read it. His mother’s old tome is just a prop. They are playing with fire. The kind that comes out of guns. Guns he one day he’ll have trained on them. If it’s Martyrdom they want he’s going to give it to them. He knows that congregations have been conditioned to be the proverbs good Germans. Those citizens who obeyed Hitler because their pastors told them to. Sing louder as the trains carrying Jews to the concentration camps while they screamed for help went on by. In the churches as those locomotives thundered next to church buildings on the way to Bergen Belsen or the other death camps. That is an image that stayed in the back of my mind. Pastors involved with genocide. In bed with it. It’s a mistake to assume it won’t happen again.