Accurately, someone noted that I don't like tRump ... "really, really, really don't like him." Which is true, of course, but if that were the sum total of the deal, I wouldn't be worth my salt.
And if it were only a matter of liking or disliking, who really could care?
If such a person were my neighbor, someone I didn't like, I'd likely step around them and try not to engage. I might well conclude that the person in question is, in their own right, a good person, with family and friends, worth and work, a value to many others.
We've all known folks we just couldn't like ... call it chemistry, call it primordial nonsense, whatever ... it might be a teacher, a classmate, a student, a neighbor, even a family member ... we just don't like them. Maybe we put up with them, try our best, and console ourselves with the simple reality that this reality is all there is, and all there is is what's likely to be.
But me not liking tRump?
Is that the question?
In another world, perhaps, I'd like the man, if not as a friend, at least as an entertaining buffoon, but never to be trusted.
But like or dislike is not the issue.
Danger is the issue.
tRump is clear and present danger to my nation, and to my world ... he's a threat to all because of his pathological lying, his bluffing, a penchant for intimidation, his greed, his malice, his need for sycophants, his abuse of women and his general mean-spirit.
That he should be praised by so many Christians only heightens my concern ... but it's not the first time that Christians have been mesmerized by power and money.
The Jerusalem crowds decided that Pilate and his Temple cronies were right, and so the crowd joined in the chorus to "crucify him."
Down through the ages, history makes clear, painfully clear, that Christians have often been on the wrong side of history ... from the flat-earth gang to those who thought slavery was a godsend, Christians have backed the wrong horse, and have sided with evil.
So it is ... and whether I like tRump or not is beside the point.
What I care about is the welfare of my nation - equality, liberty and justice (which is not about punishment, but recalibrating the social scales so that everyone has a fair chance, and those who can't make it will be well protected and cared for).
I care about our children and their schools ... women and their health ... our environment and our food supply ... I care about international relations, our treaties and our allies, and our enemies, too.
In all of this, I find tRump to be a clear and present danger, and more than a danger, but rather an active element in the deconstruction of our civil rights and the diminution of our democracy.
Whatever feelings I might have for the man are quite irrelevant ... it's the issues, the programs, the people he's appointed to critical agencies, and his permission to white supremacists and evangelicals to be as hateful as they want, and to arm themselves to the hilt.
He's a bad man ... and his cronies are crooks, if not in the flesh, then in the spirit, for they rob and pillage and destroy all along the way, in order to enhance their own bank accounts and promote their own safety, abandoning much of the nation.
So, that's the deal, as I see it.
I'd like to think that Jeremiah might pat me on the back and encourage me in my writing to stay the course, pay attention, be a man of prayer, read and study, and speak out where there is hurt against the vulnerable, where the powerful are stealing, where justice is threatened and peace ignored.
And if I'm wrong, then say a prayer for me, and offer pity ... defriend me, or simply scroll down and pay no attention.
With that in mind, until I sense something different in my bones, I will keep on writing.
