There\u2019s plenty of blame and shame to go around. As the oft repeated adage goes, \u201cwe get what we deserve.\u201d Still, we might ask, how is it that so many people were duped into voting for and supporting a sociopath for president? Why is it that for more than four years the nation has suffered through a nightmare? Was it ignorance about Trump, the man, or simply contempt for the Democrats? Both are lame reasons for putting such a person in office.<\/p>\n
Most of the blame can be put at the feet of the many nameless and faceless people who voted for Trump in 2016 and continued to support him during his presidency despite his outrageous behavior and illegal actions. Those who voted for him a second time and those who continued to applaud him after the January 6th assault of the Capitol deserve special condemnation. These people brought him to power and sustained him. Without them, Trump would not have been president.<\/p>\n
The forty-three senators who voted to acquit in the second impeachment trial deserve congressional censure at the least. They violated their oaths to be impartial jurors, some even going as far as meeting privately with the defense counsel. They knew full well that the president was guilty of sedition and impeachable offenses and protected him anyway out of their own self-interest. There are simply not enough scurrilous adjectives to characterize them. They violated their oaths of office and shamed the Senate.<\/p>\n
These senators, of course, were joined by congressional Republicans and executive department personnel in support of the policies of an out-of-control president contemptuous of tradition and hell-bent on actions that only benefitted himself and his reelection. They, too, are profiles of venality who know no shame.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard the arguments about how Trump was not the cause, that these outlaw groups have always been present, and that there were substantive reasons for people\u2019s discontent and anger. The media, universities, and the \u201cliberal establishment, all dominated by \u201celites\u201d who thought they knew better, were contemptuous of regular people. And the government, in its incompetence, had become increasingly oppressive in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Whether true or not, these allegations refuse to acknowledge that without Trump\u2019s complicity, the violence would not have occurred as it did on January 6th. Potentially violent white supremacist and nativist groups have always been part of our history but lacked an advocate in the White House pandering to their prejudices and urging them to take action.<\/p>\n
As winning politicians are fond of saying, elections have consequences. So does each and every vote cast. If you voted for Trump, look in the mirror and ask yourself the question: did my vote help bring about the terrible events of his presidency and the horrid results of January 6th?<\/p>\n
Happy Presidents Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s plenty of blame and shame to go around. As the oft repeated adage goes, \u201cwe get what we deserve.\u201d Still, we might ask, how is it that so many people were duped into voting for and supporting a sociopath for president? Why is it that for more than four years the nation has suffered…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n