Trump's Idolizers and Haters

The phenomenon-turned-president known as Donald Trump has certainly by far been the headline news item going on now for more than four years, with most of the country's voting-age population pitted against each other, steeped either in irrational adulation or hatred for the man.  No doubt Trump himself has greatly instigated this stoked-up passion about himself since he has to be one of the most narcissistic egomaniacs I've ever seen...no matter what the story, it always has to be about him, in his private Trump-centered universe.  I never did like him ever since the role he played as a big-spending team owner in the demise of the United States Football League, a pro league in the mid-eighties I then had high hopes for.  Then, after Obama was elected president, Trump latched on to the birther movement claiming that this president wasn't really born in the U.S. and as such wasn't legally the president after all.  I watched live on TV when he declared his own candidacy for the high office and was impressed with his oratorical skills...and apparently so did a lot of others since the Republicans made him their nominee in 2016 and he ultimately won the general election later that year...

So right up front I'll state it...I dislike Donald Trump, yet he still has some positive aspects to his personality...including his lifelong personal example against drug abuse...and takes positions on some issues that I support.  I thought the Republicans made a mistake in 2016 rejecting stalwart conservative candidate Ted Cruz, one of the smartest senators in my opinion, and that Cruz could have also beaten Hillary Clinton in the election.  But whereas I found many of Trump's comments and Tweets to be offensive and insulting...especially the name-calling and derision he heaped on any perceived opponent or critic, including "Lyin' Ted"...I noticed that his haters were often calling him racist on a number of things that were clearly taken out of context and distorted.  And through all these years and up to the present, I find myself taken aback at some of Trump's actions and words while at the same time rejecting a lot of the criticism coming from the never-Trumpers...I could list specific examples but I don't really need anyone from either camp barraging me with links and emotion-laden reactions...

I tend to form my judgments about the politicians I see and hear on TV and radio from my own impressions, and not from the highly-spun interpretations that pass for news analysis these days.  But for those irrational folks who either think Trump can do no right or no wrong, they tend to insulate themselves within their own feedback loop bubbles of TV channels, radio talk shows, and Internet sites that promote and reinforce their own preconceptions and do not entertain the notion that you can support (or oppose) someone while at times finding things about them that you disagree (or agree) with.  That Donald Trump never admits to making a mistake and is always doubling down against any criticism of him doesn't mean that you or I have to engage in the same intellectually dishonest folly.  After all, we the people are supposed to be the bosses, aren't we...not the politicians and not the often biased and lazy media talking heads trying to convince us that up is down, war is peace, liberty is bigotry, prosperity is privilege, compromise is betrayal, and so on.  In discussing politics with others I've gotten into the habit, once I discover someone supports a particular politician, of asking them to share with me something...anything...that they dislike about the politician or his or her stance on some issue.  And if they can't find even one thing, then I tend to suspect that they are idolizers, not independent thinkers...and it's fruitless trying to discuss anything with such types. In every presidential election I voted in since 1976 I saw good and bad in both major candidates and had to thoughtfully weigh which one would make a better president before I made my decision...and that includes the last election.  Why not join me and do the same this time around and leave the idolizers and haters to wallow in their own comfortable self-imposed bubbles...