Father Knows Best

I recently had an epiphany (no, I didn't get any on me).

It's not tRump at all. He clearly is who he is, says what he says, and does what he does. It's you; it's me; we are the problem. Everything that has come before has made us who we are and what we deem acceptable, which is the reason why the perception we have is the perception we have, and you're wrong; I'm right.

By the time we are adults, we are supposed to have matured, developing and shaping a personal moral compass along the way. We should have a reasonable sense of what's right and what's wrong for us and the world. We read, see, and hear things and should be able to figure out what's okay and what's not okay. 

In class, I used to draw a vertical line on the board and labeled one side 'Right' and the other Wrong.' Then I would toss out some concepts and ask which they belonged on. 'Being honest,' 'Stealing,' 'Helping someone in need,' 'Lying.' 'Bullying,' 'Cheating', 'Murdering,' etc. When I upped the ante with explanatory circumstances, the line blurred and bent to either side - 'Well, this one time it's okay.'

tRump is tRump. To some, he is a bold knight in shining armor, the Second Coming - a self-proclaimed stable genius. To others, he is the Antichrist, a person with no morals, class, or any basic human decency. With either view, he is who he is - what we see says more about who we are. As viewers and listeners, we see and hear the very same things, but to some he can do no wrong, and to others, he can do no right. I can only assume when he does or says something absolutely appalling (to me), someone else is looking up at him with dreamy eyes and battling their eyelashes and thinking, "Sigh... My hero..." 

So, here's the thing. With my background and upbringing, I have concluded tRump is a divisive liar with no sense of anything decent (except winning [for him and his family and the rich]). He thinks (and has now seen) he is above the law, and his supporters eat it up. No matter how crass the act, his supporters cheer. I want to scream, "How can you possibly see this as something good or right or desirable?"

Sadly, we are hard-wired, unable to be altered by an external force. Someone's parents taught them what their parents taught them, and so on. Robert Frost captured it perfectly when he wrote: "I see him there/ Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top/In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed./He moves in darkness as it seems to me,/Not of woods only and the shade of trees./He will not go behind his father's saying...."

And never the twain shall meet...