Connecting the Dots ~ Fred Allebach

Fred Allebach Fred Allebach is a member of the City of Sonoma’s Community Services and Environmental Commission, and an Advisory Committee member of the Sonoma Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency. Fred is a member of Sonoma Overlook Trail Stewards, as well as Sonoma Valley Housing Group and Transition Sonoma Valley.

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Indecency as the American way

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Fred Allebach

One of the many baffling aspects of Trump is that so many people support him, a 40% immovable baseline. What this says about these fellow Americans is as deeply disturbing as Trump’s coarse and insulting manner.

 

The obvious connection is that Trump supporters don’t care about good manners, relationships, or social skills. Nor do they care that someone flat out lies. 40% of Americans think it is OK to be an insulting liar on a daily basis? This is somehow making America great? 

 

Because “liberals” take umbrage to Trump’s poor behavior, Trump and his supporters, like kindergarteners, turn around and blame “liberals” for the problem. This is classic avoidance and  transference. It’s liberals’ fault that Trump tried to bribe a foreign government to boost his re-election, and so on; “they are out to get him.” Blame the whistleblower.   

 

Let’s be frank and honest. Anyone who acted like Trump would be, one, sent to the principal’s office; two, be called out as a bully; three, fired from any job; and four, already be in jail. People can’t act like this and be part of normal society. You can’t give everyone you disagree with a derogatory nickname, lie endlessly, and then expect anyone to work with you in good faith. Trump is a textbook case of sick, anti-social behavior. Sadly, everyone has gotten used to it. A six-hour period of good behavior is cause for optimism.

 

Is Trump being unjustly attacked by the Left? What about the whole rest of the world? Trump has lied about and insulted all U.S. allies too, except for authoritarian dictators, who in any sane view are supposed to be the bad guys and the enemies of “freedom” and “liberty.”

 

Why is Trump attracted to all the bad guys, why has he alienated all the good guys, and then enjoyed unwavering support of 40% of the US?!@!@!%  Has nearly half the country gone nuts and lost all sense of morals and decency? Barring that, the only conclusion is that Trump support is a Machiavellian, Social Darwinian, ends-justify-the-means Faustian Bargain.

 

How many U.S. presidents have been impeached, have so many corrupt ex-employees in jail, fired so many officials, gutted protections for Main Street and the environment, and totally under-staffed the government? Don’t his supporters see any red flags? Trump gutted the “deep state” now the country needs that competence. These are signs of major dysfunction. The current government is inept to a high degree, and then Trump wants praise. What about the praise for all the governors he’s insulted? For someone who desires so much praise, you’d think he’d practice what he preaches.

 

What’s happening in government is that Republicans have figured out that they are getting a lot of their ideological policy goals taken care of: stacking the Supreme Court with far-right activists, gutting environmental protections, gutting welfare for the poor, attacking immigrants, and increasing corporate welfare for the rich. No matter that this comes about through a Faustian Bargain with corruption and authoritarianism, and a consciously divisive process that leaves more than 50% of Americans fatally alienated. In a Machiavellian world, getting the power is all that matters. Shared American values and fiscal responsibility were apparently just props after all, more lies and fake news. At the end of the day, Trump and the Republicans are out to completely gut and destroy the Democrats and everything they stand for, from the New Deal on. Who needs foreign enemies when you have ones like this close to home?

 

Nevermind that the New Deal, with the GI Bill and GI mortgage, ushered in the greatest period of American prosperity ever.

 

Oh, now with Coronavirus everyone is hurting and needs some help? What sort of crazed hypocritical gyrations will Trump and Moscow Mitch go through now? Too bad they just got done gutting Food Stamps and the Affordable Care Act, for all the “losers” and “takers” (our working class) who might need some help.  

 

So much for any unique American ideals or morals. Exceptionalism has gone totally out the window. America is only exceptional now for how much of an asshole the president is, and the fact that 40% of Republicans support him no matter what. Actual moral, idealistic people stand for something, they are not bitter, insulting assholes to the whole world and to their neighbors.

 

As we watch the Coronavirus crisis unfold, Trump continues to lie, bluster, insult, divide, shirk responsibility, act as if this was all a big game show/real estate deal, and to show he is incapable of being a leader of the whole country. He wrote off all of blue America from day one, and now when it’s time to be united, he thinks anyone will rally to his side? Moscow Mitch thinks you can spend eight years failing to cooperate one inch, stealing a Supreme Court nominee, saying no to everything, and then expect everyone will just cooperate?

 

Recall, not one republican voted for Obama’s 2008 bailout, not one. Did Democrats pull that same shit now? No, right is right and wrong is wrong. 

 

If Trump wins again, or seizes dictatorial powers, the saddest part is not that we somehow got a super asshole at the helm, but that so many people actually support him. This shows that the depth of American moral idealism is one big lie. It shows that there is no loyal opposition from the Republican side, only pure Machiavellianism. “Make America Great” is just one big fat ironic lie. The people who buy this lie are P.T. Barnum’s classic suckers. The price Trump supporters will pay for backing an evil man is the dissolution of the real and authentic things that actually make this country great, and those things have to do with the common decency that is entirely lacking with Trump, and with the inexplicable support that 40% of people give for such a lack of morals and decency.

 

The Christian Right is all in. Love your brother as yourself? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Just more fake news; they are the biggest hypocrites of them all  

 

Three years of lying, insulting, and dividing people; that’s “great again”? This country is going nowhere but down the drain with a leader like this. Divided we fall. Trump supporters need to wake up and smell the coffee. If we are going to traffic in kindergarten rationales, if your leader is such an asshole, what does that make you?

 

 

 

 



5 thoughts on “Indecency as the American way

  1. Fred, this is a powerful piece. The analysis is incomplete without identifying the real source of the problem: the Republican Party.

    Nothing good can happen in this country until the Republican Party, which devolved into a neo-fascist menace to American democracy and world order, has been driven to the sea, their boats burned to the ground and the ashes carried out to burial at sea.

    The Republican Party is the real enemy of a decent and humane future. We have to drive them from power permanently, if we want a future for our children.

  2. Maybe teaching history and civics still matters. For too long we have failed to teach basics. Why was there an American Revolution. Why is he U.S. Constitution of historic importance. Why was there a Civil War. Does Lincoln’s Character matter? Does character matter? Why did we fight WWI and WWII. What was the Cold War? Why did we become the world’s leader. How “free” education made California the success it became!

  3. 45 can’t do it alone . Also, he has a Cult following. People that follow 45 hate liberals and love that 45 pisses us off. I know cause my brother in Florida has swallowed the kool aid hook line and sinker. Nothing 45 could do or say ever would change his mind and trust me many feel the same way. He could not exist without his Repulsive Republican senators like Mitch and Devin Nunes and Jordan from Ohio. They are actually as bad or worse than him. As long as he stays on message against abortion and gay rights the religious right will continue to adore him. I will say one piece of good news – I have close friends who live back east that are Evangelico Christians who voted for 45 last time. They themselves are fed up with him and are switching to Biden.. So I hope that is catching on with the more centrist type religious fanatics. I also think 45 just lost Michigan due to his big mouth there an I think Arizona, Nevada, Texas and a few other states might go blue in November. If 45 gets re elected we can survive that because we are stronger than we think. We survived 8 years of George W. The liberals in this world and the tree huggers are suffering but we will get by…. To quote Jerry Garcia. By hook or by crook.

  4. Fred this is a powerful piece and I agree with all of it except:

    “Let’s be frank and honest. Anyone who acted like Trump would be, one, sent to the principal’s office; two, be called out as a bully; three, fired from any job; and four, already be in jail. People can’t act like this and be part of normal society.”

    For 18 years I worked in corporate America, before I quit to become a poorly paid floral designer. And in those 18 years I watched liars, cheaters, bullies not get fired or reprimanded in any way. In fact they got promoted. Some have told me that I must have been a whiner or there was something wrong with me, American business could never run if this was true. But, I think most people do not want to see what is right in front of them and choose to believe in perception over reality. If we want a better society then, yes we do need to keep on keeping on. There are many little Trumps out there in “normal” society flourishing at the expense of others. Call them out next time you see them lying or bullying. Raise your kids to always tell the truth no matter how painful it is. And vote for those that care about people over profits and self promotion. Larry Barnett pointed out a few weeks ago why what Bernie stands for is not really so radical, it is simply caring about people and doing what is right and fair. But, no matter what, we need to get people to vote for Biden, if we want to have any chance of saving our democracy and promoting human decency.

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