My father taught me many things while I was growing up. Lessons which helped shape the man I am today, and have helped me navigate life. Kindness, empathy, and compassion were not important to him, but strength, courage, and toughness (both mental and physical) were. He was also really big into self-reliance, using intelligence to solve problems, and careful consideration of all possible outcomes before making a decision. He taught me to out-think my opponents and to always be smarter and more clever than they were. Victory through superior intellect. One of his favorite sayings was, “The biggest and the baddest always wins any contest…unless you can outsmart them. If you’re not the biggest or the baddest, you must be the smartest.”
Most of what he taught me was good advice, and I still use it to this day. However, he (just like everyone else in the world) was complex, and had many different sides to his personality. Not everything he taught me was good (or even socially acceptable), and he could be as cruel, hateful, and sadistic as he was benevolent and kind. In no area of his life was this more apparent than in his political beliefs.
Technically, he was too old to be a baby boomer, being born during WWII and not after it, but he was the quintessential boomer. He hated Kennedy, but loved Nixon, and didn’t believe Nixon did anything wrong. He hated Carter, but loved, even idolized, Reagan. And, more to the point of this post, he loved trump. I will never, as long as I live, forgive him for voting for that orange shitstain. It’s not about politics; it’s about morals. Despite our differences, I always believed my father was a good person. But no one who supports cheeto jesus is a good person. Good people don’t vote for evil men.
With his support of tangerine Caligula, my father proved that many of the things he taught me were lies. Things he said he believed, but clearly didn’t. Things such as…
Respect Others: My father taught me to respect women, to respect their boundaries, and to understand that no really does, in fact, mean no. But if you truly believe that, then you don’t vote for a known rapist who says things like “Grab ‘em by the pussy.”
When trump mocked a disabled reporter, every good and decent person in the world turned away from him. The people who voted for him after that, people such as my father, are just as cruel and hateful as he is. Years later, when he said that disabled people should just be left to die, it solidified this position.
The casual, callous racism of trump is so egregious that I can’t even hope to list it all here. From his border comments to his “black jobs” remark, trump has proven time and time again that the only people he cares about are white supremacists.
Fiscal Responsibility: My father taught me the value of money (in this, I admit that I was not a good student). He taught me to spend rarely, save regularly, and invest wisely. However, if he had truly believed in this, he wouldn’t have voted for a man who failed at every single business he tried to start. He wouldn’t have supported a man that filed for bankruptcy several times, or a man that stole money from his own charity.
Hard Work: My father taught me the value of hard work. But if you truly believe in hard work, you don’t vote for a man that has never worked a day in his life and had everything handed to him on a silver platter. Furthermore, you don’t vote for a man who is infamous for refusing to pay the people who did his work for him.
Personal Responsibility: When my father was still coaching baseball and basketball, he had a rival coach that he couldn’t stand. I asked him why he had this irrational hatred of this man and he said “When things go right, he takes all the credit, but when things go wrong, he blames his players, or the referees, or the weather, or anything except himself. He never takes responsibility.” My father instilled that value in me, but clearly he didn’t actually believe it. Because if he did, he wouldn’t have voted for a man that is a thousand times worse than that rival coach.
Honesty: My father claimed to believe in honesty, but clearly, he didn’t. Not only does trump lie every time he speaks, but he is notorious for cheating on all of his wives, cheating in his business practices, and cheating people out of their money. All trump does is lie, cheat, and steal. It might be true that “all politicians lie” but few have done it as casually, as carelessly, and as frequently as trump has. If you truly value honesty, then you don’t vote for a man like that.
DonOld trump did all of these things, and more. I didn’t even talk about his disdain for the laws of the USA or our constitution, and his blatant disrespect for the military. These are vital issues that point to trump’s narcissism and lack of morality, but as they didn’t directly affect my relationship with my father, I felt like they didn’t really “fit” the nature of this post.
He is truly one of the most evil people who have ever walked the face of this Earth. Good people don’t support evil men. Period. No one who voted for trump is a good person, and that includes my father.
My father passed away recently, and I miss him. But part of me wishes he had died eight years ago, so I could continue believing the lies my father told me.
