Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen

“He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Donald Trump has uttered countless statements that shock the conscience of decent people. (Or at least you’d hope they do!) But that’s the first one that comes to mind when considering his pathological narcissism and utter moral depravity.

Probably because it’s from 2015, the year he embarked on his first run for the presidency, and concurrent with his noxious presence in the American consciousness becoming pretty much impossible to ignore. (Spoiler alert: The nightmare continues … and in fact has become exponentially more horrifying.)

Trump was speaking of Republican Sen. John McCain. McCain served as a Navy pilot during Vietnam. In 1967, his aircraft was shot down. He was taken captive and tortured, sustaining permanent injuries, before his release in 1973. (Worth noting: Trump received five Vietnam-era draft deferments, including at least one for “bone spurs in his feet.” LOL?)

Prisoners of war are typically, and rightfully, regarded with reverence by Americans of all political dispositions. To speak ill of a POW is blasphemy. No matter one’s particular views on the use of American military force – and, generally, conflating the military with America itself – the sacrifice of those who serve is unquestionably worthy of gratitude.

Unless you’re Donald Trump, I guess. And that POW is a political rival.

The comment revealed the essence of Trump’s character to anyone for whom it was not already apparent. He had not misspoken. He did not apologize. (Apologize? That’s for losers.)

Donald Trump could never comprehend, let alone appreciate, the virtue of service and sacrifice. The notion of selflessness, of behavior that is not primarily for personal benefit, is entirely foreign to him.

And the rest is history. A sufficient sector of the electorate was willing to at least overlook – if not fully embrace – Trump’s pettiness and cruelty to elect him president in 2016. For tens of millions of people, a relatively generic politician like Hillary Clinton would have somehow, for some reason, been worse than someone who brags about groping women (there’s audio) and mocks disabled people (there’s video). Nevermind the bigotry and hate-mongering.

Electing Donald Trump one time can maybe – maybe – be excused as a collective lapse in judgment at a unique moment in history.

Electing him twice leaves no doubt.

America is just fine with a 78-year-old president who regularly demonstrates childlike impulses, calling people names and throwing tantrums on social media. (Have you heard? HE HATES TAYLOR SWIFT.)

America is just fine with a conspiratorial lunatic who believes Haitian immigrants in Ohio eat pets and windmills cause cancer.

America is just fine with a fascist who admires dictators that “rule with an iron fist,” craves unchecked authority, wants to silence opposition and muses about holding office for more than two terms. (Which is, like, totally unconstitutional.)

America is just fine with a convicted felon who will do everything in his power to corrupt the U.S. Department Of Justice, shielding himself and those who support him from consequences for criminal behavior while persecuting his enemies. (See: Attorney General Matt Gaetz)

And, most remarkably, America is just fine with a former president who indisputably lost a free and fair election in 2020; relentlessly lies about it being “rigged”; tried to overturn the will of the American people by, among other things, personally calling the Georgia secretary of state and instructing him to “find” 11,000 votes (there’s a recording); incited a mob that violently attacked the U.S. Capitol – assaulting police officers in the process – on Jan. 6, 2021; sat in the White House and WATCHED THE ATTACK ON TV as the peaceful transfer of power was being disrupted; and now refers to those being prosecuted for the attack as “hostages.”

If kneeling during the national anthem as a form of peaceful protest is anti-American, then … what is all that?

Well, what it is – what all of it is – is perfectly acceptable to 75 million voters in 2024.

Millions of those voters have developed a bizarre, cult-like allegiance to Trump. They boldly fly big red flags bearing his name right alongside the American flag. They buy the Bibles he sells and the lies he tells.

These are the people some of us go out of our way to avoid every day.

For other voters, Trump projects a cartoonish masculinity and contempt for polite, thoughtful discourse, believing he embodies “toughness,” “common sense” and, in darkly comical irony, “working class” sensibilities.

Many other voters, meanwhile, simply had legitimate concerns about serious policy issues such as border security, inflation, crime, abortion, foreign policy and … taxpayer-funded sex changes for inmates, apparently?

I don’t know. Living in Pennsylvania, I saw hundreds of commercials about sex changes before the election – and that was just during one afternoon watching football!

With all due respect to the policy positions of the candidates – and bearing in mind that Kamala Harris was not, in fact, president the past four years – I believe there were far, far greater things at stake when one candidate was so plainly unfit for office, so uniquely dangerous to a country where our allegiance is to the Constitution, not a king. That’s why some prominent Republicans – Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, TRUMP’S OWN VICE PRESIDENT, MIKE PENCE – set aside party loyalty and either spoke out against or refused to endorse Trump. This election was bigger than Trump vs. Harris – who, at the very least, is smart, even-tempered and wholly qualified for the job.

This election was Trump vs. democracy.

Trump vs. truth.

Trump vs. the rule of law.

Trump vs. common decency.

More than anything, I’d been cautiously optimistic that last one – simple common decency, neither a “liberal” or “conservative” value – would prevail.

I was wrong.

That it did not has left me with a profound sense of disillusionment, as the evidence is clear that America, on a fundamental level, is not the country I’d always believed it to be. It sort of feels like discovering Santa Claus isn’t real, except I only believed in Santa Claus till I was 10.

Now, I must rewire my brain to un-learn a lifetime of idealism about so-called “shared values,” not to mention some eighth-grade civics lessons about American democracy.

It is neither easy or comfortable.

In a couple months, Donald Trump will take office with virtually unchecked power and broad criminal immunity (thanks to the wisdom of a recent Supreme Court ruling), a wannabe tyrant surrounded by loyalists. The more traditional Republicans from his first administration – those who provided a check against his most egregious impulses – are long gone, some having issued urgent warnings about the dire consequences of a second Trump presidency.

It defies reason to expect there will not be corruption and abuse of power of breathtaking proportions. I sincerely fear that something sacred – the idea that the United States president serves the Constitution, not his or her personal interests – has been given away to someone who could not be less worthy our trust. And there’s no certainty we’ll ever get it back.

Anyway, here’s hoping I’m wrong about America a second time.

(Published Nov. 18, 2024)