Saturday, February 10, 2018 8:17 PM
Only the Truth (2018Feb10)
“Only the truth can set you free.” St. Peter, I think. And so true. I love a good axiom. I’m used to the adult world having more regard for the truth—the truth doesn’t seem like the kind of thing we should lose track of—it’s as if some political party were trying to make ‘being an asshole’ a normal, okay thing. And there’s nothing more annoying than some asshole who lies right to your face—as if lies last forever.
Prominent men are dropping like flies, falling to long-overdue comeuppances (and public shaming) that the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements have brought to their ‘regular business practices’ of being pigs. I hear some of the more tone-deaf men trying to raise concern over the poor men who don’t get a trial before they’re condemned—but the irony of that is hard to miss.
Then there’s Trump. And I’ll remind everyone, before I go on, that Trump isn’t just a liar—he’s a bad liar, because he’s used to getting away with stuff and excuses are just part of that process. The fact that the media feel obligated to repeat his every lie—and the official lies of all his media avatars (I’m looking at you, Huckabee)—makes us start to suppose it’s normal for a president to lie like a rug, daily.
Trump brings this great ‘retro’ thing to his sexual-equality platform—sounds just like the fifties. “Remember, he said he was innocent…” was Trump’s comment about his wife-beating (2Xs!) StoCOS. That’s one way to say he denied the charges against him—I guess. But does it really stack up to two-wives’ testimony, a court-ordered restraint, and an evidence-photo of wife-one’s black eye? Then, just for laughs, a second aide resigns over the same kind of inhuman crap—and Trump doubles-down—what a pig! But we knew that, so no surprise, I guess?
The news has commented repeatedly that Trump avoided even mentioning the victims of the alleged abuses—and his Administration is too thick-skinned to even bother plugging that chink in their image. Plus, they probably know they couldn’t get him to do it. Trump’s response to his own twenty accusers makes it pretty plain that he has more in common with Sandusky and Nassar than with any decent person.
But my message today is once again aimed at the Republicans. Trump is psychotic—he has no shame. But you folks, presumably, have a sense of shared reality with the rest of the humans here on Earth. And you know that it is going to be a lot harder for you to show your faces, when this house of cards finally collapses.
People have been throwing around the word ‘treason’ quite a bit, recently—I, myself, see many of Trump’s words and deeds in that light. Here’s what I think Republicans should be concerned about—Trump, currently, is serving Putin’s interests more than the Republican Party’s. So, if you folks get away with keeping him in office a full four years—how do you suppose Putin is going to use those years? And what will a Congress-person be worth when he’s done? Can you say ‘Pyrrhic Victory’?
Besides, the truth always comes out in the end. The real question is: Will the rest of us have any kindness left to offer, when your wrongdoings come to light?
