Okay, every day we’re inundated with more Trump. He’s said something even more outrageous than his last statement. He’s doubled down on the lie he said last week. He’s selected yet another group to denigrate. Since *** challenged him, he’s risen 10 more points in the polls.
Admit it, we’re seriously overdosing on Trump, which is exactly what he wants. He may or may not actually want to be President...the jury is still out on that...but it’s clear that he lives and dies for the notoriety and publicity his campaign generates. He is, by any reasonable medical or psychiatric definition, the ultimate Narcissist. Capital N!
But, let’s look beyond the noise, accept those poll numbers, and consider something that he’s actually done that is, in my opinion, good for this country.
Through his actions he has revealed the heretofore hidden racism that we pretended didn’t exist.
It’s like when the LGBTQ community was safely confined to the closet. We didn’t have people arguing about them, or about their right to exist, or whether or not it was genetic or choice...simply because we could all pretend they didn’t exist. Not only were they hidden, so were the homophobes. It wasn’t a topic for discussion or debate, so everybody could hide their opinions and we pretended to get along.
Now...fast forward to today. LGBTQ is part of our lives...and part of our public debate. While the legal issues may have been addressed to a degree, the social issues remain. But...and I think this is a good but...people are forced to reveal their opinions, bigoted or otherwise. It is said that the first step in solving, or at least addressing, a problem is to admit there is one. For better or worse, we all know there is a problem with the acceptance of LGBTQ folks. I like to think things have improve, and I honestly believe they have, but clearly weren’t not “there” yet.
Trump has exposed another great problem within our society, namely racism...and it’s sibling brother, religious intolerance. We can no longer pretend it isn’t there. It is. And it’s not just the elephant in the room, it’s a whole damn herd of elephants...in a very small room!
He hates everybody who isn’t like him. I’d list them, but I can’t keep up. He even hates POW’s, a class of folks I never thought would be disliked on a large scale. Worse...or better...his words have caused a bunch of people to come out of their closet and announce that they hate too. Big Time! Sadly, that’s also fired up some of them to carry out public acts of hatred, and while I don’t think that’s remotely a good thing on the local scale, it might be a net positive when viewed nationally.
We have, as a society, learned that amongst us are a lot more bigoted and race-hating folks than we might have imagined. They’ve outed themselves, and even seem proud to publicize their position. We can no longer pretend they don’t exist, or that there aren’t many of them. There’s a mess of them. Millions!
Maybe the only positive from Trump is that we will be forced to address the issues of equality we could all too easily ignore before. I hope so, because it’s pretty clear there isn’t a single other positive from his campaign. Let’s join together to make this historic debacle result in something better in the long run. Please! The alternative really isn’t worth considering.