Happy Trumpsgiving

Just to be clear, as you read this below, it is what Trump wrote as his Thanksgiving Day greeting to Americans as he runs to be president of the United States.

I know it's pretty clear, but I say this because I also feel it's important to write something first before you get to it, because beginning this piece directly with Trump's message and no buffer is too much a jolt to the system.

Okay, then, here is Trump's Thanksgiving greeting.

Happy Thanksgiving, from Trump! 

I suspect strongly -- in all, full honesty -- that if Trump's "Happy Thanksgiving" greeting had been posted under anyone else's name, and it was used as evidence that that person shouldn't be given joint custody of an ex-couple's DOG, he would not get custody of the DOG.  Additionally, not knowing exactly how such things work in court, I wouldn't be surprised if he was also ordered to have a psychiatric session.  At the very least, he would have a restraining order placed on him.

(By the way, I originally wrote that a court wouldn't grant joint custody to this fictional person's “child.”  But although I thought that that image was properly gut-wrenching to envision -- and make the further point that if such a person couldn't be allowed to be in charge of a single child, how could he even manage being in charge of an entire country of 325 million people, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces and having the ability to launch nuclear attack -- I decided that not being allowed to share a dog was even more to the point.  Actually, I almost made it "pet goldfish," but since I wasn't aware of couples fighting in court over such a thing, I decided to go with "dog."  And then felt even that wasn’t quite right, and made it "DOG.")

But to be clear, as mentally disturbed and dangerous as his pathetic rant was, this is not about Trump, by now we all know who he is -- a racist, anti-Semitic, fascist, pathological lying, malignant narcissist who literally echoes Hitler.  After all, the country is full of self-possessed, crazy racists who can’t grasp reality, but not a single one of the others has a major political party following them, swamping all of his party opponents by 45 points.  It's about the elected GOP officials who still enable him -- and Republican voters who continue to support him because they "like the judges he'll nominate," or whatever self-justifying reason they've convinced themselves of -- willfully closing their eyes and ears and minds to what they know is the larger truth. Or even those worshipping acolytes who are too empty to know.

It's worth noting the social media post that President Biden put out on Thanksgiving.

Interestingly, this appears to be much more low-key than Trump's head-exploding meltdown Happy Thanksgiving cry-for-help rant attacking at all his current, biggest enemies.

Whenever I see an out-of-control, ad hominem public attack on someone -- which sadly happens relentlessly too often (and “once” is too often) -- whether against a public figure or private individuals like the Georgia poll worker and her mother, and the New York City court clerk, which can not only uproot their lives, but even put them at risk, I always think of a story that Harry Truman wrote about.

I believe it was in his memoir Mr. Citizen.  I can recall the details exactly -- I read this about 35 years ago -- but I know I’m very close.

Several years after leaving office, Truman was giving a lecture.  I think it may have been at a college.  And a young man there asked Truman a question that rubbed him the wrong way, and Truman took the student to task.  And he continued on with the lecture.  Afterwards, however, Truman said he realized how impactful the words of someone who had been President could be on a person, especially somebody young, and how much it could stress them and even affect their life, being spoken to harshly and in public by a former President.  And so Truman said he went and found the young man and apologized.

And then there’s – 

​Over and over and over.  Sometimes shorter, sometimes even worse.  Like, y'know, echoing Hitler.  But over and over and over.

I think of that Truman passage of lot. 

But this is not about Trump, no matter how unstable and fascist he may be.  It’s about every person in the Republican who tolerates him.  Enables him.  Supports him.  And, even putting everything else he’s done aside – including echoing Hitler and planning for internment camps, banning travel based on religion, and undermining the Constitution – is simply okay with any human being (never mind a former president who is running for re-election) writing something like this publicly.

It's about today’s Republican Party that wants that man to lead them.

For anyone who is still wondering why the GOP today is called fascist, that’s why.

And for anyone upset at the Republican Party today being called fascist – then stop supporting a party that is fascist.