By Terry Manning
My apologies to the editors for the letters that the headline will provoke.
Most of the writers will not read past the headline. They will make their own interpretations and extrapolate to fuel rage sufficient to transform them into what radio host Charlemagne tha God dismissively referred to as “broadband bullies” and “keyboard killers.”
But I stand by it because it is my opinion (to which I’m entitled) that a lot of people who voted for the returning former president aren’t what they want to appear to be.
They want to be seen as informed voters acting on principle. Patriots. Compassionate conservatives. Christian warriors fighting for God’s ordained favorite nation. They are none of these.
They point to inflation, blaming President Biden and the Democrats for failing to address the problem quickly enough or to acknowledge it at all. Explaining his support for the former president, Philadelphia resident Miguel Garcia told CBS News, “Prices went up, food went up, everything went up.”
Which is true. Some of that is the general nature of prices over time, and some, which folks like Garcia seem to care less about, is price-gouging to pad corporate profit margins and the residual effects from the former president’s previous tariff war.
The president-elect has promised new, higher tariffs, and said he will launch a mass deportation effort that undoubtedly will affect many of the people who perform the low-paying, back-breaking labor that undergirds the American economy. Get ready for even higher prices, Miguel, and make sure your papers are in order.
They say they want to “make America great again.” That’s dubious enough of a goal that even Senate stalwart Mitch McConnell criticized it, quoted in an upcoming memoir as saying, “The MAGA movement is completely wrong.”
I ask you, how does it help America to hand authority over it to a man carrying on back-channel communications with its biggest enemy? How can he defend the country “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” when he is sucking up to its foreign enemies and cutting deals with its domestic enemies to earn their votes?
Some supporters said they didn’t appreciate the tone of the Democrats’ message, like the Facebook commenter who suggested Democrats should drop their “hate” and be “more positive.” For the sake of the friend whose timeline she wrote that on I stayed cordial, but I truly wanted to say to her, “Heifer, you voted for Donald Trump!”
You cannot vote for a man who campaigned on how “stupid” the people are who disagree with him; who threatened to “execute” Liz Cheney, his former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other of his administration members who dared call him the fascist they witnessed him being; and who called Joe Biden a senile old “r—d” and Kamala Harris a “b—h,” and then turn around and lecture people about civil discourse.
They want to protect the sanctity of life by making abortion illegal in almost all circumstances.
Never mind the dangers pro-choice advocates warned about before and after Dobbs, that women across the country would die if they were denied access to essential healthcare. Those warnings have come true, but hey, when you call yourself “pro-life” who’s to say a few deaths aren’t worth it to remind women their bodies aren’t their own but are instead sacred vessels dedicated to the greater good of maintaining the proletariat?
Podcaster Joe Rogan urged the incoming president to ignore “haters” and focus on unity. In other words, to not do any of the things he did in his first term and has sworn to do again. But in trying to mitigate his blame for endorsing the President-elect, Rogan purposefully is dodging the real point: the former president is the biggest hater of all.
This man who told his rally crowds, “I am your retribution,” is just that. He is his supporters’ middle finger to anyone who didn’t vote for him. To anyone who took his threats seriously. To anyone who can fashion empathy for others. To people who cared enough to research the issues and understand the stakes.
So when I see that one definition of “dummy” is “a counterfeit or sham,” to me that fits a lot of the people who voted for the hell we’re all going to be going through for at least the next two years.
If you find other definitions of the word more applicable, that is your prerogative.
Terry E. Manning is a Clemson graduate and worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.
