JOHN PAVLOVITZ:The Sadness of Sharing a Country With Trump Supporters

[sheshe2]

And I know that I’m not alone. I know that right now, variations of these thoughts are being played out millions of times inside the heads of people all over this country; empathetic human beings like me who have found the reservoirs of hope dangerously low and who can’t seem to shake the profound sense of dread hovering always in the periphery of their daily life.

It’s simply demoralizing sharing a country with people who think Donald Trump is someone worth emulating: to be surrounded by that kind of moral inversion every single day, to be continually encountering such cruelty. It’s a source of profound and sustained grieving to believe that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and afforded opportunity—and to know how many simply do not share that belief. I don’t hate these people but I am deeply saddened by them.

It isn’t just the reality of the despicable human being who we’ve allowed to ascend to the Presidency that beings that sadness, though that would be reason enough for despair. It’s the ugliness we’ve seen in our neighbors as he’s made his way there, and perhaps even worse now following his departure: the doubling down despite all we know about his reckless and incompetence. It’s the sickness that the America we love has shown itself afflicted with: the weight of every horrible reality about our nation; all our bigotry and discord and hatred set upon our chests, hampering our breath.

But it’s much closer than that, too.

It’s the words we’ve heard from family members, the stuff we learned about our neighbors, the social media posts from church friends, the incendiary sermons from our pastors, the arguments we’ve had with co-workers. Every square inch of life seems polluted now. Nothing about this place feels untouched by the ugliness.

More: https://johnpavlovitz.com/2021/07/16/the-sadness-of-sharing-a-country-with-trump-supporters/

[JohnnyLib2]

1. He's eloquently expressed my thoughts.

[sheshe2]

2. Read here the other day, that he and his family all tested positive for COVID.

He, wife and one child, fully vaxed. The youngest was not, do to age. They took a family vacation and thought they would be safe.

Yes, his words are so eloquent and his heartfelt sadness for our country is our reality right now.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

4. He did for me too

With one exception:

I do hate those people.
Those who do evil and knowingly choose evil and do not care about who that evil hurts.

I fucking dispise them.

[Tiger8]

22. I fucking despise them too

They've always been there....but many of them had shame enough to keep (some) of their hatred on the Down Low.

Limbaugh told them to be bold & aggressive with their hate, especially toward LGBTQIA, Women and African Americans. But the difference was Limbaugh was a little man behind a microphone. When Limbaugh tried to become a sports commentator or buy a football team, society shut those doors to him.

But with Trump, he not only boldly refused to back down from spewing his hate, he acted out on it too ("Knock him around fellas.....teach him a lesson. I'll pay your legal fees!" ) and then won the presidency.

That's all the deplorables needed to see. Trump opened the cage door, and let out the poison we had worked decades to make shameful.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. I love Pavlovitz

I've been following him on Twitter for a long time. He's one evangelical I truly respect.

[wryter2000]

29. He's UU

I suppose they have some Evangelicals. They’re pretty free of dogma, though.

[Jilly_in_VA]

30. I think

he at least started out as a Methodist. He served in several UMCs before he got busted by them

[markie]

5. excellent

[Hekate]

6. So heartfelt and so true

Thanks She

[sheshe2]

8. welcome, hon.

[Hekate]

10. Just had a long lunch w my SIL, but the good cheer I felt w her floats on a base of deep sadness...

…. and dread about our collective future, as Pavlovitz describes.

Still, we need to allow ourselves these moments of love and connection. We need to seek them out. I don’t do nearly enough of that.

All the best & may you & I have a long lunch together someday, too.

[sheshe2]

12. Kids came in shifts the past few days for moms 95th.

It was good.

[niyad]

9. Thank you. I wish them everything they deserve,

[SheltieLover]

11. K&R!

[Mr.Bill]

14. The thing is,

they've always been there. Trump just enabled them. While they disgust me, there is something positive to be said for the fact that they have identified themselves. I had friends among them and didn't know it. Now I know and having disassociated myself with them, I feel much better.

[Botany]

15. Putin and Russia were successful beyond words

I'm in rural Virginia close to the Shenandoah River and the Trump signs and the fuck Joe "the Socialist" signs are every where. Putin wanted to divide and cause social unrest in America with his whiting agent Trump and that is what he did.

[gordianot]

16. The trick is not to become as bitter, hateful and delusional as Trump supporters.

Donald Trump is a crook and is also seriously mentally ill. The single greatest internal threat America has ever faced.

[Snackshack]

17. Nice

The one thing he didn’t touch on that I think is a very big factor in this is the complete lack of any accountability for anyone that has propagated the outright deceit that has infected every aspect of this. DT / Congress and other people in positions of authority such as the preacher he mentions, LE Officers around the country and Social Media have been able to keep pumping life into the “big lie” and the falsehoods about COVID with impunity and no one has been called out for it.

I remember a time when a candidate for president said it was a lie he was fooling around with another woman and dared the media to find proof. 48hrs later it was front page news and the media eviscerated him now congress people lie straight up to the media and there is zero pushback it’s unbelievable. I remember a time when someone saying vaccines have little chips in them to track you would have been laughed out of town now people are like “oh, really” it’s unbelievable.

An interview post on here about DT is an idiot and could not do Jan 6 alone said there should have been a major clampdown Jan 7&8 of everyone involved with Jan 6. People up-to and including DT should have brought for questioning to find out their in involvement. All the personnel changes at DOD and the infrastructure it took setting up the rally, getting people there. The meeting that took place at Trump Hotel Jan 5. All of that should have been the focus. Then go after the 500 people who broke into the building. That would have put a stop to DT, the big lie and all of the BS since…but nothing was done.

[yonder]

24. Agreed. That lack of accountability is a huge part

of the broken sense of spirit many are burdened with these days, IMO. We wander about as weary, aimless subjects of a country that has misplaced it's focus from a proactive justice (at least for some), to a rudderless, "whatever the meme of the day might take us" destination. We gobble up the latest misdirection, some of us thinking of it as sustenance, while in reality we are starving to death from that very real absence of accountability.

[SledDriver]

18. Everything Trump touches dies

[Takket]

19. and his filthy hands have been all over our country

[Collimator]

23. As I have stated before. . .

Trump is the anti-Mr. Rogers. He brings out the worst in everyone.

As someone who disagrees with him and his followers vehemently, I have to work hard within my own spirit to keep their ugliness from bringing out the worst in me--even if I believe that my anger, hatred and outrage are properly placed.

Full disclosure, I don't always succeed. I'm glad that I don't have god-like powers because Marjorie Taylor Green would have had a stroke and be unable to talk right now, Lauren Boebert would have accidently shot herself cleaning her precious gun, and Trump would shit himself while crashing another wedding and giving one of his stupid, indulgent speeches. (Also, he would have a stroke that would make it impossible for him to lie.)

Fortunately, I do NOT have god-like powers, but Mr. Rogers would be deeply disappointed in me.

[dianaredwing]

20. I have spent the day

Looking over stock news footage of the 1960s and 1970s for my book trailer. This was a time that I lived through and thought I remembered well. Still, the visceral, mostly black and white, photographs of the carnage of the Vietnam War, the beating of Civil Rights protestors, and the hatred and animosty evident on the faces of those who violently opposed giving people of color and women their rights was both disgusting and frightening. Things haven't changed so much after all, and as much as I despise TFG, I am glad that our country was not again disgraced by the assassination of the seated president however much I disagree with him. The law will catch up with him.

I believe that the feeling that we are more connected because of IT is illusionary. In reality, we are are more isolated than ever. I agree with the sentiments expressed in these posts, and wish I could "give the world a hug," but everyone seems farther away, separated by little black triangles.

Politeness and social responsibility are at the heart of any successful community but we seem to have misplaced ours. We have somehow allowed a malignant growth to take hold of our social fabric and I think it is caused by believing we are exceptional, because we really are not. We are humans, just like the Germans and the South Africans and all the other humans who are suffering right now. Holding on to our humanity is our best chance for survival.

[monkeyman1]

21. I go the va & couldn't stand seeing his mug on the wall ! damn draft dodger polluted it!

[calimary]

25. Damn! A really terrific read!

[sheshe2]

26. Thanks, it was.

[sheshe2]

27. Thanks, it was.

[flying rabbit]

28. Yep. nt

[lagomorph777]

31. "Every square inch of life seems polluted now."

My wife (rather more centrist than I) complained the other day that when she sees somebody flying a flag, she has to assume they are an asshole, and resents how the Reptilians have defiled and stolen the symbols we used to be inspired by.

[Nevilledog]

32. I feel the same.