It occurred to me recently that the people who like and are for President Trump, who now insist that the election was stolen from Trump and that he, not Joe Biden, will be inaugurated to a second term on January 20, are not unlike those who carried out or applauded the 9/11 attacks.
Stay with me here. I know this sounds like an outrageous claim. I’m certainly not saying that the Trump backers are mass murderers – although some appear ready to commit violence if they don’t get their way. And it does feel like they, along with Trump, are holding the nation hostage, in limbo, at this time.
But think about what both groups want – or don’t want. They don’t want to hear from those who don’t have the same beliefs, values or thinking that they do. They don’t want to see and hear women who are liberated and in power or who have what they think is too much power or license. They don’t want to see or hear gay and transgender or any queer people, and they certainly don’t want to see them getting rights and getting married.
Both the Trump supporters and the radical Islamists want things to be the way they used to be. They want, desperately want to go back to a time, to a world where people who were different didn’t have rights or didn’t exist. They are desperate to go back to when things were “simpler.”
They see that the world is changing, see the writing on the wall, and they will do anything to stop this from happening, to go back to when everything was simpler. They will bomb buildings and even fly planes into buildings, killing thousands of people. They will vote for a millionaire, who clearly doesn’t have their interests at heart but who says what they want to hear. They will say that an election is rigged or fraudulent when it clearly wasn’t if their candidate didn’t win, perhaps putting democracy itself at risk and certainly giving the world a horrible model.
I understand that my argument here is very broad. For example, many, including a fair number of Blacks and Latinos, who voted for Trump liked the way he handled the economy, at least pre-COVID, and felt he would be better than Biden at handling it. Not all who voted for Trump were white gun-toting people who think that wearing a mask is an intrusion on liberty, who tend to be racist if not white supremacists and who want to go back to the 1950’s when women stayed at home and gay people weren’t seen, but it has become clear that enough, more than enough, are.
A broad argument, but valid with freedoms taken away and I would add, an intolerance for speaking rights. I think if we can elect someone who takes away those rights from individuals like immigration, or votes for that matter, we can elect to restore those freedoms. What disturbs me is the fact, one person can be supported through ideologies, yet when somebody else gains support, they are condemned. We are talking about minorities, race, and sexual orientations, just as the founding fathers put in the constitution. Pursuit of happiness, a freedom for all, no matter race religion or creed.
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