It’s been 2 weeks, and I’m still amazed to know DT was convicted, and so quickly and definitively by the jury. I heard the news just as I was worrying about the possible effects of a not guilty verdict. What a relief!
During the trial and afterward, the GOP who tried to protect him did not spend much time presenting evidence of his innocence or pressuring him to testify in his own defense. Instead, they focused on attacking, seeking vengeance against anyone who tried to hold him responsible. Many GOP either lied about or attacked the justice system itself, the judge, his family, witnesses for the prosecution; and now they’re going after the jurors. One pro-DT forum accused Judge Merchan of treason and suggested that he should be hanged.
DT’s followers just revealed a blind obedience to their leader and a craving for power, calling for politically motivated investigations of Democrats. They cover their own weaponization of government (for example, using the power to investigate supposed wrongdoing by House committees) by accusing others of weaponization. For over a year they searched to find, or to create, something illegal to accuse President Biden of doing; and they found nothing. They recently went after Attorney General Merrick Garland, and for two years, they pursued Dr. Fauci, and they looked foolish in the face of witness testimony.
These GOP do this not only for retribution, but to undermine the rule of law itself. They want to hide the facts of this obviously fair jury trial behind clouds of distortions or lies. Maybe they hope to make this fair trial seem as suspect as their own investigations.
I should be inured by such acts by now, after 8 years of hearing DT and his followers spout ridiculous and malicious claims. On the street, they can get away with lying or saying almost anything that pops into their heads. In the courtroom, to say anything they must first meet a burden of proof.
Each of us who cares about having the vote⎼ or having the freedom and right to speak our minds⎼ the right to control our own healthcare, our own bodies⎼ the right to clean air and water and a livable planet⎼ the right to have free public education, not enforced religious indoctrination⎼ the right to have a jury of our peers and to be presumed innocent unless proven otherwise, instead of being presumed guilty unless we support a DT dictatorship⎼ each of us needs to do all we can to speak up and get out the vote in November if we want to stop the DT/GOP from taking all of this and more from us.
No matter how compassionate we are or try to be, it can be difficult to even look at him. I feel anything from sadness to anxiety and revulsion whenever I see him or hear his voice. Yet, somehow, during limited hours, when I’m able to breathe in what I’m seeing or hearing and acknowledge that he’s really here with us⎼ that all of his lies, criminal and immoral acts are not a bad dream that I‘ll soon wake from, but reality. And I take a breath and realize he’s no less subject to birth, pain, and death than anyone else⎼ then I can face him.
His acts and words are even more despicable when seen as the words and actions of someone as human as we are, but just more terribly self-centered, more entitled, more fearful and full of hate, and certainly more driven by a deep compulsion to take revenge against anyone who doesn’t worship or love him. When we don’t treat him as an inhuman monster, we can better perceive how to fight what he says and plans to do.
But how can we speak of being humane or compassionate with all this information out there about what he’s done and plans to do? And who are we if we say such awful things about another human being?
Unlike DT, we’re doing our best, I think, to use evidence publicly available for fact-checking or gathered in situations like trials where to speak an untruth is subject to criminal penalties. DT has done all in his power to prevent his speech and actions from ever going to trial, as with the stolen classified documents case in Florida or the case in Washington, D. C. that would directly examine his lies about, and attempt to overturn, the 2020 election.
His constant lying and speaking “alternate truths” has done tremendous harm to our nation, turning political speech into mere competing opinions or meaningless dribble. It is the utmost act of courage and compassion to speak up to rescue human communication and civilization from such chaos, or to rescue the physical world itself from any politically imposed impotence to perceive and speak the truth about threats like dictatorship and global warming.
So maybe, when we can safely do so, we might ask any adherent of DT, who isn’t rich, what is it they think they would gain from a DT Presidency? We might ask the same of anyone planning on not voting, or not voting for a Democrat. When we can first listen to each other and not be immediately judgmental, it can clarify for us who “they” are and how to speak with “them.”
All this can make it clearer for everyone just how important this next election is.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Flickr
