Does Trump really "love" this country?

 

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has come out and said what needs to be said: That Trump voters seem to be more “energized” to get out and vote for their candidate, while voters leaning toward Joe Biden seem less enthusiastic. While Biden may be ahead in the polls at the moment, a majority of voters still think that Trump will win reelection. How can this be, unless, there is a clear “enthusiasm” gap with their candidate? The problem with Biden, I think, is that he just isn’t angry enough  about what Trump is doing to this country like, say, Bernie Sanders. People who are angry have that adrenaline rush that focuses the mind, and I just don’t see that coming from Biden. Perhaps it will come when or if he debates Trump and is confronted with Trump’s outrageous lies and misrepresentations; we can only hope.

For the diehard anti-Trump voter, it is simply incomprehensible that having survived four years of Trump, why anyone could think the country could survive another four years of him. Yet the problem seems to be that for many white voters, even if they dislike Trump personally, they don’t really see him as a “threat” to their own lives, but only for the “others”—i.e., minorities, and especially immigrants. They may not want him to win in November, but if he does, it is no skin off their backs; others will suffer, not themselves.

There is one question voters must ask themselves when they vote in this election: Does Trump actually “love” this country, or does he only “love” what this country has done for him, which among many other things is to look the other way when he has defrauded partners in his numerous failed business dealings and bankruptcies, or to look the other way when he has committed financial crimes, such as falsifying financial statements to either get billions in loans, or to avoid paying his fair share of taxes?

The questions voters need ask themselves about Trump should include the following:

If Trump “loves” this country, then why has he continuously downplayed the COVID-19 threat, allowing it to spread across the entire country and kill close to 200,000 people (“officially”) and force agencies like the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services—which are supposed to be protecting the people from the danger—to dilute the threat and deliberately seek to alter the numbers for the political benefit of Trump?

If Trump “loves” this country, then why did he allow, because of his failure to act promptly and decisively on the COVID-19, tens of millions of people to lose their jobs—many of them permanently because of 100,000 small businesses permanently closed and larger ones going into bankruptcy? Forbes is claiming that 42 percent of jobs lost because of the pandemic are lost “forever.”

If Trump “loves” this country, then why has he deliberately pitted American against American, destroying any recognition of shared goals or a common vision? Why is it that for Republicans it is always “us” against “them,” while Democrats are decried for having the gall to include “them” into the fabric of American existence?

If Trump “loves” this country, then why is he (and Tucker Carlson) inciting and/or justifying violence by “avid” supporters like Kyle Rittenhouse and Patrick Crusius? Crusius has the gall to plead “not guilty” for the El Paso massacre, claiming he was in a “psychotic” state; the question is, whose constant racist rhetoric against Hispanics brought on this “psychotic episode”?

If Trump “loves” this country, then how can he claim the “higher” moral ground after pardoning Dwight and Steven Hammond, accused of starting illegal fires on a federal wildlife refuge to cover-up their illegal deer poaching, which subsequently “inspired” Ammon Bundy to expose himself to be the radical anti-government militia gangster he was when he and an armed group commandeered the refuge, claiming that the U.S. government had no “right” to the land, and at the same time insisting that thugs like themselves could deny the people of this country the right to enjoy nature as it was meant to be. As the BBC reported at the time of the pardons, “The president stands with right-wing militias in their disputes with the government.”

If Trump “loves” this country, then why is he selling this country out to Russian interests everywhere in the world? The recent incident in Syria where U.S. troops were injured when a Russian military vehicle deliberately rammed into an American military vehicle shows that Vladimir Putin believes he can push Trump around—which is why Russia continues its election interference in support of Trump. In fact, Trump seems bound and determined to surrender the U.S.’ leadership role as a bastion of democracy by cozying up to dictators and abandoning our allies, camouflaged as a foolhardy “America First” policy.

If Trump “loves” this country, then why is he denying its creed as a refuge for asylum seekers wishing to escape violence and poverty—much of it caused by the insatiable American greed for illegal drugs? Since when is being a “white nationalist” something to be “proud” of, instead of being shunned as a radical fringe of the racist right? Since when is demonizing and dehumanizing whole groups of people a "Christian" trait?

If Trump “loves” this country, then why did he void the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which would have reduced the signatories’ dependence on Chinese goods? Instead, Trump’s tariffs and so-called “phase one” trade “deal” have done nothing to reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese goods or induce domestic manufacturing or increase exports of agricultural products; in fact, the U.S. trade deficit with China has only returned to previous high levels.

If Trump “loves” this country, then why was his promise of massive infrastructure investment such a massive fraud? Following his massive tax giveaway to the rich in 2017, his 2018 “plan” called for 80 percent funding by the private sector, to be paid for by cash-strapped state and local governments. His 2019 “plan” was contingent on the House stop investigating his crimes and ending the impeachment inquiry.

If Trump “loves” this country, then why has he rolled back nearly 100 environmental rules and regulations, completely mindless of the fact that this country’s heritage is not just about the people in it, but “for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain.”

And if Trump “loves” this country, then why has he made a mockery of the words “America! America! God shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!” Why would any “god” shed “grace” on a country that allows a “Fuhrer” wannabe to work out his fascist tendencies?  Peace will only return to this country on the day the Trump Era is defeated and remanded to its dark place in this nation’s history—and we can only pray that this happens this November.