The primary reason we loathe the president

This short post looks at the issue addressed in the February 8^th post – ”Why do so many people feel no revulsion towards Trump?” – from a different angle.

Let’s interview two Nevadans as they exit the Smith’s aka Kroger in Henderson, the more pampered community abutting Las Vegas. The two are similar in appearance with the overweight, plebeian vibe, light beer and bulk foods and half-gallons of Oat Yeah beverage in their carts, proving that average folks are formidable and exotic. The interview is very simple. First, we learn that one of them likes Donald Trump and the other abhors him. The second and final question determines that the admirer likes Trump’s policies and, frankly, his fears and hates, while the abhorrer is outraged by the president’s heartless, mocking and predatory character.

We could be deliberately silly for a moment and suggest that the first shopper is a sophisticated or at least serious thinker, while the second is just fueled by emotion – how immature. But we – those of us who can’t stand Trump – know this is not true. We are aware that evil people hurt our feelings, cause us actual pain and sometimes actual trauma. This, in fact, is the primary factor in our reaction to Trump. Not his policies, not his wealth, not his party affiliation. Our injury. We see more clearly, and possibly for the first time, that we live lives where human heart is the foundation, the theme song of the world. We see that action and results aren’t enough, otherwise we’d be machines. Action has to come from who the person is.

And we realize that the people who are in harmony with the president may not be heartless, but their heart is callused in certain places and in certain directions: where there is abuse, power and control, feeling of superiority and intolerance, contemptuous sarcasm. They are numbed to these poisons, cannot be traumatized by them. So we shop with them, live next door to them and don’t realize how tough they are that their sensibilities won’t be hurt where ours will.

It's an illusion, though, an irony tied to the thinking-and-feeling one. The others have calluses that have kept the poison living underneath. That’s where poison does the most damage. That’s where pain may never leave.