I have been somewhat negative on Donald Trump/President Trump over the last four years (how’s that for understatement). However, the fact I don’t like President Trump doesn’t mean I don’t like people who like President Trump. Which is an important distinction.
When I see signs around town that say, “Hate Has No Home Here,” I wonder if that extends to people who support President Trump. I see churches that are “welcoming,” but I wonder if they are welcoming to people who voted for President Trump. It sort of reminds me of the song Tom Lehrer sang back in the 1960s, “National Brotherhood Week,” which he introduced as follows:
“I'm sure we all agree that we ought to love one another,
and I know there are people in the world who do not love
their fellow human beings, and I hate people like that!”
One of the reasons for this may be that people are so segregated today by their beliefs. People who dislike President Trump are friends of people who don’t like President Trump. And vice versa. People don’t know people who disagree with them about President Trump (or at least they don’t realize it because those who do disagree with them are afraid to say so).
Which makes me sort of lucky. Because I have friends – and relatives – on both sides of the Great Trump Divide. What I tend to notice, though, is that people on both sides assume you agree with them. People at our church pretty much assume you don’t like President Trump. Because, after all, how could anybody like a fool such as him. On the other hand, I have friends who voted for President Trump in 2016 and, I assume, will be doing so again next year. They may think that I will, too.1
But what is especially interesting is how people who may disagree with whatever the prevailing view on President Trump (in the particular group they are in) are hesitant to say so. I can’t imagine anybody at church having the guts to say they’ll be voting for President Trump. If I was going to vote for President Trump, I wouldn’t say it. And I am pretty much a contrarian.
On the other hand, when I got together with another group of friends recently, the common feeling was that the Democratic candidates were horrible (“they’re socialists” and ‘they want to take all our money”) and President Trump was the only choice. And I noticed, when one of them started to say something a little bad about President Trump, their spouse jumped in and said they were a softie. And the person didn’t say anything else. Probably for pretty much the same reason nobody would say anything nice about President Trump at church.
Which is all too bad because President Trump and some of the politicians on the other side are, in spite of what they might say, dividing us more than they are bringing us together. But it’s not just President Trump and those Democrats. It’s their supporters, too, who can’t understand how anybody could disagree with them and who, in effect, are saying, as Tom Lehrer did over fifty years ago: “I hate people like that!” Unless we can all get over that, it’s not going to get any better.
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1 Unless they read this blog.
UPDATE (11/25/19 9:45 am): My copy editor in Lincoln noticed that I was missing a couple of words in fourth sentence of the fifth paragraph. I have added them.
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