What happened is that Trump was elected president and the right showed its true colors, and it's horrifying to me. I hold a variety of mildly to heavily conservative viewpoints on things, but Trump and his circus have been a bridge too far for me. But it's not really Trump himself; he's just an avatar, the personification of where the American right wing has drifted. And it's a place where we now have to endure a never-ending procession of kooks, conspiracy theories, reality denial, positive reinforcement of juvenile and selfish behaviors, constantly hammering away at representative democratic values, even open incitement to civil war. We get "own the libs" over actual governance. If you call anyone out over it they tell you it's all a big joke and you're just being oversensitive, as though we aren't living in a serious time with genuine issues that need solving. It all just feels so stupid and tragic to me.
I get that maybe it doesn't seem this way to you. But it seems this way to me.
A few months back there was a local news story about a guy who tried to commit vehicular homicide out of rage after being told to wear a mask in an auto parts store. The store owner's son shot the driver dead to prevent being run over by the truck and save his own life. And for what? Nothing. A mask. The guy didn't like being told to wear a mask so he decided to run someone over with his truck and then gets killed. For nothing. It's mad. Mad.
I get how if you have a different perspective, this would seem unrelated and perhaps not even worth remarking upon. But from my perspective, this is a related incident: the kind of emotionally fragile thought process that says, "the virus is bullshit, you can't tell me what to do, I'll kill you" is in my mind directly trace-able to Trump's public behavior and communication. He boasts about being able to get away with crimes. He incites hatred against the left. He ridicules people who follow public health orders and treat the virus like it's a big deal. He casts doubt on the legitimacy of every institution and says that only he is trustworthy. And Republican lawmakers are either silent or enthusiastically agree. They may not realize that they're modeling behavior for impressionable people looking for direction and leadership, but they are. And what they're modeling is bullying, selfishness, and ignorance. It feels to me like the entire Republican party suddenly devolved to the emotional level of a teenager in an abusive home.
Again, I get that it must not seem like this to you. I'm just relaying my own viewpoint and experience.
