Well, it’s been two weeks since we awakened to learn that someone we believed could NEVER be elected President of the United States did just that. I guess this is how racists felt on November 5, 2008, the day after Barack Obama’s first election! It’s going to be a long four (or maybe even eight) years! My advancing age, professional status, and commitment to try to be a better Christian keep me from saying what I really want to say about this all. But I’ve come up with a substitute term.
This is really “Trumped up!”
Here are just a few of the things I think are “trumped up” about the results of this election:
◆ A man with five children by three baby mamas was elected … that’s trumped up!
◆ A man who committed adultery on ALL of his wives was elected … that’s trumped up!
◆ The first-lady-elect (for now) has pornographic pictures of herself circulating while people denounced First Lady Michelle Obama for wearing bare arms … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect is an admitted sexual predator … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect built his entire campaign by instigating racist, sexist, homophobic ideologies … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect’s “appeal” to Black voters was by telling them they were all poor, unemployed, uneducated, and violent and asking what they had to lose by voting for him…that’s trumped up!
◆ The President–Elect demonized all Muslim families and suggested that all Muslim immigrants needed to be “extremely vetted” … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect started his campaign for the presidency by declaring our current president was not even a citizen of the United States … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect made a claim about bringing jobs back to the US while he is a primary mover for outsourcing in his own businesses…that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect announced his candidacy while claiming that Mexico was sending its murderers and rapists to the US and he would build a wall between the two countries that Mexico would pay for … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect clearly lost all 3 presidential debates and demonstrated his unstable temperament … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect ran on a platform of “making America great again” (but I can not determine what bygone era of greatness he was referencing)…that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect kept his tax returns secret from the American public for the entire campaign and STILL has not revealed them … that’s trumped up!
◆ The New York Times revealed that the President-Elect has paid NO taxes for the last 10 years. So while the rest of us are paying for defense, social security, highways, schools, health care, etc., he’s paid for NOTHING … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect has been endorsed by the KKK and other noted hate mongers and white supremacists … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect began filling his cabinet and other key staff positions with racists and alt-right ideologues … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect encouraged thuggish and violent behavior at his campaign appearances … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect claimed he would prosecute his opponent when he won the election and led the cheers to “lock her up” … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect wants the nation to withdraw from international agreements and partnerships like NATO … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect wants to dismantle a health care plan that is the signature program of our current president and is likely to end up with many poor people without coverage and the rest of us with coverage with super high deductibles …that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect wants to appoint Supreme Court judges that will control women’s bodies but will likely let old men get those little blue pills for free…that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect claims to know more about ISIS than the generals whose job it is to know, plan and execute military strategy … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect claimed he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue (NYC) and still not lose any voters … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect claims that climate change science is a hoax … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect ran a campaign based on fear and doomsday scenarios … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect is allegedly a billionaire who has poor people believing he is actually going to do something for them …that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect is a reality show celebrity who has never run for any public office … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect believes he is the smartest, most charismatic, captivating person ever (despite an orange face and perhaps a hair transplant) … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect ran a fake University, was sued for fraud and recently settled for $25 million … that’s trumped up!
◆ The President-Elect is petty and petulant and explodes in Twitter rants whenever someone criticizes him … that’s trumped up!
◆ We may have to live with this man as president for at least the next four years … that’s trumped up!
◆ If the President-Elect messes this thing up the nation is stuck with his vice president who is a dangerous ideologue … that’s trumped up!
In the end, we have visited much of this foolishness on ourselves. We acted as if President Obama’s legacy would remain intact and because we weren’t enthusiastic about his Democratic successor we did not mobilize to stop who we got.
And that is trumped up!