Disclaimer: I am not pro-Trump so much as I am anti-Clinton. I think America would have had to work very hard to come up with a candidate selection that is worse than this one.
The election is one month away – it’s become vicious. Not the first time. It’s filled with lies. Not the first time. It’s filled with desperation on both sides. Each is convinced that their candidate is the lesser of two evils. Few actually like the choice facing America.
From distant shores, I watch in sadness. What bothers me most at this point, is two things. The first is that America is being manipulated. The second is that, in part, it is crossing red lines to do this.
The Manipulation
Another Facebook post going around:
Why has nobody consider it very strange that a person would record (apparently without permission) a locker room conversation and then holds on to it for 11 years. That person then waits until 2 months before the elections when it looks like Hillary might lose and decides to release it. I call that very strange. Then people are ready to string him up for something he said 11 years ago.I have since seen the video that the conversation was taken from and it’s locker room conversation among men. A lot of big talk – crude yes but most men and some women too have talked that way when they’re impressing someone. And it took place 11 years ago. Let’s keep this in perspective. We all know Trump has a big mouth and very high opinion of himself.
I agree. Does no one find the timing of this disgusting Trump tape just a bit too convenient? Is what a man said in private to a friend eleven years ago enough to disqualify a man when deleting tens of thousands of emails, cursing an entire people, enabling a sexual predator and cheating billions out of charity is ignored?
Up to now, I sit back in wonder. I can’t understand how America got to this point. I can’t stand either but believe Trump to be the lesser of two evils in an election that will, almost certainly, focus on that specific point. Who will do less damage until America has another chance to right the wrong they are about to commit?
I sit here mere hours after a terror attack in Jerusalem – at a place I go to nearly every day. I was there an hour and a bit before, taking the train that came under fire (which isn’t hard because the whole light rail is only one train line). I have reached the end of my ability to care about this election…except for that red line.
And the Red Lines
The problem with red lines nowadays is most people think it’s not so hard to move them. Red lines aren’t supposed to be moved. We all have our opinions and that is America. That is democracy. What is not America, is the hate being fanned and this is where the red line comes in. There are some lines that are more red than others and very few that are more red that this next one.
A man posts a picture to Facebook furthering the absurd comparison of Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. It is the gates of Auschwitz, where my great grandmother and two great aunts were murdered. A place that lived in my grandfather’s nightmares for all the days of his life. It is the place where he lost the mother he was desperately working to save. It is where my husband lost all his grandparents, before he ever had a chance to know them. Where my mother-in-law was scared, my husband’s uncle tattooed.
I wrote to the man…could it be possible that he doesn’t understand? We are taught to give the benefit of the doubt. This is extremelly offensive and insensitive, not to mention inaccurate, I wrote to him. “Your attempt to present Trump as a Nazi falls far from the truth and only shows an incredible amount of ignorance about the Holocaust.”
His response: “He’s more like Mussolini. But I couldn’t find a meme for that.”
So because he couldn’t find a meme likening Trump to Mussolini, he has the right to belittle the Holocaust, to use and abuse the legacy of Auschwitz at a time when the Poles have already turned it into a “museum” and the Catholics believe the memory of over a million Jews murdered and gassed to death is honorably served by building a church there?
“You clearly know little about the Nazi period if that’s what you boil it down to – and you didn’t use a Nazi uniform, you used concentration camp gates. Yes, Trump was unfaithful – I seem to recall there being many men out there who were unfaithful as well. He had a private conversation that was illegally taped, eleven years ago and which miraculously is being released now – you’re being manipulated and you can’t even see it.” I wrote to him.
I tried arguing against his comments about Trump:
You are also misquoting Trump to serve your purpose. He doesn’t propose getting rid of “that group” of people – that would be Hitler – who not only proposed it but did a lot to make that “proposal” happen. Trump said – ONLY – that until you can vet Muslims, you shouldn’t let them into the country. What’s wrong with that? You ever seen a body blown to pieces? It’s not a pretty sight. You ever worry about getting on a bus, sitting in a restaurant, where your children are when a bomb explodes? Trust me – it’s not easy and it should be taken seriously. Vet them properly – that’s what Israelis do every day of the year. I drove through a check point this morning. The car in front of me was pulled over to the side. His papers will be checked. I drove right through – but then again, how many 55 year old Jewish grandmothers blow up buses? The 20 or 30-something male Muslim is in the range and so he’s pulled to the side and delayed for about 3 minutes.
Is his inconvenience in being stopped for 3 minutes justified? Hell yes. If you doubt it, I’ll put you in touch with my friend – whose 15 year old daughter was blown apart, murdered by an Arab terrorist who got through because Israel was urged to show restraint and ease the check points.
But getting back to your meme – it is offensive. My great-grandmother was murdered there behind the gates of that place you so callously use. My husband never knew a grandparents love – because all four of his grandparents were murdered there.
His response was, “if it’s offensive, I apologize. When Trump apologizes it makes everything okay. So this should too.”
I’m sorry, I should write to him, but I won’t…I’ll put it here because the chance that his mind is open enough to understand that what he did is very small.
If I were to take the time, I would tell him – your political agenda doesn’t give you the right to abuse the memory of six million Jews.
Make America Great – perhaps what is really wrong with America is that they’ve forgotten that being great is actually a good thing. Eight years ago, America rallied behind the asinine slogan of “Yes We Can” – and, oh my God, in eight years, you didn’t. He didn’t.
He didn’t solve the racial divide – he made it worse.
He didn’t strengthen America – he brought the military to the gates of collapse.
He didn’t bring men and women of honor to lead the nation – he brought the corrupt likes of Clinton and the monoric likes of John Kerry.
He didn’t. I don’t know if Trump can. I know that Clinton can’t. You want to call him a racist? You want to call her some horrible name? Go for it – OMG, you picked the worst candidates in your entire history and now you have to live with it but don’t you dare.
But don’t you DARE make a mockery of the Holocaust.
Trump will NOT tattoo people; he will not take a mother into a room and tell her she can choose ONE of her three children while the rest will die. He will not build ghettoes and starve people to death. He will not march them across miles of frozen land. He is not a Nazi; he is not Adolf Hitler
You don’t like Trump – don’t vote for him. He’s crass and crude – fine. Don’t vote for him.
She’s, oh my God, vicious, nasty, horrible – you think she’s Obama’s second coming – knock yourself out and vote for her.
I give up – maybe the saying that a country deserves the leaders it gets is true. I don’t know. I don’t care. Red lines crossed. I’m done. See you in four years, America…or maybe 8 if you can’t come up with anything better than either of these clowns.
Oh, and the biggest joke of all – the man who posted this image as his …yeah, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.