The Cringe Factor, Part 3

Despite my slowly accumulated appreciation for the strengths of the American people, there are certain events and situations that have shook me along the way and made me want to, again, hide under a rock or throw someone off the bus or go claim my Thai or Dutch passport rights.

I remember exactly where I was, the first time such an event happened. I was in our college cafeteria in 1983 when someone announced that President Reagan had sent troops to invade Grenada. Hello!!! What gave my country the right to go in like a big bully and invade a little island to the south with only 91,000 people on it? It doesn't matter if we don't like Grenada's leader. Who anointed us the policeman of the western hemisphere? 

Later I was embarrassed, as a U.S. citizen, by the whole Iraq war. It just seemed to me like we were behaving like impulsive cowboys, dashing in to shoot up a country we didn't understand, for reasons that were oversimplified, and in ways that would alienate the rest of the world. Learning that the reasons given to the American people were fabricated stories, and then seeing the pictures of the Abu Ghraib fiasco, just deepened my sense of shame. 

These were things my government did that embarrassed me because they smacked of the same bullying entitlement qualities I'd perceived in Americans when I was growing up. The American people were still good people even if their government went nuts now and then, right?

Until now. This is what I started this series of posts to write about: How my faith in the American people has been shaken to its core by the current presidential election. First of all, a question: can we not--out of ALL the people with experience in the culture of government--find someone with some wisdom, some dignity, and no continual shadow of "where there's smoke, there's fire" hanging over him or her? Is there NO one with any shred of integrity available to stand up and be willing to lead? 

Second, what is this insanity going on in all the people who would vote for Donald Trump? The guy is a liar, a bully, a misogynist, a cheat, a narcissist, and pretty much all the other names he's been called in the press and in your social media feed. I simply don't understand anyone who thinks that he could even just "be" in the presidency, let alone bring deadly harm to our nation and to its reputation with other nations in the world. What is wrong with your eyes and ears, People? The man in front of you is plumb crazy, and offensive and threatening, to boot! 

Then I see people making even more incomprehensible arguments, like the Republican lady who said that she was going to continue to vote for her conservative party's candidate, even if he was a jackass. (Yes, she used that word.) WHAAA???? Since when are we lining up like sheep with such strong allegiance to a group, that we refuse to leave that group in face of their committed allegiance to a crazy, incompetent leader? I could understand putting up with a crazy, incompetent leader in an organization such as--for example--a denomination where leaders come and go without affecting your local church, but I don't understand it in a political party. This has effects on our daily life and the ability of our nation to interact constructively with the rest of the world even into the future.

It is important, if our country is to keep its place and influence in the international milieu, that the leader have at least some shred of dignity and cultural awareness, let alone appreciation for other cultures. America has survived leaders who are crooks before, and other nations can still work with a crook who at least generally plays by international rules. Not a great feeling, and I'm not happy with the alternative, but voting in Hillary Clinton is a sight better than having a self-centered, completely culturally incompetent megalomaniac despot at the helm.

I see what my friends in other countries are saying. They're not dumb. The people of other nations are looking at the United States right now, looking at the fact that Donald Trump is even an option, and they're in shock at how such a large number of Americans seem to have completely lost their marbles. So am I, ...in shock. It feels to me like a large number of my compatriots have given up their brains, cashed in their integrity. They've traded in on group-think rather than preserving their individuality, dignity and right to demand a leader with at least some measure of wisdom and moral stature. By lining up with Donald Trump (and I shake my head at even using that phrase), they've cast their lot in with racism, misogyny, narcissism, fear, hate-mongering, low-class put-downs, the lack of a moral compass ...and Trump's complete inability to articulate ideas in any educated manner whatsoever. They've lined up behind a moral midget.

It's bankrupt. All bankrupt.

And I keep wondering, with some sense of desperation: Why? When did we sell out without noticing it? How has this nation and the good people in it devolved to this point? Where did it go--that strong American backbone, the insistence on people's rights, the belief that all were created with equal value? Furthermore, how can people who call themselves Christians even get close to Donald Trump's camp, let alone board his bus? His behavior is so completely antithetical to all the characteristics of Jesus. 

It feels like I have spent years building up respect for this nation and its people, only to seriously question it now. Because even if we have a President Clinton next January--and I hope with all my heart that we do--the fact will remain that I have lost all confidence in those friends and relatives and fellow citizens who will have voted for Donald Trump. "Benedict Arnold" is back, and I don't quite know how to handle all of this.