I Will Be Your Friend No Matter How You Vote

A guy who The Omnivore likes--and who is generally imminently reasonable in interactions, posted this on Facebook the other day. This guy is a conservative--which could mean a lot of things--but traditionally it has meant things like free trade, belief in the power of markets to set prices, smaller government, and a strong military / military presence.

These are directionally things The Omnivore agrees with too--which is why The Omnivore's voter registration card says "Republican."

And yet . . .

The Omnivore asked the poster if there was ever a point where he'd say "if you're voting for that, we can't be friends"? The response was "well, I haven't seen it--but a lot of my friends have positions that greatly offend me--and I'm still friends."

He also acknowledged that those offensive-friends had their reasons for doing so and think they're doing the right thing--so, hey, give 'em the benefit of the doubt, right?

Uh . . . really?

The Ominvore asked what those positions were--knowing full well the top-drawer one--the one we could all feel good about--would be abortion. You can come out as generally pro-life or even very, very pro-life and not be seen as a monster--so The Omnivore knew he'd start there.

But, of course, he demurred--he really doesn't want to fight on Facebook--and about politics--and that sentiment is, most of the time anyway, honorable.

Except . . .

Are We The Baddies?


If you haven't seen the above linked short, you absolutely MUST watch it. If you have seen it and are voting GOP in this midterm, you clearly need to watch it again.

While it is easy and fun for the Trump-Republican to hold the back of their hand to their forehead and say "You're calling us Nazis!!" the fact is that while Trumpism isn't quite Nazism (although they share some uncomfortably close traits propaganda wise) the takeaway from the video isn't that you shouldn't be a nazi--it's that you should stick your head up once in a while and see if your team is, well, the baddies.

Are you the baddies? Here's how we can look at it. Online arguments, like fire-fights in the Gun-Kata-Movie Equilibrium follow very predictable flows as people who either don't understand their positions or don't want to admit to the underlying issues--get closer and closer to reality. When this happens, the result is usually depressing and, erm, not good for the Trumper. Let's look.


Kids In Cages
The Omnivore has made a study of asking Trumpers about the border / immigration issues. The flow here usually goes something like this:

Is The Omnivore saying there is NO WAY to support the Trump-Admin's policy on deterring border crossing while still being a good person?

Yep. Other administrations have considered doing what Trump did. None of them could stomach it. There was a reason for that.

Love Trump's Hate
If you were faced with a story about a politician filling his arenas with people glorying in hatred--hatred of reporters--hatred of protesters--hatred of the last administration--hatred of due-process, you would see these people as the bad guys.

Trump inspired a follower to punch a protester and then said he was considering paying the guy's legal bills. We all know this is bad--it's cheering hatred and division--and yet, you, dear reader who is voting GOP on Tuesday, tell yourself it's okay because the hatred and division serves some greater purpose (?) or simply isn't that important. Who cares if Trump inspires a couple more hate crimes a year? America isn't about to go the way of the Nazis, you say.

And anyway, no one takes him seriously.

If you think Obama was a divisive president, watch him here handling a pro-Trump heckler. Ask yourself: am I on the bad-guy's team?

NOTE: You may hear some both-sidesism about Obama's quotes. If someone is arguing in good faith that Obama was as friendly to violence as Trump, they are, as it turns out, not arguing in good faith. No one really believes that--it's just a talking point for the desperate.

But Muh Kavanaugh!! (Abortion)
If you are supporting Trump because McConnell will use his tenure to nominate rightwing judges then you are implicitly making a decision that the judges rulings are worth the damage to the country--the national character, and so on. There's only one real argument beyond race-to-the-bottom culture-waring that justifies this--abortion.

Essentially, the culture wars over abortion have been settled--and there is no real material reason to go to an entire outlawing of abortion (as 3rd trimester abortions are extremely rare and usually only in extreme circumstances). No--the reason to want super-conservative judges on the court isn't really about state's rights to choose whether to outlaw clinics--that's just the defensible wall you hide behind--it's so that other rulings in the Great American Culture War will go your way (see the ACA and Gay Marriage).

That's what this is really about and, well, that's evil. The guy complaining that gay marriage devalues his heterosexual marriage (that's a real guy--The Omnivore knows him!) knows he's talking bullshit--he just doesn't like the gays and wants to make sure that they stay in their place--in the shadows--not where he has to acknowledge them.

In other words, one of the baddies.

You Might Be a Baddie If

What this all boils down to is that if you are supporting Trump it is highly likely that you are doing it for internal and unpleasant reasons. Reasons that, if exposed fully, would give you pause. If so, why are you asking for special consideration on your choices? Should anyone give you the benefit of the doubt?

Why?