Ten or twenty years from now, what will President Trump supporters be thinking about the decisions and choices they are currently making? It’s a question that needs answering. For the 81 percent on the religious right who supported Donald Trump in the 2020 election, how will your religious beliefs about values and integrity and love for one another match up with your support for a man who sowed hatred and division and deceit and advocated the overthrow of a representative democracy?
A decade or two from now the consequences of your choices today will be clear to all, including your grandchildren.
At this point many Trump supporters will be retorting, “What about Biden and the socialists who are trying to take away our guns and our freedom?” Don’t go down that road; don’t deflect. Stick with the question about viewing Trump and his influence on our country ten or twenty years into the future.
The Republican Party is telling you lies that work against your own self-interest. Here are some examples:
■ Trump had the 2020 election stolen from him. At no point has this assertion been upheld in court or by election officials in all the disputed states. That includes the Arizona recount financed by the Arizona-controlled legislature that ruled that Biden won the election in that state. Believing Trump goes against 200 years of election history and the peaceful transfer of power. In the future, will you prefer a dictatorial presidency over a government based upon the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law?
■ Election laws need to be improved to avoid future problems and assure election integrity. Over 400 Republican-sponsored bills have been introduced in state governments across the nation to avoid future fraud and “assure election integrity”. In reality, as stated by Trump Attorney General William Barr, there were few incidents of election fraud, and none were major. His statement directly contradicts the claims of Republican legislators across the nation who have pushed for tighter election laws.
■ Don’t trust the government and its COVID vaccination requirements. The vast majority of those getting hospitalized for COVID are the unvaccinated. They also have the greatest likelihood of dying. Hundreds and thousands of people have refused to get vaccinated, and they have lost their jobs, their insurance, and their ability to feed their families. Ironically, even while Trump was in charge, the Republicans were telling conservatives not to trust the government.
■ Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is responsible for causing the supply chain problems and rising inflation. This is easy to disprove. Just look at Britain, and France, and especially Brazil. Is Buttigieg responsible for all those supply chain problems, too? Of course not!
Do you like being lied to by your Republican leaders? Do you live in an information silo, where you only hear views propounded by lying newscasters who are using you?
It seems we are in a time when we are worshipping the god of freedom, not realizing that those who follow this mindset are actually enslaved by a very narrow and unrealistic belief system. Freedom means being freed from our own deceptive human nature. It does not mean we should be free to do anything we want. The common good must always be balanced with individual rights. Your rights end where another’s rights are threatened.
History will not view Trump and his administration kindly. Regrets by his supporters will come after time has passed, in a decade or two. Become more self-aware of your lack of discernment and reduce the regrets you will feel in the future by coming to an understanding of how you are deceived by Republican leaders who use you to gain power at the expense of your own self-interest. You have the freedom to choose sanity and discernment over fear-based decision making. The choice is yours.
