A very dear friend took quite personally my Facebook post about being bigoted against bigots and pointing the finger at those who “support, appease, and apologize for” a bigot named Donald Trump who is running for President of the United States. I made that post after watching an avalanche of whiny posts by those whose feelings were hurt by Hillary Clinton’s remarks describing half of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”
Of course these are the same people whose Facebook and Twitter feeds are replete with written and photographic expressions of the most vile epithets and threats directed at both Hillary Clinton and our current President combined with the most egregiously xenophobic jingoism I’ve ever seen publicly expressed. Oh, it was expressed, but before the Trump candidacy, it was never given permission beyond the kitchen or poker tables.
So what is a “bigot,” really? And why would I admit to being one? According to Merriam-Webster, the full definition of a bigot is, “a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: (M-W’s emphasis) one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred or intolerance.”
I am well known for having a wide open social media presence that invites people from all points along the political spectrum to participate in open, respectful debate. I think echo chambers are lazy and boring. I did not make the statement that offended my friend on anyone’s wall but my own. It was neither a direct comment nor a call out of anyone in particular. If one chooses to take it personally, one needs to examine why.
Yes, my statement and its reiteration here is strident. There simply is no logical nor emotional nor business sense behind anyone’s support for Trump. He is an unabashed bigot. That alone makes him unsupportable.
Why anyone would align themselves and appease such ghastly behavior is also unsupportable. It is simply indefensible.
Besides this, Trump is an utterly failed businessman. The data points on this are clear and do not bear recitation. I have been a marketing and public relations consultant to top executives for two decades. I can tell you that no one at the helm of a successful enterprise has any time for frivolous media interactions much less an interest in producing a bad reality TV show that does nothing to secure the brand equity of the executive or enterprise among key stakeholders.
Furthermore, Trump is unstudied on the most fundamental issues of our day, and he has zero interest in doing the most basic personal study to become briefed on those issues. This is why the most respected conservative leaders are either mum, disavowing him, or outright endorsing Hillary Clinton for President.
He never does anything truly charitable. Every single thing he has done in this vein (if it is of any remarkable level to compare with the station of those with whom he boasts he is a peer), has been with other people’s money or has been a complete dodge. Anything else has been a pittance and smacks of a token gesture.
The only people he admires and wishes to pattern his life and leadership after are authoritarian dictators. He has surrounded himself with campaign operatives who are scum sucking propagandists and advisors to the worst African, Middle East, and Russian dictators, oligarchs, and illegal arms dealers to Islamic terrorists, and this is just the stuff we know of.
For a man who claims to be for the working stiff, not only does he routinely stiff the small business owners he hires ―- because he can ―- he also hires very few American workers, rather he manipulates the H1B visa law to hire foreign workers to wait tables and manage his few domestic resorts still in operation while he ships all of his manufacturing to foreign countries like Mexico and China.
So, yes, I am proudly, obstinately and intolerantly devoted to my opinion that anyone who supports Donald Trump for president of the United States is one who supports his oft-stated disregard for, treatment of, and prejudices of people ― even American citizens ― who do not share his ethnic, gender and socio-economic status, and because he demonstrates overt and covert hatred and intolerance for them, and because he foments hate and violence against those people by his followers.