Durangoans have recently endured a round of curious letters written by Donald Trump supporters claiming that liberals were responsible for electing the president. On first glance this seems odd, but given that the winner of the 2016 election is a sexual predator unqualified to run a lemonade stand, (apologies to lemonade stand owners), I can understand how they might be having some buyer’s remorse right about now.
However, I have to break it to these folks that their vote for Trump was, in fact, the thing that empowered him. It was their horrifically irresponsible decision to elect a man whose first appointments include an attorney general who once joked “the only thing wrong with the KKK is they smoke marijuana,” a chief strategist who is a self-described “Leninist,” a national security advisor who was fired for being an unstable paranoid, and a treasury secretary who specialized in racist lending practices and foreclosing on the homes of the elderly. It’s become painfully obvious that Trump is not only not draining the swamp, he’s pumping in raw sewage.
So I get the Trumpistas. They’re starting to realize the guy they backed is a dangerous carnival barker who hasn’t a clue what he’s doing and doesn’t care. They’re freaking out over the coming train wreck, and pivoting to the time-honored strategy of blaming everything on the left.
Nope. The damage Trump is now inflicting is entirely the fault of his supporters. It’s way past time for these folks to learn that leadership is about far more than screaming “no!” Leadership is about responsibility, wisdom and humility, ideas that were once a big part of being a conservative, but are completely alien to Trump’s spoiled man-child world view.
Having said that, I wish them the best of luck. God knows we’re all going to need it to get through the next few years with anything close to an America we can recognize as “great.”
Travis Tibbs
Durango
