Karl's Kolumn

YOU BE THE JUDGE… I came across a commentator’s message on Facebook in late December, 2024. Now here it is mid-February, the vitriol of the Trump Election hasn’t abated any.

“A REAL QUESTION from a Trump supporter: Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?

“THE SERIOUS ANSWER: here is what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse… that when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent university, intent on scamming poor people, you thought, ‘Fine’ … that when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, ‘Okay’ … that when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, ‘No problem.’

“When he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center you said, ‘It’s not an issue.’ When you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on 5th Avenue and you wouldn’t care, you exclaimed, ‘He sure knows me.’

“That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year-old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to which Trump replied, ‘Oh my God that’s disgusting and I turned away. I didn’t know he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible because it was a beautiful white marble floor and now it had changed colors. Becoming very red. You said, ‘That’s cool.’

“When the Central Park 5 were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn’t commit and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, ‘That makes sense.’ That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and thought he would hire attorneys, you thought, ‘Yes.’ That when you heard him tell one at the rally to confiscate a man’s coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, ‘What a great guy.’

“Did you watch the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn the outright Nazis, and you have said, ‘Thumbs up.’

“That you heard him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praised his electoral win, you said, ‘That’s the way I want my president to be.’ That you have watched him remove extra money from layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industry they’re supposed to be regulating, you have said, ‘What a genius.’

“That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as president, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, ‘That’s smart.’

“Then you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, ‘That makes sense.’

That you have seen him start fighting every country from Canada to New Zeeland while praising Russia and ‘falling in love’ with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, ‘That’s statesmanship.’ That when Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1,500 kids, and opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas, he explained that they’re just animals - and you said, ‘Well, OK then.’

“What you don’t get from Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it’s also... hear me... charitable.

“But because if you’re not stupid we must turn to other explanations and most of them are less flattering.”