Taking a Bullet For Trump

I'm not happy about Trump winning the election. He's a low-class, unpatriotic, halfwit whose only skills are branding, self promotion, and signing checks.

Despite that, I don't like the "not my president" attitude some American citizens have adopted. I heard the same shit about Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama, and it's time to end it. I got thinking about this the other day while considering one of those incredibly unlikely hypothetical scenarios in which it's incredibly easy to be brave. Here's the scenario.

You're at a public meeting where Trump is appearing. You're real close to him. You see someone draw a pistol and aim it at him. Unless someone gets between the pistol and Trump immediately, he's going to be shot, and at his age and weight, he's probably going to die. If you're someone like me who despises the man, you have to make a quick decision.

Do you step back so you don't get hurt, or do you take a bullet for Trump?

I'd take the bullet. I wouldn't like it, but I'd do it, just like I would have done it for Obama, Bush, or Clinton.

Like I said, it's easy to be hypothetically brave, but determining bravery isn't the point of the exercise. Deciding how I feel about Trump isn't the point. This is about loyalty to America and its institutions.

That word, loyalty, might get a chuckle out of some people, but I'm a Marine Corps veteran raised in a Marine Corps family. The word means a lot to me. America means a lot to me. Donald Trump the man means jack shit to me, but Donald Trump the president is a different matter entirely.

And yeah, he is my president, or he will be in a few days. I don't like that, but I have a few reasons for accepting it.

First, he won the Electoral College vote. Even though he got creamed in the popular vote, it's the Electoral College that does the actual electing. I might not like that result, but I'm not going to give up on the American system just because I don't like the outcome. That system, despite the all the negative bullshit you hear these days, has served us pretty well.

Sure we have a lot of problems, but that's been the case ever since the nation was founded. You can't just look at what's happening now and decide that it's all over. You have to take the long view. America started out as a backwater nation that was hypocritical enough to cheer freedom while enjoying the benefits of slave labor, but it's grown and improved over time. The overall trend is positive, and despite all its problems, it's still a pretty good country.

Second, I think Trump will end up being the worst president the nation has ever had. There are a few parts to this thought. Trump could be pretty bad and still not deserve to be assassinated. For one thing, my idea of what makes a bad president might not sync with what other Americans think. For another, although I predict he'll be awful, I also thought Clinton would win the election, so maybe I'm not so great at predicting.

I'm not going to follow the Republican Party into the intellectual and ethical swamp it's been sinking into over the last eight years. I'm not going to screech about how Trump is going to "destroy" America the way the GOP screeched about Obama. That bullshit needs to stop.

That doesn't mean I'm going to roll over for Trump and the GOP. Loyalty to America and its institutions doesn't require me to quietly submit to whatever bullshit they have planned. In fact, that kind of submission is antithetical to what I consider a genuine American spirit.

But neither am I going to act like spoiled child and pretend that Trump isn't really the president. To me, that would be as un-American as slavish obedience would be.

Like I said, this isn't about me being brave enough to sacrifice my life for the president, because the chances of me being in a position to do that are pretty close to zero. This is about what's more important to me: my personal dislike of Donald Trump the man or my love of America the nation.

I've given it a lot of thought, and my conclusion is that this "not my president" bullshit needs to end, not just for this president, but for the presidents that come after.