{"id":34939,"date":"2024-02-13T08:36:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T13:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=34939"},"modified":"2024-02-13T08:36:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T13:36:12","slug":"dont-waste-your-time-engaging-with-trump-supporters-take-em-on-at-the-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=34939","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t waste your time engaging with Trump supporters; take &#8217;em on at the polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\"><strong>By Rich Heiland<\/strong>, <em>Columnist, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"entry-title\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-19200\" src=\"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/HeilandColLogo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"300\" \/>After Donald Trump\u2019s latest horrific, anti-democracy, insulting comments, anyone who still supports him is not worth engaging with\u2026<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size\">But, they are worth taking on at the polls. Trump and his followers have removed any doubt about who they are and what they want, and it\u2019s not a democratic republic. Far from it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>WE LIVE IN <\/strong>a time when up is down; the sun rises in the west, sets in the east; rivers run uphill and ignorance and raw stupidity are seen as virtues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Just this past weekend a former president of the United States, one Donald J. Trump, stood up in front of a crowd in South Carolina and said:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cOne of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, \u2018Well, sir, if we don\u2019t pay and we\u2019re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?,\u2019\u201d Trump said during a rally at Coastal Carolina University. \u201cI said, \u2018You didn\u2019t pay. You\u2019re delinquent.\u2019 He said, \u2018Yes, let\u2019s say that happened.\u2019 No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">And, the crowd cheered!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Donald Trump says he would \u201cencourage\u201d Russia to attack Nato\" width=\"615\" height=\"346\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jGP1hJJNstI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This former president then attacked his lone Republican primary rival, former SC Governor Nikki Haley, for not having her husband on the campaign trail with her, as if that somehow was a requirement for a candidate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWhere\u2019s her husband? Oh, he\u2019s away,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe\u2019s gone. He knew, he knew.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Well, knew what, one wonders, but the fact is Maj. Michael Haley is deployed with the South Carolina National Guard in Africa. Nikki Haley fired back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI\u2019ll say this: Donald, if you have something to say, don\u2019t say it behind my back. Get on a debate stage and say it to my face,\u201d Haley said. \u201cIf you mock the service of a combat veteran, you don\u2019t deserve a driver\u2019s license, let alone to be president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Michael Haley himself weighed in with a Twitter (X) post:\u00a0\u201cThe difference between humans and animals? Animals would never allow the dumbest ones to lead the pack.\u201d\u00a0OUCH!<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Nikki Haley might well have asked where Trump\u2019s wife, Melania has been but of course, that sort of obvious contradiction would never occur to The Donald.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>I HAVE BEEN<\/strong>\u00a0around a while. Seventy-seven years in fact. Never in my life have I heard a president, former president or candidate for president say anything like Trump has said. Remember, he dissed the late U.S.Sen. John McCain, saying he was not a hero because he was captured.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Trump also declined, while in office, to visit military cemeteries in France because it was raining, and hospital wards filled with wounded veterans because he has a long history of being repulsed by anyone who has any sort of affliction or handicap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">But, in addition to his recent NATO comments Trump has made comments that provide all the evidence any sane, freedom-loving voter would need to turn and run from this living, breathing embodiment of evil.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Guardian recently published a list of the \u201c10 worst things former president said\u201d in 2023 alone. It was based on work by Mike Godwin, a lawyer and author, who has written and commented on how Trump\u2019s comments parallel Hitler and other Fascists. Here is the Guardian\u2019s recounting of why Trump brings to mind Hitler:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Vermin<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIn November, in Claremont, New Hampshire, Trump continued his dominant primary campaign. His rant was familiar but it held something new:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><em>\u201c\u2019We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that\u00a0<strong>live like vermin<\/strong>\u00a0within the confines of our country.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Hillary Clinton, who Trump beat in 2016, had already\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/nov\/09\/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-adolf-hitler\">likened him to Hitler<\/a>. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian from New York University, told\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2023\/11\/12\/trump-rally-vermin-political-opponents\/\">the Washington Post<\/a>: \u2018Calling people \u2018vermin\u2019 was used effectively by Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"poison\" class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Poison<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cOf course, the signs were already there. In September, discussing immigration with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RaheemKassam\/status\/1707128625223335990\">National Pulse<\/a>, Trump said:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><em>\u201c\u2019Nobody has ever seen anything like we\u2019re witnessing right now \u2026\u00a0<strong>It\u2019s poisoning the blood of our country<\/strong>.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cHe had\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/11\/us\/politics\/trump-2025-immigration-agenda.html\">already<\/a>\u00a0promised \u2018the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.\u2019 Plans to hold migrants in camps would be reported. But Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC summed up the \u2018poisoning\u2019 comment\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mehdirhasan\/status\/1709539181624447423?s=20\">as<\/a>\u00a0\u2018a straight-up white supremacist\/neo-Nazi talking point. Trump\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/dec\/18\/trump-immigrants-rally-congress-reaction-pramila-jayapal\">went there again<\/a>\u00a0in December, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"dictator\" class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Dictator<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cTrump wasn\u2019t done. In December, at an Iowa town hall, the Fox News host Sean Hannity asked if he would promise not to \u2018abuse power as retribution against anybody.\u2019 Trump said: \u2018Except for day one\u201d,\u2019then explained: \u2018<em>I love this guy. He says, \u2018You\u2019re not gonna be a dictator, are you?\u2019 I say, \u2018No, no, no \u2013 other than day one.\u2019 We\u2019re closing the border. And we\u2019re drilling, drilling, drilling.\u00a0<strong>After that I\u2019m not a dictator, OK?\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Retribution<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cNo one could say such comments were surprising. In March, closing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/cpac\">CPAC<\/a>\u00a0in Maryland, Trump\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/mar\/05\/i-am-your-retribution-trump-rules-supreme-at-cpac-as-he-relaunches-bid-for-white-house\">told<\/a>\u00a0conservatives:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><em>\u2018In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed:<strong>\u00a0I am your retribution.\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Jonathan Karl of ABC would report that the Trump strategist Steve Bannon said Trump was speaking in code, referring to a Confederate plot to take hostage \u2013 and eventually kill \u2013 President\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/abraham-lincoln\">Abraham Lincoln<\/a>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Death<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIn September, the Atlantic profiled Mark Milley, then chair of the joint chiefs of staff. Milley\u2019s work to contain Trump at the end of his presidency was already widely known but the profile set Trump off nonetheless. On Truth Social, referring to a call in which Milley assured Chinese officials he would guard against any attempted attack, Trump lamented it was \u2018 \u2026<em>\u2026 an act so egregious that, in times gone by,\u00a0<strong>the punishment would have been DEATH!\u2019<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Milley was moved to take \u201cappropriate measures to ensure my safety and the safety of my family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>AS THE SUPREME<\/strong>\u00a0Court considers whether Colorado can invoke Section 3 of the 14<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bars an insurrectionist or someone who gave \u201caid and comfort\u201d to an enemy, from the Constitution, it seems logical to point out that beyond Jan. 6, 2021, Trump has given, and continues to give, aid and comfort to our enemies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Despite all this he remains strong in the polls and unless he is convicted of a felony prior to August\u2019s Republican Convention, he will be the nominee. Polls, if you want to believe them this far out, show him beating President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Which leads me back to my opening lines about up being down and the sun rising in the west, and so on. Those who continue to follow Trump are beyond hope. They are either true anti-democracy crazies, brain-dead stupid or delusional. Some no doubt are all three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">That\u2019s why I am ignoring friends who keep telling me how we need to talk to them, reason with them. Reason with them? Seriously?<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">No. From this point on I do not want to be with 10 feet of a Trump supporter. Maybe a mile. I don\u2019t want to engage. We have nothing to talk about. What I will do is put whatever energy I have into working with others to try and keep this plague, this ghost of all previous evil in the world, out of the White House. And, to keep his followers out of any elected office in the land.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It\u2019s not just about democracy. It\u2019s also about common decency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong><em>Rich Heiland, has been a reporter, editor, publisher\/general manager at daily papers in Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and New Hampshire. He was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team at the Xenia Daily (OH) Daily Gazette, a National Newspaper Association Columnist of the Year, and a recipient of the Molly Ivins First Amendment Award from the Walker County (TX) Democrat Club. He taught journalism at Western Illinois University and leadership and community development at Woodbury College in Vermont.\u00a0\u00a0Since 1995 he has operated an international consulting, public speaking and training business specializing in customer service, general management, leadership and staff development with major corporations, organizations, and government. Semi-retired, he and his wife live in West Chester, PA. He can be reached at heilandrich1@gmail.com.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rich Heiland, Columnist, The Times After Donald Trump\u2019s latest horrific, anti-democracy, insulting comments, anyone who still supports him is not worth engaging with\u2026 But, they are worth taking on at the polls. Trump and his followers have removed any doubt about who they are and what they want, and it\u2019s not a democratic republic. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12366,12143,3912,12365,5556,1107],"class_list":["post-34939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-decency","tag-election-2024","tag-featured","tag-supporters","tag-trump","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34940,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34939\/revisions\/34940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}