Friday, August 19, 2016

Whose Fault Is It Anyway?


It has been a banner week for the Donald Trump campaign. As of today (August 17, 2016), Trump has gone a whole three days without saying anything stupid. It looks like he has begun the brilliant "pivot" his campaign has been promising since spring. "Pivot", in this instance, means not acting like a narcissistic four-year-old.

Since the  GOP convention, Trump's poll numbers have tanked and he is anywhere from 8 to 10 points behind Hillary Clinton.  Let it sink in. He is that far behind Hillary Clinton, whose pants are on fire so much from lying she could be a new character in "The Fantastic Four" comic book.

Clinton has been caught in so many lies that even the news media is noticing it. I just said they were noticing it-I didn't say they cared.

Trump has just upgraded his staff once again. He hired Breitbart's Stephen Bannon and veteran pollster Kellyanne Conway (who most political insiders consider to be way hotter than Frank Lutz) to help give Trump more than a puncher's chance of winning the election.

I'm not saying Clinton is a sure fire winner. After all, she could be found in bed with a dead woman, a live boy and some of those e-mails she assured us was not classified and she claims the FBI director said was "legal" even though his actual answer was "If she wasn't a Clinton she'd be pounding rocks in Leavenworth".

Already, people are pointing fingers over a possible (very probable) Trump loss. By people, I mean Sean Hannity.

Hannity is now on a jihad because even he can see Trump is not doing well. Guess whose fault it is?

Hannity does not blame Trump. He says, “If in 96 days, Trump loses this election, I am pointing the finger directly at people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and John McCain."

Have you heard anyone say, "Boy, if Mitch McConnell was just more enthusiastic about Donald Trump I would have no problem voting for Trump"?  Or , "I was ready to vote for Donald Trump, but you know, Lindsey Graham doesn't think it is a good idea".   No, of course not.  I bet most people think Mitch McConnell is your county's superior court clerk and Lindsey Graham was the first lead singer of Fleetwood Mac.

Another group that would be "responsible" for a Trump loss would be "Pharisees".

For those of you not familiar with the Bible, the Pharisees were the religious leaders of Jesus's day and were his opposition. They are noted for their hypocrisy and Jesus had some really great put-downs of them. It is not a compliment for an Evangelical to call someone a Pharisee. 

There has been a blog post floating around Facebook by James Patrick Riley. Mr. Riley, according to his blog, is a native Californian, filmmaker, father of six children, a living historian, and a wine lover.  (This is opposite of yours truly who is a native Georgian, insurance grunt, father of one son who has an awesome beard, a history major, and a guy who really likes Coke Zero.)

It is titled "Donald Trump and The Pharisees".  Here are his first couple of sentences.


"When you finally come to the conclusion there is a God, you’re likely to try to attempt to please Him.

And this is where it can get dangerous.  You might be on your way to the sanctuary for worship, and you see a man curled up by the side of the road, bloody and beaten by robbers.  Something tells you the man needs your help (that’s God talking to you), but you are wearing your Sunday best, and you’re not trained as a first responder, and you’ve been given the honor of opening today’s meeting in prayer, and, besides, this guy is probably a drug addict and you have little children you’re responsible for — so you hurry on to church and you prove that you have the spirit of the Pharisee — that weird inclination to ignore what Jesus called “the weightier matters of the law.

The #NeverTrump movement is defined by this Pharisee spirit"

Again, anyone having any problem with Trump has nothing to do with Trump. Nope, there is just something wrong with you if you have a problem with Trump.

My favorite passage in the post was this.

"Strip clubs and philandering. I won’t make any defense for that, but I would ask you to look to yourselves.  Do you buy television cable services from a company that also offers pornography?  Do you stay in hotels with adult content on their television screens?  Is your stock portfolio scrubbed clean of anyone who profits from soft porn? What’s in your wallet and where are you spending it?  The press has been watching Donald pretty closely now for 18 months.  Have you seen any philandering stories?  I haven’t."

For a whole 18 months, Donald Trump hasn't committed adultery. The man is a regular C.S. Lewis.

Mr. Riley ends his piece by saying "Donald Trump is more righteous than you think" and if you don't like Trump's style  "Your priorities are all mixed up, just like the people who killed Christ." 

I like the argument. If you don't agree with me, you're just like the people who killed Jesus. This just might eclipse the "you're a Nazi" as the go to argument Trump card, no pun intended.

Actually, it is still a long way until November and if we've learned one thing in this election cycle is  anything can happen.  However, if Trump loses, it is Trump's fault. Not mine or any other Pharisee's








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