RALLYING POINT

There are millions and millions more of us patriots in America, and it is vital we keep showing it

While working my way East the past week from Wisconsin, I spent a lot of time behind the wheel of my car ruminating about Trump supporters, and more specifically, just what in the hell it is that can possibly make them tick.

Why are they so gleefully putting our country, and themselves, through all this unnecessary pain and hurt?

People who spend their precious time around here, will know I blame them for everything right now.

Simply: Without them, there is no him.

For the past decade this mouse of an orange, old man has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that his only talent is going lower. He is incapable of lifting America up, and instead spends hours and hours each day tearing us down and dividing us.

Trump is not interested in making America better — much less great — he is getting off on repeatedly abusing her for his enjoyment like so many other unfortunate souls who have crossed his grabby path.

He is not interested in world peace, only total chaos. He has not created jobs or wealth, only crashed our economy, and made himself and the billionaires like Elon Musk who own him richer. He has not made our failing healthcare system better, only more expensive and less responsive. He has not protected our retirement savings, he has looted them. He has not made us safer, he has made his odious political base more violent. He has not made our air and water cleaner, he has intentionally polluted them. He has not provided workers protections, he has torn them down, and left them exposed. He has not made it easier to raise our children, he has made it harder. He has not improved our schools, he has tried to close them. He has not made life more affordable, he has made it far, far more expensive. He has not tried to unite our country, he has taken out a golden sledgehammer and smashed it in pieces.

So what is there to recommend this man?

Until proven otherwise I always circle back to what I believe are Trump’s two main attractions to his cult: cruelty and bigotry.

There is a robust group of truly terrible people in America who have illustrated there is no known pain or sacrifice to our civil liberties or pocketbooks that they won’t absorb just for the satisfaction of watching some poor kid of color go without something they don’t think he or she should have.

If I have this at all right, and Trump’s unlimited capacity for cruelty and bigotry are relentlessly attractive to tens of millions of our fellow Americans, then imagine the terrible toll it is taking on the rest of us.

What are we supposed to do with this? How are we supposed to carry on through this homemade madness?

I’ve been giving that a lot of thought, too.

The day after arriving in North Carolina, I donned one of my favorite T-shirts. I didn’t wear it so much for effect, but because it’s comfortable and I like its message.

While standing in a supermarket checkout line, the woman behind me leaned in and quietly said, “I like your shirt.”

“Oh, wow, thanks,” I said. “Very kind.”

Then I remembered the shirt I had on, and realized she was attracted to the message and not the shirt!

“Oh … yeah,” I said. “Scary times we’re in.”

“They are,” she said.

“There are more of us,” I said.

“I hope so,” she said.

“There are,” I said defiantly.

I told her to keep the faith, grabbed my supplies and off I went.

We were both better for the exchange — two strangers coping with the dread that is enveloping this country and rediscovering they aren’t alone.

This happened two more times over the course of the day — strangers leaning in and quietly telling me how worried they were.

I have been given this a lot of thought, too.

Good people are scared and suffering silently in America. They are looking for hope wherever they can get it.

The late Jesse Jackson used to say, “Keep hope alive,” and that has never been more important now.

This is why Saturday’s No Kings rallies were so important. They provide a community for people who are tired, scared and just fed up with it all. There is nothing like rubbing shoulders with other people who share your concerns and core beliefs. They are a celebration of the good and decency that is still out there in America in abundance, and we need to shout that out.

It is also why we need to work these kinds of celebrations into our daily lives. We can’t be shy about leaning in and telling other patriots we stand strong with them. Just making a call to a friend, or a chat with a neighbor can provide the much-needed fuel to carry on.

We need to get louder and prouder, and celebrate our patriotism, decency, and love for a country that needs a hug, not a wrecking ball. We don’t need to be obnoxious, there is enough of that in America right now, but we do need to make it clear that what is happening to our country IS NOT OK.

There is nothing normal about a president who wants to “bomb our little hearts out” or brags that he “can do anything he wants” to another country like Cuba.

There’s nothing normal about ill-trained, masked government thugs in our streets murdering us. There is nothing normal about hunting down and separating children from their parents and caging them.

A man who will put his ugly face and name everywhere including our money, belongs in the Kremlin, not our White House.

Can we stop here for just a minute and consider the outrage if Barack Obama had started naming American institutions after himself, while demolishing our White House? The man wore a tan suit one day, and half the Republican Party fainted.

None of this is normal, and it’s time to be more vocal about this.

I started Enough Already nearly a decade ago, because at the time I was sure electing a racist deviant like Trump even once was a horrible mistake that needed correcting.

Nearly 10 years later, I am still here, and I am still saying the same thing with plenty of battle scars to prove it. This was a tougher fight than I expected, because it turns out my country was a lot sicker than I thought.

I intend to stay at it, and I know you do, too. And that gives me strength, because I am not alone.

I intend to be here when America takes care of all her people again, and is once again a friend to our allies around the world.

I promise you those days are coming, and I’ll give you the shirt off my back to make that happen.

(That’s the shirt.)

(The top AP photo is from Saturday’s No Kings rally in Kansas City, Mo.)

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(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.)

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-Earl