If the people pushing the meddling narrative did not hate Trump so viscerally they would regard the cheap ass shitposting by the indicted Russians as nothing of importance. But hatred bordering on neurosis exaggerates everything out of all proportion. So a narrative in an indictment (which is not even proof, but an assertion from a prosecutor) becomes the moral equivalent of Pearl Harbor or 911. As it is said, most grand juries will indict a ham sandwich. But the fanaticism of the Trump haters destroys all sense of moderation and leads to constant histrionics. Why people hate Trump this much remains a mystery. There is much to critique and dislike about Trump, as there is about any president, and Caitlin has not held back in her critique of Trump. I found much lacking in Obama and much much more in W. But hate was not my reaction. Trump haters seem to believe that there are two attitudes we can take about a president. One is incandescent hatred and the other is a reasoned critique. Trump gets the former for no clear reason and now W is being nicely rehabilitated into the latter category. This is especially puzzling when many of these people (especially in the media) formerly execrated W. And he deserved much of the strong criticism, especially for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. So far Trump has not initiated any wars, but he has negligently allowed legacy wars from Obama to fester on. He promised otherwise.
None of us is able to figure out why another person has such strong feelings about something, except when we know that they have been greatly slighted in some way. A cheated on spouse can exhibit such hatred. At that point the slightest gesture or word from the cheater is experienced like a blow to the face. So all things become exaggerated beyond reason. The only explanation for the heightened feelings of hate about Trump may be the fact that so many people had put all their political faith and hope in Hillary being elected. Yet, even if you think Hillary is a fine politician and a great leader, she’s not Mother Theresa. She’s a corruptible politician and a flawed human being like the rest of her profession. Investing such depths of emotion and trust into any frail human being is to lose your own humanity.
And now we’re facing ever increasing calls to punish Russia in some way. But we forget that this is not a schoolyard game. It is an invitation to hell on earth. Obama, in spite of his shortcomings, took a measured approach to Russia. And similarly, Putin and Russia have taken a measured approach to setbacks in Syria. I think Trump will resist reacting to this alleged provocation from Russia. But unfortunately many will allow their hatred of Trump to permit them to demand the unthinkable, hot conflict with Russia.
In the movie, Hunt for Red October, the hothead sub captain removes the timers from the torpedo fuses against all the advice of his lieutenants. This ploy fails and the torpedoes return to home in on their own sub. His lieutenant says something like, "you arrogant bastard, you’ve killed us all".
Let us hope we don’t have to say the same thing to our Trump hating friends.