Giving Up on Political Discussion

After Trump was elected, I was trying to keep an open mind. Even though Mike Pence believes in gay conversion therapy, and Trump does not believe in human-made climate change. (My scientist father would be disgusted at this deliberate ignorance of fact, and I am his daughter.)

I read a lot. I learned a lot about history and why people supported Trump.

But Trump’s comments show, at best, a childish approach to race.

Then Trump appointed Steve Bannon as his chief of staff. Bannon is a white nationalist. The site he runs, Breitbart, has statements like this.

“The alt-right’s intellectuals would also argue that culture is inseparable from race. The alt-right believe that some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved”

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Snopes, checking facts. Here’s one about Bannon.

“Some headlines that appeared in the publication under his helm included “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew”; “A Short List of Black Lives Matter’s Cop-Killing Heroes”; and “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.”

Tom Price, nominated for Health and Human Services Secretary, belongs to an organization, American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, which believes that vaccines are harmful. They entirely miss the problem that without vaccines, we get outbreaks of disease because of one un-vaccinated child.

The Wikipedia article on AAPS describes their discredited ideas at length, and with links to their discredited ideas in the Journal of AAPS.

So I can no longer tell my friends not to panic. My black friends, my gay friends, my Jewish friends, my Muslim friends, my Latinex friends. My friends who have serious medical conditions.

I mean, how can I stop their fears? Do you, my Red Team friends, really believe that Trump didn’t mean what he said about women, Mexicans, immigrants, and disabled people? That Bannon won’t have the courage to stand by what his news outlet prints? That Tom Price belongs to the AAPS but doesn’t believe in what they stand for?

Yeah, people are scared. I think their fear is reasonable. And I have to stop looking all this material up on Snopes and On the Issues, and focus on how to strengthen the Democratic party.  Sorry, Red Team. Wish we could agree on something, anything.