Monday, December 23, 2019

Trump backers don’t see what they can’t see

Evanston mural, by Shawn Bullen



     Bees can see ultraviolet light. Betcha didn’t know that. Their eyes—and bees have five of them—process wavelengths humans can’t, meaning bees can literally see colors that people can’t imagine, detecting patterns on flowers beyond human perception.
     If we were to consider the entire spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, with big loping radio waves at one end, and frantic tiny gamma waves at the other, the range that people can see—visible light—is a small section. We exist in a sea of information we don’t know is there.
     No shame in that. Everybody doesn’t see something. Most things. And when I step back from the American political scene— like the restful, stay-at-home vacation last week—it’s a blessed relief to focus on other concerns. I tracked the impeachment of Donald Trump out of the corner of one eye, and didn’t watch a second of the proceedings.
     So much buzzing. So much noise and frantic activity. Very hive like, although that’s an insult to bees, famous for their industry and courage: stout-hearted warriors “in their waxen kingdoms,” as Virgil calls them in “Georgics.”
     I didn’t watch the impeachment because I already saw, in stark relief, what House Democrats were laboriously trying to establish: Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine trying to blackmail its president into announcing a sham investigation into Joe Biden and his son. That isn’t a murky mystery. The facts are right there. Trump himself admitted it.
     Yet none of this is perceived by Trump supporters. Point directly at the treachery and they stare blankly, as if gazing into empty space. Or they see a mirage: Bill Clinton spinning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, as if that’s somehow relevant. They look at Donald Trump and see a Christ-like figure. “The Chosen One” in former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry’s term

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4 comments:

  1. You hit the nail right on the head. Check out some of the nasty comments made at the Christianity Today fb page or some of the loons on the Franklin Graham fb page, as I did out of curiosity. One has to shake their head... and worry.

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  2. "Laboriously" is precisely right. I got tired of hearing the Democratic recitations about 10 minutes in. The Republican retorts at least had a quality of novelty and innovation to them -- I was intrigued with how far they dared go to frame the events to coincide with their twisted mindsets. Poor Trump: all he's trying to do is bring back a bit of Glory to that old tattered flag waving in the wind. And what's he get for it? A kick in the balls from Emasculator in Chief Nancy Pelosi and her evil henchmen Schumer and Nadler. Even Jesus in the most violent Mel Gibson depiction of the crucifixion didn't suffer as Trump is suffering. If challenged with your analogy of bee sight, they could come right back and accuse Democrats of being unable to see the nimbus of sainthood, the aura of sanctity emanating from President Trump, the magnificence of the Second Coming. Ohhh, how could we be so blind!

    john

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  3. Being able to see the humor in blasphemy is a virtue of our secular age. Christ, of course, died for our sins but Trump will only live in ignominy for his.

    Tom

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  4. This supports my Trump supporter profile of having any or all of the following: Ignorance, Bigotry, and Greed.
    All three require blinders.

    ReplyDelete

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