Captain Jack lives in the small town I make my home. His story is an example of the damage that Trump has done to the fabric of our once great nation.

Captain Jack is a former military man, and proud of it. He served honorably in U.S. Army Rangers.

In 2016, Captain Jack didn’t know a thing about politics. He didn’t know the difference between a Democrat and a Republican and had never voted in an election in all of his 50 plus years. But he confessed with glee, “I like what Trump has to say.”

For those who don’t recall, the things Trump had to say included: Barack Obama was born in Kenya, Mexicans were all rapists and murders, Hillary Clinton was a criminal, and all Muslims are evil and should be banned from the U.S.

As you may guess, Captain Jack is a racist. Like most racists, he claims he’s not. But he is. He uses the N word in daily conversation. When Trump was awarded the presidency via the Electoral College over Hillary Clinton’s popular vote win, he said “Thank God we don’t have a woman president. It’s bad enough we had a black man.”

So, you can see where the things Trump was saying appealed to Captain Jack. They’re both racists.

Four years later and Captain Jack is completely brainwashed in another capacity. All Trump has done for the past four years is try to create a divide between Republicans and Democrats. These two great parties had co-existed for decades. Bipartisan support for measures was not uncommon. Our politics were about the people.

But for Trump to be effective he has to be the hero defending his followers against an enemy. He used Mexico and Muslims as the enemy in 2016. From inauguration day on he needed a new enemy, so he focused his efforts on the Democrats. According to Trump everything wrong in the world is because of the liberal Democrats. And Captain Jack has lapped up that message every day on Facebook and Fox News.

In 2016 Captain Jack didn’t know what a Democrat or Republican was. He still doesn’t know what they are, but he blindly hates Democrats because his Führer has told him to.  In 2016 we could have discussions about politics. Now we can’t because he functions in a world of disinformation. All of his “knowledge” is composed of Trump’s fake news. You can’t debate someone who won’t accept the facts.

While Captain Jack has always been a racist, he had some level of intellect and moral compass in the past. But drinking the Trump Kool-Aid destroyed that. When I asked how he as a self-described patriot could support a President who had colluded with Russia, he claims it never happened and all the confirming documentation from the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency, Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, House Intelligence Committee, and Senate Intelligence Committee is a fake Democratic hoax. If Cadet Bone Spurs can convince a combat veteran that Russia isn’t the enemy, Democrats are, it shows the extent hate will make one redraw their morals.

Captain Jack is smart enough to know that Trump lost the 2020 election because Democrats showed up in droves to make sure we have a real President in office come January 20, 2021. But that doesn’t stop him for parroting Trump’s calls of rigged elections. He actual speaks with glee about the idea that a Civil War is brewing. He doesn’t care what’s best for the country. He doesn’t care what’s best for democracy. He wants Trump to be the dictator he wants to be.

People like Captain Jack are gullible. They are typically low income and low social status. They are susceptible to messages of hate because it creates a good versus bad platform where their emotions can be easily manipulated. That is the danger of Trump. He is a bully who spews hate. As long as the enemy is Mexicans or Democrats or women, people like Captain Jack will be lured into Trump’s distorted world.

So, we get what we have now. Gullible people echoing Trump’s message of rigged election and political witch hunt – not because there is any truth to those things, but because they blindly follow their Führer. His lies have consequences. We could very well end up with the white supremacists that support Trump becoming violent when the lawfully elected President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.

We live in dangerous times. Donald Trump’s lies are a direct cause of much of the unrest now facing the nation. He is a dangerous man who thinks of nobody but himself. Take caution when engaging his supporters, many of them have a concept of right and wrong so distorted they think violence and a Civil War would be a positive thing.

Whether it be evangelical preachers asking for money so they can drive sports cars and live in mansions, or Donald Trump asking for money to overthrow the government, the gullible will always be susceptible to those who might take advantage of them. We can pity them for their ignorance, but we should not excuse their actions.

Who we should not pity are the 126 Republican House Members-elect who signed on to Trump’s crazed and baseless claims of wide spread voter fraud. They know perfectly well that Trump lost the election fair and square. Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security issues a statement that the election was “the most secure in American history.” They just want to illegally usurp the will of the American people who voted in record numbers for Joe Biden and install their own fascist leader Trump. That is treason.

Based upon Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, the 126 House Member-elect who are supporting Donald Trump’s criminal efforts to invalidate the 2020 presidential election should be disqualified from service because of their attack on American democracy. It’s time to stand up to this treasonous behavior – they should be sanctioned and excluded.

Peace. Love. Trust.

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