FROM THE LEFT

When did this become OK?

When I first learned manners as a child, I remember something that was a hard and fast rule: You don’t discuss religion or politics in polite society. Having grown up that way, I have always adhered to that strongly held belief.

So what I need to know is when did this open political discourse everywhere become OK?

I was sick with a migraine last week and went to a doctor for treatment. I was in the exam room with my husband and the doctor walked in and said that he was going to give me a shot to make me better, but only if I was a Republican. If I was a Democrat, he was sending me to Nancy Pelosi’s house. He was kidding. I think. But still, when did that become OK?

Have we come to a moment in our history when Democrats are treated differently than Republicans? Some jokes go too far. Some jokes step over the line. So why did this doctor say such a thing? Because he thought that he could get away with it.

Trump has created a new religion, furthered by his partners in crime like this doctor. If we were Republicans, we would have laughed at this “joke,” quickly and quietly reversing the entire river of knowledge, good manners, and values that we learned as children.

Trump’s salvation show requires a total buy-in to his hallucinogenic spells in which he conjures up new boogeymen on a daily basis in his technicolor dreams. He then appears before the crowd spewing them forth with just the right amount of over-the-top anguish, making his followers believe at once that he is indeed the champion of their cause as the oppressed working class, while simultaneously asking them to believe that he is also the richest person ever. Oh, and really smart. Faith. You must have faith.

And it is because of this blind faith and aided by people who really know better, that he gets away with his outlandish behavior. He has gotten away with it all of his life. And apparently, it is because no one has ever told him that it is not OK! We all know that he is all about putting his name on everything. He slaps his name in huge letters on the top of big buildings and golf courses everywhere and claims he built them. Last week when he went to the border to visit the mecca of his delusions – The Wall – he carried a plaque proclaiming that it was “Trump’s Wall” and had it mounted on the FENCE that was built with taxpayer money during the Obama Administration. Was that OK?

There is a new book about how much Trump has cheated at golf over the years. As someone who has spent most of my career in that industry and with a husband who has maintained from day one that “If you cheat at golf, you will cheat at everything”, I was intrigued. There is a true story contained in the book about a Trump-owned golf property holding their annual club championship. Trump called to ask who had won. He told them “No. put my name on the top of the plaque as the winner” even though he didn’t play in the tournament and wasn’t even at the property. Say WHAT?

When did that become OK? And no one said no? The question is, how are we supposed to teach real values to our children? How can we tell them to play by the rules or even discuss the rules when they see us idolizing someone who so clearly does not? What about manners and good sportsmanship?

It has become a general “loosening of the rules” of our entire society.

Well, not just a “loosening”. We have totally lost our way. His followers believe that they can do or say anything because they see him get away with it. When did that become OK?

The fact is that it is not OK. While lying there sick and asking a Republican doctor to treat me, I reminded him of that. Politics should have never entered the room. No, that was definitely not OK!

Mary Sharpe