From Behind Enemy Lines – The Ugly

Let’s see… The good is that the Right is holding its ground over the Left’s tantrum. I need you all to hear that up front: I AGREE WITH THE SHUTDOWN. I would agree with it on purely conservative morals, but I also happen to be a staunch supporter of smaller government. A government shutdown means we have the absolute minimum government (well, sort of, but you get the idea) and therefore I support the shutdown. The longer it drags on, the more we know just what we can do without.

The bad is that the Left is fighting back with the usual cycle of lies, half truths, and more lies. I need you all to hear this up front: I DO NOT AGREE WITH THE LEFT on any of this stuff.

And now, the ugly.

I often joked in private about Obama being the Teleprompter in Chief. Well, Trump is the MemeLord in Chief, and it’s a problem. I realize some of you may not consider it a problem at all, or a very minor one at best, but I DO consider it a problem. One of the sticking points I had, back during Trump 1.0, was the “mean tweets.” It really stuck in my craw. I’m going to be honest… it still does.

When I see Trump standing up, with Vance or with Melania, or even one of his kids, I see the dad, the grandfather, a righteous man who’s doing his best for his country. I respect that all to hell. Watching him erupt out of a sea of secret service to pump fist, blood streaming down his face, that was awe inspiring (also, I want those guys fired because he should NOT have been allowed to do that, but I digress). This is not Trump 1.0, and I see the good he’s doing. I see him brokering peace. I see him strengthening our economy. I see him doing infrastructure things in the government that are good, and will last for years to come.

But my FUCKING gawd, when he gets tweeting, I just want to vomit. I really do. I get it… he’s “just a man” and he wants to stick it to the folks who are poking and shooting at him. And if he was Trump the billionaire or Trump the last President, I’d sigh and move on. But he isn’t those things. He’s Trump, our current, sitting President. He’s the man leading our country. And things that I might find (or do find) amusing coming from one of us, I find just plain wrong coming from the Oval Office.

From the White House twitter account today:

As someone formerly of the middle, and honestly not that far out from the middle, it just turns me off. Sure it’s “just” a mean tweet. But it speaks volumes. I don’t mind the text as much, but the image (it’s actually a screenshot of a video) is just too much. It takes AWAY from the message. It makes it too damn easy to say, “Oh, it’s just Trump being a twit(ter) again.” And I don’t want that said.

Then there’s this one:

There’s my President! Honestly? Absolutely! Blunt, honest, to the point. The memes make it worse, not better. THIS makes it better.

Sometimes he does such an amazing job.

Totally on point. He put the blame where it belongs, on the Left. But he doesn’t stoop. He doesn’t take the cheap shot. He doesn’t dig the knife in.

That’s the President I want. I cling to the times when Vance gets up and speaks. He has all of Trump’s bravado and strength, without the mean digs. I want to see Trump do it. I’ve SEEN him do it, and when he does, it’s truly inspiring. And the thing is… those “mean tweets” are the things that turn away the undecided voters. It doesn’t do a damn thing to the entrenched Left OR the Right. It’s the bulk of voters who could sway either way, who might vote with Trump if he’d just stop being such an ASS at times.

I struggle with the images of pie charts showing, “…60% of Americans are against the Democratic shut down of the government!” (X.com). Just like when the Left posts up this stuff, it’s a poll. It’s a fucking poll, and that poll means very little in the grand scheme of things. It’s the same pandering that the Left does, and it makes me angry. These kinds of statistics are entirely meaningless, as we’ve said over and over again about the Left. If it doesn’t mean shit on the Left, why does it suddenly mean something awesome on the Right? It doesn’t. It just doesn’t.

What does this have to do with the shutdown? Nothing. It’s stupid. Then there’s this one, which is just stupid and misleading, because service members get backpay after government shutdowns anyhow. He’s just saying he’ll do what he has to do anyhow. UGH.

In the grand scheme of things, Trump’s ad campaigns (because that’s really what they are) and bad memes are momentarily embarrassing for our government. As some on the Right like to say, “a nothingburger.” But they do affect “in the middle” voters. Frankly, I want every “in the middle” voter on our side. I’m tired of hearing, “You know, I like a lot of Trump’s stuff, but man, he’s hard to listen to, and he’s … not presidential.” I look them in the eye and say, “I don’t like it when he’s like that, either. Here’s the Trump I support.” And then I share the good things he’s done.

You can say image doesn’t matter all you like, but it DOES matter. We *ALL* judge books by their cover. A lot of people never even read the back to see if the book is decent. They just shrug, shelve it, and move on. Yes, we’re getting a lot of people over to the Right. I’d like to see more, though.

I’m struggling with it right now. But I know, I can say hey I don’t agree with those tweets. I can say that I hate it when he says stupid things. That doesn’t mean I don’t like what he’s doing. I can even dislike portions of what he’s doing and still support the rest. But this is probably the most difficult part of moving Right, for me. It feels incredibly wrong at times, and it makes me angry. 🙁