All or Nothing

I voted for President Trump not once, but three times. I firmly believe it was the best thing I could do, and, indeed, would do it again under similar circumstances. But I will not go to bat for everything he says and does. That, simply, is intellectually dishonest. People make mistakes or sometimes say and do things which are perplexing if not downright indefensible. We need to be upfront and honest about that, particularly about ourselves and those we support.

Everyone needs to do it. Full stop. I'm not trying to be particularly political here, honest, but President Biden and his supporters needed to do this in recent years. They weren't very willing to speak and act honestly about COVID and were loath to allow the expression of opposing views. The folks attempting to track every move ICE makes, as does ICE itself, need to consider how they act and what they say. So does the religious, the atheist, the sports fan, the everybody. It's okay to defend someone doing something when it is in fact good. We must also be critical of the one doing ill even if we otherwise agree with him.

If this world teaches us anything it teaches us that it is far from perfect. Yet we human beings seem to want everything or nothing. Quite a few of us litmus test. We're seeking gotcha moments rather than truth when we do that. 

I can support Donald Trump in securing the border while questioning just what the hell that speech at Davos was about. Democrats can call for open borders while asking themselves seriously whether Biden had mental troubles which affected his ability to be President. We ought, generally speaking anyway, to treat individual issues and actions as exactly that, and analyze them accordingly. None of that but you're guy is just as bad really helps. It is almost certainly hyperbole to assert a President is the Devil incarnate, even if it's Donald Trump. Or Joe Biden.

You can't have everything, and you must regularly question your own actions and motives. Above all you cannot demonize. That only hardens the heart of the other guy.

The protests

I have no problem with peaceful protests. There was actually a march in my neighborhood last night. But nothing happened here, so it's all good.

That's the way it should be of course. Once you start throwing rocks at the police, once you start burning things, once you start denying other innocent people their rights, you've crossed a line. That must not be tolerated. Especially if there's outside interests involved, as Detroit Police Chief James Craig reported: there were agitators from outside the city brought in and causing trouble downtown. That has nothing to do with George Floyd. It is an agenda unto itself.

The murder of George Floyd was reprehensible. Yet it does not justify violence. If you start killing people yourself, you're as bad as every other murderer. Period.