Recently someone suggested to me that I “stop shaming” supporters of Donald Trump
The seemingly admirable scolding followed my sharing a news article with the eye-witness account of a group of Neo-Nazi, white supremacists beating an interracial couple at a Tennessee restaurant, after the group’s local “White Lives Matter” rally had to be aborted.
I reminded those currently supporting the former President that this very violence is on their hands right now; that it is the putrid fruit of their past vote and of their current advocacy on full, bloody display in that dining room—and it was this contention that earned the stranger’s wrist-slapping to discontinue dispensing shame.
Sorry, but I’m not having it anymore.
I tried that over and over and over again; to reach these people on a human level, to understand them, to build a bridge to them, to reach out and let them know that they were welcome to create something redemptive in response to this jagged ugliness—even if they helped create it.
None of that has worked.
They still proudly wear their MAGA hats.
They still loudly sing his praises.
They still contend he is an actual Christian.
They still applaud his nonsensical, vile, petulant ramblings as simply, “telling it like it is.”
They still pretend he is normal or qualified or admirable.
They still lap up and get drunk on the Fox News Kool-Aid.
And they do it all, because they have been specifically emboldened by a unstable man who has shown that this behavior reflects whatever is left of his heart, that he will not speak out against it, that he in fact applauds it all—and because people who support him will find a way to make it appear justified or normal or Constitutional.
And if there’s any shame in this season in the life of America—it is surely this.
I’m through coddling indecency under the guise of ceremonial unity.
I’m over giving sickness a wide berth in the name of some surface level decorum.
I’m done protecting the supposed feelings of people who have shown time and time again, they lack even the most microscopic levels of empathy for those most violated and assailed in this country right now.
Shaming isn’t what’s happening here:
Asking an adult human being to be responsible for their sickening alliances isn’t shaming them.
Placing specific examples of the cancerous violence they’ve helped release since the election isn’t shaming them.
Demanding accountability for their toxic political affiliations isn’t shaming them.
This is establishing ownership.
It’s the clear proclamation, that in the face of the most corrupt, incompetent, reckless, dangerous person to have ever occupied the White House:
Their silence is shameful.
Their enabling is shameful.
Their rationalizing is shameful.
Their normalizing is shameful.
Their chest-thumping is shameful.
Bringing these things up is not shameful—and I’m not going to feel the slightest guilt about it.
If detailing the way marginalized people are being oppressed because of the color of their skin or their place of origin or their sexual orientation, is labeled by them as “identity politics”—I’ll play.
If them suggesting that the racism, homophobia, and misogyny we currently complain about are all just fantastical straw men we have erected—then I’ll gladly keep building them.
If showing the clear cause-and-effect between this President and the unprecedented Renaissance of open hatred we’re seeing, is deemed by them to be picking a fight—I’m okay with that.
And if not allowing those still supporting this Donald Trump to look away from the deformed monster they’ve created and unleashed upon restaurants and town squares and high school fields and suburban neighborhoods; if that is throwing shame—then I’ll gladly throw it and feel no shame at all.
The woman who issued my reprimand followed-up with a now familiar refrain: “If you shame these people, they’ll never have a moment of clarity, they’ll only dig in their heels and double down. They’ll never be reachable.”
These are adults and they should have seen enough already. The inhumanity should have reached them long ago.
If suggesting that protestors during the campaign be roughed up didn’t do it,
if the “grab them by the pussy” video didn’t do it,
if appointing Steve Bannon as right-hand man didn’t do it,
if Muslim bans and Mexican walls and ICE raids and Charlottesville didn’t do it,
if the beating of two human beings having dinner didn’t do it—
I’m not sure we can expect change anymore.
We may have to settle for open condemnation, so that those most in danger know that not everyone is okay with any of this.
I’m profoundly, deeply, and unashamedly not okay with any of it.
I’m also through apologizing for suggesting that humanity show up and actually be human.
To stand by and watch it all and to do nothing?
That would be truly shameful.
You nailed it. Well said. I’ll share with all.
Thanks
BRAVO! You are not alone…I stand with you against tyrranny, bullying, racism, and hate!
I’ll Stand with You
Revolution is in the air, I can
I can smell it upon the breeze,
And I’ll stand with you and fight this war ‘til
I’m felled upon my knees!
I’m too crippled to fight, too young to die,
And much too brave to run,
But you can bet I will have your back as
Long as I have my gun!
As long as there’s breath in these old lungs, and
I can still see to shoot,
I’ll stand with you on this sacred ground, right
Next to you, boot to boot!
With you, my brother, and you my sis, I’ll
Fight to the bloody end,
I haven’t got much, but I’ll have your back –
On that, you can depend!
When we see them come up over the hill
We’ll give a rebel yell.
And when we’re done with those dirty dogs, they’ll
Think it more fun in hell!
No, I won’t run and I won’t weep when I
Hear their warrior’s cry.
I’ll raise my gun and try to shoot straight, and
Keep shooting ‘til I die!
I’ll stand with you and fire my gun, and
Wield my Viking sword,
‘Til we kill them, or they kill me, and send
My last breath to the Lord!
Yes, I’ll stand with you and fire my gun,
Peck ‘em off one by one.
I cannot do much, but I’ll fight with you
Until our fighting’s done!
© 2015 The Poet Darkling™
I could hardly agree more, John.
Thank you so much. Well said and exactly correct. Recently, I’ve been embarrassed to say I am a Christian.
Sending love your way.
So don’t. Join me. I am a Jesusian. NOT a Christian.
Christianity has been completely hijacked by everything Jesus stood against…until everything that was once valued by Christianity….is no more.
Christianity has become a morally bankrupt tradition. Time those of us who truly believe Jesus’ message of peace, love, joy, mercy, and hope…joined together and left these so-called Christians in the hell they have created for themselves…and into which they attempt to drag the rest of us.
I, for one, am not going without a fight.
Congratulations. I was beginning to be uncomfortable hearing that someone was Christian – there seemed to be so few of them with any true Christianity in their souls.
Your post was profound and eloquent. I look forward to following your blog in the future.
Thank you for saying “stuff that needs to be said.”
That is because they do not.
They have God and Jesus in their HEADS….not in their hearts.
There can be no rooom in their black hearts for God or jesus…with all the hate they have there….as evidenced by the way they treat ANYONE different from themselves.
I am but one small marginalized group…in my case transgender…who have been horribly treated.
The blacks, the disabled, the Muslim, women, the Dreamers…have all seen the ugliness and suffered from it. Just as we in the transgender community have.
God bless you, and thank you so much for this post! Thank you for speaking my truth, thank you for your courage, and thank you for helping me feel that I am not alone.
YES. Well said.
Thank you. It’s well past time that good, and, decent people start calling out Trump supporters for the Fascists that they are.
I know it is a harsh word, but it is accurate, too.
The kingdom of heaven is for everyone. I do not judge, I plead. I do not condemn, I show the path of righteousness. The kingdom of heaven is for everyone, it is for the poor and the poor in spirit, even for Trump. I do not shame, I forgive, and if I cannot find the strength to do so today, God forgives all.
This article is compelling. Much of the divisions in this country are just coming to a head under Trump. Trump is the logical conclusion to the way this country has been going for nearly 30 years. The income distribution imbalance has made this situation much worse and it will get ever worse than now if the leadership in this country is aloud to pass things like their health care and tax proposals. Trump does not care about anyone reading this, your or me. He only cares about himself and other wealthy individuals. He is a danger to all of us!
They spew hatred at others while crying for civility toward themselves. They deserve no more than what they give out. One is not civil toward a thug.
So gratifying to know there are decent principled Americans offering a reasoned argument to the ignorant fool who somehow blustered his way into your highest office.
I hope and pray you can one day can return the “United” to the States of America.
May your God bless you!
I needed that. Thank you
I’m not a Christian but I made study of the Bible, especially the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament… to better understand my evangelical family…
I was shocked to find that I actually live a life much more in line with the teachings of Christ than any of my friends or family who profess to be Christian.
How is that possible? Somee nasty rot has captured the souls of white America
I didn’t vote for Trump, and I don’t support him; however, the sanctimonious drivel fomented by John Pavlovitz is absurd at best. “Stuff That Needs To Be Said” just oozes a kind of narcissism that either A) suggests Pavlovitz imagines himself some kind of moral arbiter, or B) Pavlovitz constantly stirs the proverbial pot for the free publicity that assuredly lines his pockets.
I see no genuine concern for the state of the country and the world here. Just another snake oil salesman.