What are they afraid of?
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“You can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors. You know, eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.” ~Hillary Clinton
When I was growing up there was a girl in my class who had the proverbial “cooties.” (I don’t know if that word is still used today — as kids, we used the word to mean unlikeable.) I honestly don’t know how it started or why it plagued her all the way from kindergarten through high school, but she was the kid that the mean boys tormented and the girls either ignored or teased. I’ll call her Jessica.
My mother felt sorry for Jessica and made me invite her over for lunch one day. I couldn’t believe it - I did not want to be her friend, but that one act of kindness led to her clinging to me, as if I was her friend. I was neither friend nor foe. I kept my distance. In retrospect, I certainly could have been kinder to Jessica, but in my childlike thinking, I was afraid that if I was overtly nice to her, the mean kids might turn on me. Thank God, she didn’t live in today’s world of shaming and the vitriol on social media — I can’t imagine how much more miserable her life would have been.
I’ve sometimes wonder whatever happened to Jessica. I hope she found a good therapist somewhere along the line, because there is no question that she had a pretty abysmal childhood, as the girl that no one liked.
Did the mean kids in my class hate her? I think yes. Hate is very different from disliking someone. With disliking someone you can be cordial and keep your distance. Hate on the other hand demonizes the other person and turns into cruelty -- and there’s no question in my mind that some of my classmates were pretty cruel to Jessica. I’m not sure, I’ll ever know why… sad.
Years later I heard a talk by Gerry Jampolsky, who wrote the classic book, Love Is Letting Go of Fear. The basic premise of the talk was this: There are only two basic emotions in life: Love and Fear. It’s not about love versus hate.
When you behave from a place of love, you are generous, kind, thoughtful, sympathetic, empathic, hopeful, serene, content, grateful, etc.
If you are a fearful person, you turn your fears into other types of behaviors that emanate from fear; for example fear of scarcity become greediness and stinginess. Other fears bring out other actions; for example, rude, unkind, inconsiderate, angry, vengeful, selfish, pessimistic, jealous, anxious types of behaviors and yes, even hate.
At the heart of matter, fearful people fundamentally feel unloved and unlovable for whatever reasons. It was such an enlightening idea for me and changed the way I looked at just about everyone’s negative behavior. It also helped me understand, why my mom wanted me to respond with kindness and not fearfulness.
Since 2015, we have been living with a person who breeds and promotes fear - fear of diversity…. fear of immigrants… fear of LGBTQ… fear of equity… I can’t help but believe that at the heart of matter, Donald Trump feels unloved and unlovable… clearly the man needs therapy to get over his abysmal childhood. He seems to be the most fearful of men.
I’m reminded of Jim Mattis’s statement in June of 2020:
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”
Traditionally America has been a generous and great nation. (You can read my thoughts on this: Remembering Wendy.) Oh, Trump calls it something else, “Make America Great Again.” From my observation, his administration is all about Make America Hate — not Great.
The trouble with hate is that it turns into cruelty and violence. We have seen the normalization of hate throughout the last 10 years:
Donald Trump mocked a disabled reporter. He fat shames people like Rosie O’Donnell and Chris Christie.
Trump’s simple fear of being considered a loser turned into the Big Lie that led to a violent coup attempt where people ended up seriously injured or died. He sat and watched the event on TV rather do something about it.
Trump publicly humiliates world leaders in the Oval Office
Trump has said he would force the military to commit war crimes.
Trump peddles xenophobia and racism, and has made many hateful comments about Muslims, Mexicans, Native Americans, African-Americans, etc.
He supports and dines with white supremacists
Donald Trump is an adjudicated rapist and clearly a misogynist.
The list could go on and on. The atrocities are so ubiquitous, that many people seem to be almost numb to his cruelty and unkindness.
The problem is that normalizing hate can normalize violence as we saw play out on January 6, 2021.
I posted this excellent essay before and I think it’s worth repeating. There is The Seduction of Hatred: It’s when fear turns to anger and anger hardens into hatred—when we stop fighting for justice and start fighting against people—that when we’ve crossed a line.
Here’s the difference:
Anger says: “This action is wrong.”
Hatred says: “You are irredeemable.”
Anger can be focused, moral, and healing.
Hatred dehumanizes—and once we dehumanize, anything feels justified.
I live in a politically polarized Congressional district. Asheville overwhelmingly went for Harris, the surrounding areas for Trump. But when Hurricane Helene hit, no one cared. People quite literally were working to help one another and reaching out to care for their neighbors. The love and kindness that we experienced and generated was real and I believe that is the essence of most Americans. I don’t think we’re a hateful people.
And yet, Trump and his administration want to promote selfishness, divisiveness, hate and vengeance. Why?
I can’t help but wonder, what are they so afraid of?
Thought for the day…
“We are always expressing either love or fear. Fear is really a call for help, and therefore a request for Love.”
~ Gerald G. Jampolsky
Must Read Article:
Hate groups in U.S. decline but their influence grows
The number of white nationalist, hate and anti-government groups around the U.S. dropped slightly in 2024, not because of any shrinking influence but rather the opposite. Many feel their beliefs, which includes racist narratives and so-called Christian persecution, have become more normalized in government and mainstream discourse.
Quote of the day:
“President Trump has led with cruelty and chaos, creating a human rights emergency that has affected millions of people by suppressing dissent, undermining the rule of law, and eroding norms and institutions essential to the protection of human rights.”
~ Paul O’Brien
What I’m reading today…
Christian nationalists decided empathy is a sin. Now it’s gone mainstream.
Yet as stunning as it may sound, “empathy is a sin” is a claim that’s been growing in recent years across the Christian right. It was first articulated six years ago by controversial pastor and theologian Joe Rigney, now author of the recently published book, The Sin of Empathy, which has drawn plenty of debate among religious commentators. In this construction, empathy is a cudgel that progressives and liberals use to berate and/or guilt-trip Christians into showing empathy to the “wrong” people.
Donald Trump’s Cruel and Unusual Innovations
Scarce attention has been paid to another relevant part of the Bill of Rights: the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on inflicting “cruel and unusual punishment,” a limit on state power that applies regardless of whether the target is a citizen…Sending deportees to a country other than their own and paying for them to be imprisoned among violent criminals, with no fixed sentence or release date, is highly unusual, if not novel, in American history. High-ranking U.S. officials have explicitly stated that their intent is to inflict punishment for illegal entry and other alleged crimes. After visiting El Salvador, Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, said that she wants to incarcerate even more deportees in the country so that they “pay the consequences for their actions of violence.”
I’m Normally a Mild Guy. Here’s What’s Pushed Me Over the Edge.
There are also two conceptions of society. One is what we’ll call the universalist conception — that our love of family and our love of neighborhood are the first links in a series of affections that lead to our love of city, love of nation and love of all humankind. The other is the identity politics conception of society — that life is a zero-sum struggle between racial, national, partisan and ethnic groups.
If America is built around a universalist ideal, then there is no room for the kind of white identity politics that Trump and Stephen Miller practice every day. There is no room for the othering, zero-sum, us/them thinking, which is the only kind of thinking Trump is capable of. There’s no room for Trump’s immigration policy, which is hostile to Latin Americans but hospitable to the Afrikaners whose ancestors invented apartheid. There’s no room for Tucker Carlson’s replacement theory. There’s no room for the kind of racialized obsessions harbored, for example, by the paleoconservative writer Paul Gottfried in an essay called “America Is Not an ‘Idea,’” in Chronicles magazine: “Segregation was also an unjust arrangement, and I don’t regret seeing that go either. But what has taken its place is infinitely more frightening: the systematic degradation of white Americans.”
Last, there are at least two kinds of morality. There is a kind of morality based on universal moral ideals, and then there is tribal morality. Deneen and Vance say they don’t think people are motivated by abstractions. They might try reading the Bible. The Bible is built on abstractions: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The Sermon on the Mount contains a bunch of abstractions: blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful. Believe it or not, down through the centuries, billions of people have dedicated their lives to these abstractions…
What Deneen and Vance said about men in combat is a manifestation of tribal morality. They take a sentiment that is noble in time of war — we take care of our own — and apply it in general to mean that we don’t have to take care of the starving children in Africa; we can be cruel to those we don’t like. Trumpism is a giant effort to narrow the circle of concern to people just like us.
Trump Reveals Pardon Plan for New Set of Violent MAGA Thugs
Fourteen people were arrested in an October 2020 sting that included the use of informants and undercover FBI agents, who testified that the group planned to capture the governor at her vacation home, blow up a bridge to distract responding cops, and provoke a civil war ahead of the 2020 election.
A Sea Of Sorrow: Mindless Cruelty Remains the Point
An Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent born in a refugee camp in Syria, Khalil became a legal permanent resident of the U.S. and earned his master's degree in international studies at Columbia last year before becoming the first Gaza protester arrested under a promised crackdown. Abducted in March by ICE and charged under an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, he was alleged by Marco Rubio to pose "adverse foreign policy consequences" despite virtually no evidence and no charge of a crime…The entire so-called case against him, argues one of his lawyers, is simply "an unsuccessful attempt to silence people who speak up in defense of Palestinian human rights,” part of the vast and illegal overreach of a regime that's "presented no evidence in support of its baseless rhetoric.”
How to Survive the Trump Years With Your Spirit Intact
But I do think we’re on the cusp of a great cultural transition. On the one hand, the eternal forces of dehumanization are blowing strong right now: concentrated power; authoritarianism; materialism; runaway technology; a presidential administration at war with the arts, universities and sciences; a president who guts Christianity while pretending to govern in its name.
On the other hand, there are millions of humanists — secular and religious — repulsed by what they see. History is often driven by those people who are quietly repulsed for a while and then find their voice. I suspect different kinds of humanists will gather and invent other cultural movements. They will ask the eternal humanistic questions: What does it mean to be human? What is the best way to live? What is the nature of the common humanity that binds us together? As these questions are answered in new ways, there will be new cultural movements and forms.
President Trump has led with cruelty and chaos, creating a human rights emergency by systematically eroding human rights protections, fostering a climate of fear and division, and undermining the rule of law.
They Don’t See It Because They Need It: The Authoritarian Blind Spot
When Donald Trump or his administration enacts policies that clearly reflect autocratic tendencies, mass purges of civil servants, loyalty oaths, executive overreach, state propaganda campaigns, his most fervent supporters do not recoil in alarm. They double down in devotion. They do not see these actions as authoritarian; they see them as necessary, patriotic, or even noble…people who score high on authoritarian predispositions exhibit a strong desire for conformity, obedience to perceived legitimate authority, and social homogeneity. But the most startling discovery isn’t just that these traits exist. It’s that they are accompanied by an uncanny blindness to the very authoritarianism they empower….When threatened, by moral ambiguity, diversity, or perceived disorder, authoritarian personalities do not merely seek security; they seek simplicity, sameness, and a unifying leader who promises to eliminate the complexity of democratic life. However, they are often unaware that the very order they crave comes at the expense of the democratic principles they claim to defend.
As the Trump administration faces other orders blocking its plans, the president and his team are framing judges not just as political opponents but as enemies of democracy.
Trump, for example, has called for the impeachment of James Boasberg, a federal judge who also issued orders blocking the deportation of immigrants in the U.S. to El Salvador….
By confusing the idea that the people’s will must prevail with what the law actually says, these leaders justify intimidating judges and their sound legal rulings, a move that ultimately undermines democracy.
Unqualified appointees who can’t ascend to political power based on their merits have little choice but to stick with the leader. These people appear loyal, but only because their careers are tied to the leader staying in power….For appointees who can’t win elections, the only shot at power is steadfast alignment with the leader. This dynamic, in turn, provides a strong incentive for these officials to remain loyal, even when the leader breaks the law or orders them to do the same.
How many politicians are psychopaths?
First, psychopaths are known for superficial charm, which is useful both for a serial killer luring victims to their car—and for winning elections.
Second, psychopaths can be split into two categories: successful and unsuccessful, or disciplined and undisciplined. The unsuccessful psychopaths are unable to control their impulses. They end up in prison as abusers and serial killers. Where do the successful psychopaths end up? Too often, in board rooms and public office.
Trump Shows Signs of ‘Cognitive Decline’ Says Speech Expert
Now, Trump, who was the oldest president to be inaugurated at the age of 78 and seven months in January, is facing scrutiny over his position as the most powerful man on the planet. …“His lack of focus makes it seem as though he’s experiencing cognitive decline, that his brain is not well-disciplined, and he’s unable to maintain a thought and carry it through to a logical conclusion,” she said. The Conversations Trump’s Doctors Should Be Having With Him: The U.S. could consider imposing a maximum age limit on the presidency. But that one-size-fits-all approach risks eliminating potentially fit and favored candidates. In its absence, the person leading the country should receive station-specific, evidence-based, and person-centered care—that attends to their role, medical conditions, functional abilities, and preferences. And the American public deserves transparency about the president’s health.
Florida GOP Congressional Candidate Sentenced for Hit Squad Threat to Rival
A Florida Republican congressional candidate has been sentenced to three years in federal prison following an attempt to have his rival opponent murdered by a Russian-Ukrainian hit squad. William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg was sentenced in Tampa federal court on Wednesday. In February, he pleaded guilty to sending an interstate transmission of a threat to injure U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. They were both candidates in the 2021 primary election to represent the 13th Congressional District of Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Trump Didn’t Want a Deal in the Oval Office. He Wanted a Humiliation.
His administration’s chaotic rollout of global tariffs, apparently designed to bring the most powerful countries in the world begging for mercy at his door, has produced little beyond a narrow deal with Britain, one of America’s oldest and closest allies. In Trump’s fantastical vision, global leaders will line up to pay tribute to him in his newly gilded Oval Office, willing to risk the kind of ritual humiliation he has meted out twice now, first to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and now to South Africa’s.
A Pivot Point for the American People
Rather than making America great again, Trump is rapidly reducing it to a second-rate power. His actions are undermining our alliances, destroying our instruments of soft power (such as public diplomacy and development assistance), and ravaging the research infrastructure and global talent pool we need to innovate and compete with China. This global power shift is now happening very briskly, in real time. It could take much more starkly visible and even irreversible form during these remaining three years and eight months of Trump’s second term. The challenge we now face is made more formidable by the need for Republicans and Democrats to cooperate if we are to mount an effective strategic response.
A book I recommend…
Love Is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald G. Jampolsky
After more than thirty years, Love Is Letting of Fear continues to be among the most widely read and best-loved classics on personal transformation. Both helpful and hopeful, this little gem of a guide offers twelve lessons to help us let go of the past and stay focused on the present as we step confidently toward the future.
What I am listening to…
Today's FBI will do nothing about Trump’s corruption; his buddies at the top of the bureau are instead focusing on celebrities who are definitely not Team Trump, or a person who posted a benign beach meme about 47. Meanwhile, the FBI has been ordered to redirect resources to deportations, raising serious questions about whether counterterrorism and counterintelligence—the agency's main priorities since 9/11—are being neglected.
“And when I look at the Trump administration, I see a massive attempt to return us to the life of dog eat dog, life of nasty, brutish, and short, where gangsters have maximum freedom to do what they want to do…And that is the evisceration of all the values of civilization that conservatism is supposed to transmit and preserve. And I think the raw lust for power that Donald Trump embodies has not only eviscerated conservatism, it’s eviscerated Christianity. Christianity is a system designed around the meek and service to the poor. Jesus never embraced worldly power; Donald Trump is completely about worldly power — for him it’s about domination.”
What I read every day…
