<p><strong>To the editor:</strong></p>
<p>As a nation, we have been subjected to a sitting president who serves up non-stop crass and ignorant behavior along with inflammatory comments on nearly any and all items in the media which do not proclaim him the undisputed greatest leader ever in recorded history. But if there’s a more clear or louder sign flashing out his insecurity and unfitness for the job than his guaranteed go to tactic of fear-mongering to his devoted followers, it would be hard to say what it would be.</p>
<p>In the same week that this petty, small insecure man, once again, sunk to a new level of crude and shallow behavior by using the U.S. flag as a signal to express his disdain for Senator John McCain after his death, — it’s up, it’s lowered, it’s up again — Trump stands before his evangelical devotees and preaches that if the GOP doesn’t stay in power “there will be violence,” “Lots of violence. By Antifa extremists.”</p>
<p>How quintessentially Trump. He could not and would not clearly call out and condemn the alt right and White Supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia after one ran down and killed a decent soul pushing back on their disgusting and chilling call for hatred in this country. But he will now use Antifa’s actions — whose extreme and violent leaning tendencies are also wrong — to peddle fear into certain evangelical factions who support him.</p>
<p>And those of his evangelical base who swallow Trump’s fear-laced kool-aid very conveniently dismiss the tenements of the very gospel they profess to subscribe to. Rather, they choose to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of white supremacists and the Klu Klux Klan — those whose agenda and causes mimic the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler.</p>
<p>These extremist outliers are desperately jockeying for more foothold under a president who not only will not deter them, but rather uses them to pave the way for further division in this nation. And the evangelical base chafe because their particular version of faith is mostly dismissed by the majority as, at best, lacking true spiritual value and at worst, supremely hypocritical. So they support a man who panders to their feelings of inadequacy and fears to secure their vote by professing to understand and care about them. As if. Trump was never one of them and never will be, but they are conveniently and willingly flexible enough to put up with some pretty ugly bedfellows for the chance at securing a little more influence and, no matter to them that the Christian faith takes another one on the chin from its own followers.</p>
<p>Even if he had the mindset or inclination, Trump doesn’t have the skills to unite people. So instead of working toward improvement on what he clearly lacks, he doubles-down on his considerable ability to divide us against one another with inflammatory behavior and fear-based rhetoric. And he starts first and always with those factions in our society who feel disenfranchised from the overall mainstream. And like every other notorious cult leader in history, he uses their anxiety to ramp up their dissatisfaction level and convinces them that only he can make their world right.</p>
<p>And to those factions who lap this up like it’s the gospel, the rest of us — all of the rest of us and especially our Congressmen, on both on the left and the right — need to look those people straight in the eye and say “get a grip already.” Even with all of our social ills and economic challenges, this nation was never in such a horrible state of decay as being spoon fed to you by Trump. And while we can try to work out some differences with you, we’re not obligated to live by your dictates or in your fear-based viewpoint. America is better than that and always will be.</p>
<p>Despite our differences, there is a place and room in our society for all groups. But that place is first as citizens who respect our laws, respect others differences, and ideally, abide by requirements of all true faiths to respect, love and care for all persons regardless of race or religion. Unless, as a nation we actually want to allow fear, intolerance, and limited viewpoints to rule our lives, we should resolve to place better candidates in our Congress who will hold the standard of civility and decency in this nation and tell the fear-mongering candidates to take a hike.</p>
<p><p style="text-align: right"><strong>Lisa Voiles</strong></p>
<p><p style="text-align: right"><strong>Whiteland</strong></p>
