Now, it’s perfectly true that there was never a time in America when everyone just got along beautifully. Our history of racism and xenophobia alone puts the lie to that. But Trump’s intolerance truly is ecumenical in that it could be any group, any individual, any foe or (former) friend at any given moment. It’s entirely self-serving.
It’s making more and more people embrace political violence. The recent American Values Survey from Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in partnership with the Brookings Institution think tank found that one in three Republicans agree that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country” – up from 15% in 2021. (22% of Independents and 13% of Democrats agree, all numbers having increased since 2021.) The truly frightening number is that among those who believe the Big Lie, 46% believe they may resort to violence, as well as 41% of Trump fans and 41% who buy into the “Great Replacement Theory.” 39% of Christian nationalists are ready to take up arms to “save the country.” Those numbers represent tens of millions of Americans.
“BuT bIdEn Is OlD!!”
He’s 3.9% older than Trump! Now that’s old! Just ignore that their ages are 77 and 80.
In all seriousness, along with tax forms, every candidate should have to present a clean bill of health that includes cognitive testing. I would tack on a psych eval as well, but I’m not sure most in politics would pass it.
Edit:
The first part of my comment was satire. Back in 2016 there was a lot of discussion about Bernie’s age of 72. Now either a 77 or 80 year old is going to be president. Biden is still the lesser of two evils, but he’s still far older than should be considered. Same goes for Trump. Age and term limits should be assessed for every political position.
Also, let me know how a clean bill of health and cognitive testing would be a bad thing.
“I sure would hate the my candidate to be out of the running for something as small as a team of doctors saying their basic. bodily and brain functions are dwindling.”