I was at a beach house in the waning days of summer speaking
with several Trump voters about the recent salvo in a long line of disturbing comments
and tweets by our President. To my
amazement, it was the first time that I saw any group of MAGAs actually show some
level of disappointment in, or at least awareness of the possible dangerous
rhetoric of, their anointed Sir Drainer of Swampland. Just when I thought this might be the possible
signs of remorse in having been a party to the election of our Tweeter-In-Chief,
to a person they all responded in unison “A-B-C.” What
was this ABC? Was it some form of
code? Was it a rallying cry of defiance
from the right? Alas, it was but the
last line of defense for the Trump voter.
It was a final and unchallengeable pathological rationalization of “Anyone
But Clinton.”
It was at that point that I realized President Trump was
right. He could shoot someone in the
middle of Fifth Avenue and his supporters would never waiver in their support. Gone from their typical defense of Trump were
the assertions that he would make America great again by building the wall, by
keeping the Islamist Terrorists out of the country, by repealing and replacing
that scourge known as failing Obamacare, by draining the swamp, by building a
great team around him… by eschewing the political correctness that used to make
people think twice before offending their neighbor. None
of that mattered anymore because his inability to deliver on his promises will
always be secondary to the fact that he was ABC, Anyone But Clinton.
Against my better nature, I went there. Remind me again why Clinton was so much worse
than what we got? (Why do I
bother). “She killed those poor people
in Bengazi.” You do realize that the State
Department is not responsible for security at embassies? “But she lied about the video.” But the video did not kill the diplomats and
everyone in the administration apologized within 48 hours for the mistatement. And more diplomats were killed under former
administrations. And. And.
And. “But she lied about the emails.” Even if true, I am not sure the “lie” defense
really favors your candidate. “Oh, let’s
not talk politics.” And, so it ended.
After all of this, I am still not sure that the ABC defense
was a real defense or just a backdoor to not having to admit that they made a
mistake in voting for Mr. Trump. It’s
probably a little of both…or neither. I
have stopped trying to figure it out.
