You Can Think For Yourself

That's a provocative title for a post.  Really, it is, especially now.  This post is about you and your ability to make decisions on your own without anyone else telling you what to do.  As always, I'm throwing this stuff out there so you can read it if you want, but you don't have to.  And you don't have to agree with me.  It won't hurt my feelings if you don't, so just do what you think is right for you.  Or do nothing and just see what happens.  It's totally up to you.

With that being said, I'd like to tell you what I think about some things that are happening right now.  As I've already said, you don't have to agree with me and you don't even have to read this post, so don't sigh and think you have to suffer through another liberal's bullshit because you've read this far.  You can just move on to something else if you want to.  No hard feelings on this end.

Donald Trump.  Yes, I'm going to talk about Donald Trump for a little bit.  I'll eventually move on to something else, but I'm going talk about Donald Trump right now.  If you've read any of my other posts, then you know that I'm not a fan of Donald Trump.  Truth be told, I wasn't a fan of Donald Trump even before he ran for president.  I don't know him personally, but I've seen him on the news just like you have.  

Sorry, but I don't think he's particularly smart, successful, or ethical in his day-to-day activities.  I think he's a guy that made a lot of money at the expense of other people and he doesn't think that's a bad thing.  He seems to think that if people are dumb enough to let him make money at their expense, then it's their own fault and they deserve to suffer the consequences.  I wish I had a better opinion of him, but I don't.  

I just don't want Donald Trump to represent me.  He doesn't think like me.  He doesn't act like me.  He doesn't have the same responsibilities as me.  He doesn't have the same obligations as me.  He is nothing like me, and when you really think about it, he's probably not like you either.  So how can he represent us to the rest of the world?  Do I want the rest of the world to think I'm like him?  I don't think so.

So here's where the title of this post comes in.  You've probably heard the phrase "Making America Great Again."  What exactly does that mean?  Is American NOT great?  That's debatable.  Some people would say that we're not great, some would say that we ARE great.  Some would say that we were never great.  I guess it depends on your point of view and your definition of "great."  I happen to love my country and what we say it stands for.  

I want my president to represent me that way.  We tell the world that we are a country full of good people and I want us to live up to that expectation.  We can't do that if our president is a liar.  And it's particularly bad if he lies with impunity like it's a sport.  Donald Trump has always had a tenuous relationship with the truth and he just doesn't care about that.  He lies to his country and to the world and, when caught in the act, just moves on like it never happened.  What kind of person can do that and expect everyone to just ignore it forever?

I do, however, think that "great" is not a thing that changes whenever it needs to meet some political goal or satisfy the need to feed some politician's ego.  Great is great and not-so-great is not-so-great.  These things are not subject to interpretations that seek to legitimize today's convenient definitions of them.  They are what they are and they are defined in the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  They are what the authors of those documents intended and not subject to someone's attempt to twist the documents to meet their own ends.  They are what they are.  Nothing more and nothing less.

So back to the reason for this post.  If you've read this far, just stick it out a little longer and you'll know why I put all that other stuff in there.  Bear with me.  Please.

So you have a mind of your own.  You can think for yourself and you don't need anyone else to tell you what you should think.  My request is simple:

Before you do what our our president and government tells you to do, please decide for yourself if it makes sense.  If it makes sense to you, then do it.  If it doesn't, then don't do it.  All I ask is that you think about it first.  Really think about it on your own.  Don't just accept what others tell you.  Really think about it on your own and decide what's right for you.  You have the right to do that.  After all, you can think for yourself, right?  That's what made America great in the first place, isn't it?