Happy President’s Day! Here’s some interesting trivia. Which president since Truman had the lowest approval rating? Trump? No. Not surprisingly it was Nixon with 24%. Next was Harry Truman with just 32%. Why? Because he used the atomic bomb, which was controversial, and he sent troops to Korea. George W. Bush got 34%. Carter, the most moral president we’ve had, got 34%, not surprisingly due to the hostage crisis. Who had the highest? Obama? Clinton? No. It was Dwight D. Eisenhower, with 66%. Clinton tied him with 66%. To fill out the picture, Johnson got 49%, Ford 53%, Reagan 63%,, George H.W. Bush 56%, Obama 59%, and G.W. Bush 34%. To read more go to https://247wallst.com/special-report/2021/02/14/the-final-approval-rating-of-every-president-since-harry-truman-2/4/
So, what did Trump end up with? He ended with 34%. In a fascinating development, Trump’s approval rating has risen to 49%, as of Feb. 4. This was in the MIDDLE of his impeachment trial. (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/trump-approval-hits-new-high-in-gallup-poll-despite-impeachment.html)
My guess is that Trump supporters felt sorry for Trump and believed his lawyers who claimed that Trump did not directly encourage the insurrection, despite the abundant evidence from lawyers that he DID directly encourage the insurrection. If you happened to listen to the impeachment trial you would have heard new horrible tape of some of the violence that occurred that day. In my mind, there is no doubt that Trump directly encouraged this. Read on as I make my case.
In my humble opinion (that many of my relatives don’t agree with), I think Trump has been by FAR the worst president we have ever had. Maybe he’s a good marketer and he talks tough with China and he’s actually had a few good ideas, but I think anyone would agree he’s the most immoral president we’ve ever had. I don’t even have to list the reasons why because they are so well-known. One that stands out is the way he made fun of John McCain. He claims he’s had a Christian conversion, but he still insults people left and right and even did not seem to care when his vice president’s life was threatened.
It is a fact that Trump uses Nazi symbols and language to communicate with his white nationalists followers. My best friend Tamara has been a German history scholar for the last 20+ years and she is an expert in the Nazi era, even writing academic articles about this period of history. She has told me multiple times that Trump (or his followers), regularly send out “dog whistles” to white nationalists. Many people may not recognize these dog whistles and they are used very subtly.
(SoRRY FOR THIS FUNKY FONT! DON’T KNOW WhY It DID THIS!
I trust my friend. She specializes in the Holocaust and many of Trumps moves are moves Hitler would approve of. Only, of course, Hitler went much further than Trump. For example, the disabled were the first to be gassed during the Holocaust. 275,000 disabled people were gassed by the end of the Holocaust. There is even a memorial to the disabled in Berlin, one of four Holocaust memorials in Berlin. Trump famously made fun of a disabled man during his campaign. My friend Tamara Wrote a paper about the subject of disabled victims in Germany IN a respected academic journal.
It may be a huge leap to say Trump is imitating Hitler, but maybe not. If you are a racist and dislike disabled people (I could prove that Trump is a racist and disliked disabled people but I want this post to be any longer than it is.), it is a short step to begin taking away their rights.
Now, I don’t believe Trump is so evil that God hates him. God loves everyone, including Trump. I think the problem is that Trump has such a large ego, and he will stop at nothing to get accolades. This has led him to seek support wherever he can get it—white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, regular Republicans, etc.
Sadly, Trump is a smart man and has some good ideas, but his ego leads him to make bad decisions. (I believe he’s an 8 on the Enneagram.) Some people can see this clearly but others are drawn to Trump because they believe he will “Make America Great Again.” The problem is, America is already great. We have the best democracy in the world. We do have many problems, but until Trump we were seen as one of the most racially just, generous to immigrants country, etc. America is great and I believe will always be great.
The other problem with Make America Great Again is that if this means going back to some golden era like perhaps the 1950s, our great company actually wrestled with many problems. Do we really want to go back to a time when “colored” folks had to use separate bathrooms, when gay people were forced to be closeted, and immigrants were treated even more poorly than now? Wouldn’t we rather live in today’s era when Blacks are gaining more equality (thanks BLM movement), LGBTQ people have more rights and immigrants are treated more fairly?
I like Biden because he will make America GREATER. He doesn’t have a huge ego, he’s actually humble as far as I can tell and he knows true suffering and is compassionate.(I believe he’s a 1 on the Enneagram. The “sins” of a 1 are moodiness, irrationality, anger. To read about his good points go to https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-1.
And as far as supporting Christians, Biden may be the most supportive of this endeavor as any other president. He is a sincere believer in God, goes to mass every Sunday and prays. He’s probably the most authentic Christian President we’ve had outside of Jimmy Carter and Abraham Lincoln.
Even the founding fathers practiced a kind of variation to true Christianity. For example, according to Wikipedia, “Jefferson was a Christian deist because he saw Christianity as the highest expression of natural religion and Jesus as an incomparably great moral teacher. He was not an orthodox Christian because he rejected, among other things, the doctrines that Jesus was the promised Messiah and the incarnate Son of God.”
As you know, Jefferson was our third president and the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. He has come under scrutiny in the last decade or so because he was a slave owner. He owned 600 slaves in his lifetime. Other slave owners included George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant.
In my opinion, Biden will SUPPORT churches, he just won’t do it by force. He won’t appoint a Betty DeVos as education secretary, a woman who I believe, was on the way to eventually REQUIRING prayer in school. I don’t believe public schools or private charter schools should force children to pray. Just look around and perhaps you or someone you know has been forced to practice a religion. In most cases this turns people away from religion. I’m not against studying the Bible in public school; after all it’s an historic document. I also think students should study Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and atheism. They should learn about all the major religions. ALL religions have some truth to them and are valuable.
Many people point to Biden’s son Hunter as proof he is a bad father. The truth is Hunter has admitted he had a drinking and cocaine problem. This is more than most addicts do. In my opinion addiction doesn’t happen out of the blue. Hunter had great trauma in his life. His mother and sister died when he was a toddler. Biden and another sibling were injured. Biden has tried to help Hunter. EVERY family has someone who struggles with addictions or mental issues. These people tend to make bad decisions and they hurt their family. Many are rejected by their families. Biden never cut ties with his son and in fact tried to get him help. As Hunter told reporters: “There’s addiction in every family. I was in that darkness. I was in that tunnel—it’s a never-ending tunnel. You don’t get rid of it. You figure out how to deal with it”.[90][91][101] He is set to release a memoir, titled Beautiful Things, sometime in 2021.[102] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden)
I am so excited about Biden that I recently ordered a new flag to hang by our front door. After four years of being ashamed of being an American, now I am proud. I am proud of America and a patriot. Biden’s rating on Feb. 1 was 54%, which is good, but he’s facing high unpopularity with Trump supporters. I don’t know why. Biden is a MODERATE Democrat, and an honorable man who would never make fun of anyone.
Already Biden has accomplished a lot. Whereas Trump turned down Covid vaccines and even denied the vrius for many months, Biden has found a way to secure lots of vacciness and the rate of vaccinations is suddenly speeding up. You could argue that this would have happened anyway, so I realize the Biden might have just lucked out. However, it’s a fact that Biden never denied Covid and began to wear a mask early on and encourage things like social distancing. It took Trump so long to acknowledge Covid that one could argue (and I realize this is a stretch for many) that Trump’s policies and denial and withholding of vaccines and promotion of hydroxychloroquine (which has largely been debunked), actually led, in part, to the deaths of thousands of Americans. I know this is a stretch to believe but many of my liberal friends, even one friend who has a Phd in science, believes this. I’m not sure if it’s true but it’s certainly possible.
Biden is quickly working to achieve his agenda. According to a New York Times article, nearly two-thirds of Americans supported Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris climate accord, 70 percent backed the United States’ re-entry into the World Health Organization and 83 percent said they supported his order prohibiting workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released last week. (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/us/politics/biden-approval-rating-trump.html)
I am also heartened by today’s news that a bipartisan commission (a la the 911 commission) will be created to investigate the insurrection at the Capitol. I cried when I found out Trump was acquitted. But my hope is that this commission will find out what really happened during the riot and it will become abundantly clear that Trump encouraged the riot.
Many Republicans think a bunch of crazy people initiated the insurrection (including the Republican senators who acquitted him.) I believe Trump initiated it. The violence in Charlotte was simply a practice session to prepare for this riot. Trump’s pride could NOT ACCEPT that he lost the election. (By the way every court, including the Supreme Court, has found the election to be fair and fraud-free.)
Trump’s pride is his greatest fault. I believe he could be a good leader without his pride. I believe Trump is an 8 on the Enneagram. His greatest sins are secretivism and fear, lustfulness, and desire to control. To confirm this and see Trump’s strengths go to https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-8.
The truth is, everyone has flaws. I am a 5 on the Enneagram and my sin is that I am greedy. Although I appear generous and often am, basically I’m selfish. My ideal situation is to be alone in my room reading or writing. I prefer this over socializing, even with my family. The good news is we can all recognize our sins and change. We may also change Enneagram numbers. I believe I’m moving toward an 8, the same number as Trump! Ha ha! For those interested, Peter, my husband, is clearly a 2.
But who is to say that my sin is better than Trump’s? The difference is that 1) I am a true believer in Jesus and try to live in his footsteps and 2) I do not have a position of power. Perhaps if I had a powerful position, I would also develop pride and I would make bad decisions that would endanger people. Everyone is a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness. Even Billy Graham said this. Mother Teresa struggled with deep depression her whole life. Everyone needs forgiveness. Maybe that is Trump’s greatest lesson for us.
In my next blog, I will discuss Trump’s involvement with the Black community and my ideas on how to heal our inner cities.
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