Patriotism? Why I Will Not Kill Donald Trump

patriot /pā′trē-ət, -ŏt″/

noun

One who loves, supports, and defends one’s country.

One who loves his country, and zealously supports its authority and interests.

A person who loves and zealously supports and defends his or her country.

-American Heritage Dictionary

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Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

-Mark Twain

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I often wonder why someone has not killed Donald Trump. He is a mentally ill, depraved, perhaps soulless, raping criminal hated by multitudes. He is a vile malignancy upon this country, perhaps even a terminal disease. More than a few highly regarded persons have called him a “clear and present danger” to this nation. I do not wish death upon him, although I do believe his death would greatly benefit this country. I am certain, however, that a true patriot among us might believe it was necessary to kill him in self-defense, genuine defense of the nation itself. Perhaps my concept of patriotism differs from most.

Very much a counter protester at a Tea Party gathering around 2010 in the rural California foothills.

I could not kill Donald Trump. Here are three reasons why. First, I do not believe in murder. I’ve done a lot of activism to abolish capital punishment — state-sanctioned murder. While many humans view their individual sovereignty as extending over the lives of other humans, I reject that notion. We are sentient beings that can hardly imagine why we even exist, and yet in our inconceivable arrogance we self-righteously end the lives of our fellows. Second, I am a physically weak old man owning no firearms so have no capacity to violently assault a person behind the well-armored shield of the Secret Service. Even if I had the capacity, I wouldn’t know where to begin. As police procedurals would say, I have neither the motive nor the means. And finally, I am not a patriot. I don’t see this country as worth defending, even against the corrosive danger of a fascist madman with no conscience — and one who may well be an agent of the Russian state intent on decimating this nation. It’s a perfect case of Leave Things Be.

U.S. military service ribbon, Vietnam war.

Yes, by accident of birth I am a U.S. citizen, but I am no patriot. If I had the wherewithal, I’d live somewhere else and certainly not identify as “an American.” I neither love nor support this country. As for “defending” it, I tried that once; all I got was betrayal and lifelong guilt. The U.S. military sent me to Vietnam in 1967 saying it was necessary for our national defense. At age 20, I didn’t know enough to question the judgment of the Commander-in-Chief who outranked me by infinite orders of magnitude. So, they used my naivete to involve me in our callous, calculated murder of millions of people who had committed only the offense of wanting to determine their own political fate. We decided we knew better, and our policy was to kill as many as necessary to force them to do what they were told (by U.S.). Eventually, we accepted the wisdom of prophet Ammon Hennacy, “Force is the weapon of the weak.” The Vietnamese people courageously and heroically defended their land. We relented, turned tail and ran away. That history could not be uglier.

What do you really think of the government you live under?

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I came back from Vietnam and worked to oust Richard Nixon as he kept waging that war, despite promising to have a “secret plan” to end the war. James Carter was then elected president, and I hoped for progress on all I had been promised about “my” country. Carter’s goodness was too much for the “deplorables” of this country to stomach, and so we kicked him out in favor of an old B-movie actor with charisma and evil friends. This is when the systematic dismantling of the government really got underway, and it’s been downhill for we the people ever since.

For me, they crossed the Rubicon on December 12, 2000. The U.S. Supreme Court usurped the peoples’ right to elect their president by declaring the spoiled, rich brat George W. Bush the president. I believe from that day forward the U.S. government has been illegitimate. I never voted again, and I abandoned any fealty to the sham government. Bush, a genuine traitor who deserted his military post in time of war, then used the September 11, 2001 attack on the country as an excuse to wage war against a non-combatant country because they had threatened his father. U.S. taxpayers got a lot of television entertainment for their money; not much else.

In 2016, it seemingly hit bottom when the people elected a television “celebrity” with no ability to govern and a diseased mind brimming over with evil intent. From the moment he pledged a meaningless oath to protect and defend the country as president, he has used the power to literally destroy the country. Even now, out of office, he continues relentlessly to take us to an even lower bottom.This is when I fully abandoned Mark Twain’s admonition and viewed even loyalty to the country as untenable. We literally are what then United States president Trump described as a “shithole nation.”

We may not all have it coming, but we are all going to get it. An old adage says: “You may not get all you pay for in life, but you’re sure going to pay for all you get.”

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Today, Trump holds in thrall seemingly half the elected government, a portion of the Supreme Court, most mainstream media companies and a large number of state governors and their elected officials. He is treated as legitimate and so has unlimited power to use media for his benefit; not a day goes by when he is not a center of media attention. If he were to die today, I think half the media companies would dry up and go out of business. Like the petty child he is, he needs attention. For normal people, a surfeit of felony criminal charges would be a condemnation. For crybaby Trump, it’s a tool to keep himself in the spotlight and to profess his martyrdom – “The teachers are picking on me.” And if somehow he manages to carry this ball across the November election goal line, I will be witness to the most important historic event ever in this nation, its collapse and demise. I believe we will see the rule of law, such as it is, slowly replaced by the will of one sick man abusing the world to fill his gaping inner abyss.

I’m too old to worry much about what the end of the United States would mean to me. I’ll find it fascinating from the historical perspective, and I’m sure there will be hardship. But I am saddened that so many lives, all over the world, may be flung into chaos and disorder and despair. If I thought we actually did have some supernatural overseer, I’d say “God help us.” Maybe we will choose to help ourselves, but not likely.

Disclaimer: I do not publish this with the intent to inspire or foment violence, physical or otherwise. It is solely my view of the current political landscape of the United States and my place in it.

In anticipation of comments:

Yes, I am not a “team player.”

Yes, I am not a “happy camper.”

And yes, comments from the ill-informed, poorly educated and unthinking (deplorables) are pointless. Save your outrage for someone who cares what you have to say.

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