Higher Standards

I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.

Donald Trump, Iowa, January 23, 2016

Donald Trump’s approval rating among Americans has always been between 37 and 45 percent. Just over a third of our citizens seem to support him no matter what he says or does.

This is frightening.

Conservative media, primarily Fox News, in collusion with Republican politicians, have systematically trained a large portion of the American public to blindly accept whatever they are told, and to not see what is right in front of them.

People should know better than to fall for this. It requires conscious, deliberate, self-blindness. It requires a stubborn refusal to hear and a complete rejection of logical, evidence-based, thought.

The existence of such a large group of unthinking, brainwashed people in the United States disturbs me on two levels:

First, I am a retired public school teacher. I worked hard for nearly 39 years teaching students to think clearly. I taught them that a claim must be backed up by both logic and evidence and that the source of your evidence must be documented.

To a person educated in clear thinking, almost everything Donald Trump says is complete nonsense. It is actually painful to listen to him talk.

Educated people can also see through the brainwashing techniques used by Sean Hannity and others at Fox News. They are actually quite obvious and heavy-handed in their lies and fake “outrage.”

It is discouraging for a lifelong educator to see so many Americans stubbornly choosing ignorance over rational thought.

But, second, it is even more disturbing to me to see so many Latter-day Saints supporting Donald Trump and his Republican enablers.

LDS Republicans can be vicious

When Republican Utah Senator Mitt Romney took his oath seriously and voted to convict Donald Trump of abuse of power, the backlash against him in the halls of the Utah legislature, and in the comment section of the Deseret News online, was vicious. Most of those angry, hate-filled voices were LDS, and ALL of them were members of Mitt’s own party!

We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, should be living to much higher standards. Donald Trump’s self-serving lies, Mitch McConnell’s partisan machinations, and Sean Hannity’s bombastic disinformation should be beneath us.

We have much more important things to be concerned with. We have the Good News! The Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to Earth! We are supposed to be building Zion.

The Book of Mormon clearly and specifically warns us to NOT follow men who speak “flattering words.” It also details the drastic consequences that happen to people who do.

We all need to repent

Repentance is a basic component of the Gospel and applies to everyone. It is something that Donald J. Trump is intrinsically incapable of doing. He never acknowledges that he is wrong or has made a mistake. He does not know how.

However, with prayer, study, and perhaps fasting, members of the Church of Jesus Christ who have once supported this evil man CAN come to recognize and repent of their mistake.

A simple first step is to turn off Fox News and let your brain clear. One cannot hear the still, small, voice of truth if you regularly allow paid liars to shout in your ear.

I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken.

2 Nephi 9:40

Sources: Jeremy Diamond, “Trump: I could ‘shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters’,” CNN, January 24, 2016.
Alan Levinovitz, “Trump Supporters Refuse to Believe Their Own Eyes,”Slate, January 27, 2017.
Maxwell Tani, “Trump on God: ‘I don’t like to have to ask for forgiveness’,” Business Insider, January 12, 2016.