Trump supporters deserve our scorn, not sympathy

One almost has to feel sorry for Trunp supporters, and the GOP in general. Every day, it seems a new scanadal  surfaces that they have to defend, or there's fresh new evidence of  Trump's breathtaking incompetence. The latest evidence of this is seen   in recent reports that Trump's son, Don Jr., took a meeting with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin because he thought she had information damaging to Hillary Clinton. This is just the latest in a growing mountain of evidence that Trump and his campaign did, in fact, collude with the Russians in trying to throw the election to Trump. Of course, even when faced with incontrovertible proof of collusion, the GOP continues  to deny that there's anything amiss. "There's nothing to see here,"  they continue to say. "This is all just made up poppycock in an attempt to damage the greatest president since Reagan. This is FAKE NEWS."
   In the first place, let's be clear. There's no such thing as "fake news," at least not in the sense that Trump is using it, Just because you don't like a story doesn't make it fake. Just because you don't agree with something you read doesn't make it fake, Facts are facts, And denying their existence just because you don't like them doesn't make them any less true. Now, granted. It must be hard to be a Trump supporter. Just the sheer number of scandals and missteps that need defending must be exhausting. It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for them, until you begin to take a closer look at Trump's (and the GOP's) agenda.
   Take the GOP's doomed effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. This may be the single meanest piece of legislation I"ve ever seen. Among other things, it would undo the gains of the last eight years in the number of people with access to health care. More than 20 million people would be knocked off the rolls, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It would once again allow insurance companies to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. And perhaps, worst of all, it would allow insurance providers to charge older Americans (read, those who can least afford it) up to five times more than younger Americans. This shouldn't be called "repeal and replace." It should be
called what it is: "Repeal and restore" (as in restore the old, broken system we had before). Or better yet, "the Ebenezer Scrooge Act of 2017" (You know, as in, 'If there be poor people, then let them be about the business of dying and reduce the excess population.'"
   Or take the administration's controversial Muslim ban. Trump and his supporters are playing this off as a way to ensure national security. That's disingenuous, at best. Consider that one of the biggest sponsors of international terrorism -- Saudi Arabia -- isn't on the list. Or that Trump himself has called this a Muslim ban. Let's call this what this is: This is racist fear-mongering at its worst. And the worst part is, it does nothing to make us any safer. For those who defend it, it calls into question whether you are, in fact, racist, or whether you are just willfully ignorant.
   I think CNN commentator Van Jones hit the nail on the head Electikon Night when he observed that Trump's victory was a case of "whitelash," that it's a reaction against eight years of Obama -- the nation's first black president. This nation is changing, It's becoming more diverse. And there's a segment of the population that feels threatened by that. Trump's victory (if you can call it that, since he actually lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes) is the last stand of a dying social order. Maybe it's understandable that people would be freaked out by this. After all, change is never easy, especially such a seismic shift. But no matter which way you slice it, there's no excuse for supporting such a hateful, ignorant man as Donald Trump, or for willfully spreading and maintaining that ignorance.