I have been perusing some videos and commentaries posted by some people who vehemently disapprove of the second election of Donald Trump to the presidency.  Some of these are from longtime online acquaintances — people whom I like and even respect.  Some have expressed strongly conservative opinions in the past.

Yet some of them now express “disgust” for Trump while regarding his voters as morally culpable for the terrible things that they believe he has done or predict that he will do.

I have urged them to participate in mutually respectful discussion.  But how can one have such a chat with “Hitler”?

It is pointless to list their accusations and show each one to be unmoored from fact.  Yes, Trump was convicted of crimes, but in courts that are openly partisan and politically biased.  (They insist that the trials were fair and impartial.)  Yes, he is oftentimes coarse and even vulgar, but his policies do not reflect that.  (They say that anyone who talks like that can never be trusted.)  One can go down the list and debate each one, but the only effect seems to be to anger them even more.

The alternative tack is to ask them whether they prefer the alternative policies that would have been Kamala’s.  Unvetted mass immigration at the expense of local communities?  (We must be compassionate.)  Irreversible sex-obscuring hormones and surgeries on minors, even without parental consent or knowledge?  (We must treat gender dysphoria.)  Men competing in women’s sports?  (We must not discriminate.  Men who think they are women are real women.)  Taxing working men and women to pay off the student loan debts of college graduates?  (Do you oppose education?)  That, also, seems pointless.  Even those who oppose leftist policies will support them rather than support Trump.  For others, the terms are redefined to suit the leftist narrative, as unfettered abortion becomes “health care.”

When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they disagreed on critical matters, not the least of which was the abomination of slavery.  That was a far more specific and morally fundamental disagreement than the accusations of fascism being thrown around loosely today.

Yet from that controversy, the one that eventually led to the Civil War, emerged the Constitution.  Had each faction demanded an immediate resolution to all their differences — immediate perfection — then the nation would never have been born.  Instead, the Founders debated.  They compromised.  And through it all, the nation survived and thrived — eventually, if not soon enough.

Are we now at the point where half the nation is so entrenched against the other half that mutually respectful discussion is no longer possible?  Are more than half of us “Hitler”?

If Trump survives, then five years from now, we may look back with less emotional reflection and assess whether his positives (of which some say there are none) outweighed his defects.  Until then, we must accept that democracy (small d), though messy, is still better than all the alternatives.

Image: paul_houle via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.