Taking the High Road, Or Trying To

I WAS WALKING, not running, on the treadmill at my local senior center. I am careful to avoid perspiring and stinking before entering the dining room for lunch. Still depressed about the election results, but becoming resolute, healing, on I strided, going nowhere, as always. Its time to resist, not lament. Into the room walked an employee, a friend of mine, working. Treadmills can be a bit boring, without music. Sometimes even day dreaming or thinking great thoughts doesn't help alleviate the boredom much. So, when I have a chance to speak, I speak. To the employee I said: "I've been getting in touch with all my friends who support Trump, and congratulating them. Much as I complain about Trump's morality, I can either keep complaining, or model a different behavior, something better, and take my behavior to a higher level. That way, when I come to the end of my days, I will know that, if nothing else, I have tried to take the high road. I have sought a better way, have tried to be magnanimous"... All this is true. I meant it sincerely. It was a bit of a trap. She is a Trummper, but an extremely good person, the sort of person who really and truly makes one wonder what the hell. She seemed to like what she heard, smiled, and acknowledged my comment, but said nothing of substance. They never do. They never respond directly to factual remarks about Trump's morality. How can they? They know exactly how horrible he is, because they aren't brain dead, despite all appearances to the contrary. I call them morally and intellectually bnakrupt, Trump supporters, but there is more to it than that. The human capacity for "compartmentalization", to embrace personal realities which contradict one's moral values, for expediency, adheres without relent. "We resist the truth only because we fear that we would perish if we accepted it", as Goethe said. People will do whatever is necessary to avoid confronting their own soul, as I think Schopenhauer said. They justify themselves by downplaying Trump's criminality and blatant immorality. "He says some pretty weird things, but he cares about the country". "I wouldn't want to marry him, but he's a damned good leader", etc. His lies thus become silly little half truths, irrelevant, his crimes become fabrications of his enemmies - by now you know the drill. When Jackie Robinson played for the Dodgers, he was booed mercilessly at home games, for the crime of being black. When Jackie hit a home run or got a big hit to win a game, which he often did, the booes turned to cheers, his crime temporarily overlooked. The Dodger fans, human beings all, were unwilling to confront their own souls, like the rest of us, content to compartmentalize. Jackie was an N word, but became an honorary white man when he brought victory. I have begun telling Trump supprters that I consider their support of Trump appropriate, because Trump's intellect and moral values are perfectly aligned with their own. I intend my observation as factual. Whether the recipient considers it flattering or insulting is their choice, not mine. I am perfectly free to regard Donald Trump as a traitor and criminal who should have been tried, convicted, sentenced to death and executed long ago. And his supporters are quite free to contort their souls into pretzels forming a cult around a man who, like themselves, hates non white immigrants, and is a racist, pathological prevaricator and narcissist, and all the rest. Cognitive dissonance works wonders. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. My fellow Trump despisers don't like my congratulating Trumpers. They choose another path, of anger and bitterness. Well, so be it then. I go alone. I am not done congratulating all my Trumper friends, notwithstanding my loss of respect for them. our friendship diminished, for the simple reason that we competed, and they won. But only for the time being. And, soon, when I confront my soul and perhaps my maker, I will know, if nothing else, that at least I tried, tried to take the high road.