Retrogressing

THE GENTLEMAN is eighty five, but seemingly of reasonably sound mind. He was born a century and a half too late. He detests Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt and presumably venerates Jefferson Davis. I was afraid to ask. Davis spent time in prison, which is where the eighty five year southern gentleman properly belongs. Quite naturally, he is a Donald Trump supporter, as the ignorant, amoral, and poorly educated invariably are. In the event that the president is impeached, an increasing likelihood, he stridently asserts his defiant intention of voting for him for reelection. Mr. Trump, you see, has restored constitutional law to the United States, and by implication has made it great again. This, notwithstanding that not a day in the Trump presidency has passed without some egregious violation of the cherished document by this administration. When I reminded the antebellum gentleman that a mere month prior to his election Trump proclaimed himself a serial sexual predator, he replied that he didn't give a fig; thirty years ago he behaved the same way. It made me wonder what's stopping him now, other than the impotency of age. Predictably, in his twisted thinking, African-Americans are still niggras, or worse, and his chief complaint about them is that they always seem to get the pay raises first. He did not divulge the source of his information. Racism and the depraved imaginings it fosters are not tangible. Socialism, of course, is a scourge, and must never be allowed to set foot in America. When I suggested that he refuse his social security check, he indicated that the program never should have been instigated, and that the money would have yielded far greater returns had it been invested privately. He omitted any mention of recessions and stock market crashes. People with spurious arguments use facts with great selectivity. Donald Trump was quite correct when he contended that he could shoot someone dead on fifth avenue and suffer no loss of support. Aside from the fact that the victim would hardly be noticed by scurrying passersby, just as Trump supporters hardly seem to notice nor care that their icon solicits foreign assistance for personal gain, prevaricates incessantly, abandons and disdains American allies, sucks up to dictators, the more brutal the better, and has made the United States into the object of global ridicule and contempt, except among fellow right wing extremists. I considered asking why a southern gentleman of modest means would support a new York City billionaire, or alleged billionaire, since without tax returns we can't be sure, but why bother? Neither he nor his fellow reprobates give a hoot.