Heartbroken To Learn That The American People Aren’t The Good Guys I Always Thought They Were
We will pay the price for the wrongs the leaders we choose commit in our names
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Most People Will Do The Right Thing If It Doesn’t Cost Them Too Much
I always thought that a majority of the American people more or less lived their lives according to the idea that it’s always the right time to do the right thing and that there is never a right way to do the wrong thing.
I now believe that I was wrong and that a majority of the American people actually live by the rule that every person has their price.
The Pain When You Learn That Someone Isn’t The Person You Thought They Were
Have you ever had your heart broken when you discovered that someone you trusted and respected wasn’t the decent, honorable person that you had always thought them to be?
The Rabbi Who Hired Men To Murder His Wife
I remember a true-crime show about a rabbi who everyone believed was a decent, honorable person of high integrity. Then he met a woman with whom he began an affair. The jury found that he decided that he wanted to marry his mistress but that divorcing his wife would be damaging to his bank account and his standing with his congregation and that the best way he could get everything he wanted was to hire two killers to bludgeon his wife to death in her own home.
Beyond the horror of what he did, those who had known him were left with the pain of realizing that he had never been the decent, honorable person they thought he was, but instead that he had always been dishonorable, had always been corrupt, that he had always been someone who was capable of murdering the mother of his children, but until his affair he hadn’t yet found something he wanted badly enough to actually do it.
The Price Germans Agreed To Pay To Make Germany Great Again
Prior to the first World War most Europeans thought that the majority of Germans were relatively decent people. No one would have believed that the majority of the German people would have approved of massive government theft, racism, genocide, naked, unprovoked aggression and industrialized mass murder.
But when Germany lost WW I and its economy collapsed times got hard, and the German people were offered a way back to prosperity: Get rid of the Jews and the communists and the socialists and the homosexuals. Create a great war machine. Conquer Europe. Kill everyone who gets in our way, then Germany will be great again. OK, they said. Sold.
Most People Will Make A Deal With The Devil If The Promised Reward Is Great Enough
Like the judge who had always been dishonest, had always been ready to throw a case but hadn’t previously done so because s/he had never before been offered a big enough bribe, Hitler offered the German people a reward big enough to overcome any scruples they might have had and embark on his vicious path.
It wasn’t that the German people had previously been so strongly committed to decent conduct so much as that they had never before been offered such a large enough reward for acting so badly.
They made a deal with the devil because he offered them a high enough price.
Trump And The Constitution
Prior to the 2024 Presidential election, Donald Trump was indicted by a grand jury for attempting to obstruct an official proceeding [the certification of his opponent’s election] and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.
To many, on January 6, 2021 Trump appeared to incite a crowd of his supporters to storm the Capital in order to prevent the certification of his opponent’s election.
Before the 2024 election Trump stated that he would pardon all those who were convicted of storming the Capital in an attempt to prevent the certification of Biden’s election. Once elected, that’s just what he did.
In May of 2024 Trump said that if elected he would issue an executive order instructing federal agencies to no longer recognize birthright citizenship for certain people though it is a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
Also in May of 2024 Trump hinted that he might seek to become a three-term president, something that would violate the 22nd Amendment.
In late March 2025 Trump said he wasn’t joking about the possibility of serving a third term as President.
The Solemn Oath To Support, Protect & Defend The Constitution
Every police officer, every elected official, every member of the armed services takes an oath that provides in part: “I will support, protect and defend the constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”
Yet many police officers, elected officials and members of the armed services voted to elect Trump in spite of his indictment for the January 6th insurrection, in spite of his stated intent to cause the government to violate the provisions of the 14th amendment, and in spite of his hints that he might attempt to serve a third term in violation of the provisions of the 22nd Amendment.
Many of those who took that oath and still voted for Trump did so because they wanted a government that would do what Trump promised more than they cared about honoring their oath to support, protect and defend the constitution.
Choosing A President Is Not The Same As Hiring A Surgeon
Some people tried to justify voting for Trump by saying that his character flaws were irrelevant to performing the duties of President. One person said that picking a President was like hiring a surgeon, that you don’t care if the surgeon is a terrible person so long as s/he had the skills necessary to successfully perform the operation.
What a crok!
The character of a person who performs one surgery on one person over the course of a few hours might not be highly relevant to how they well they can make the cuts.
When you hire a President you are putting the lives of all the people in the country in their hands for four years, and a President’s bad character, their lack of integrity, their dishonesty, and their willingness to break the law has everything to do with how well or how badly they will discharge their duties.
A more accurate comparison would be the CEO of a chain of hospitals picking a chief surgeon who would oversee all the surgeons in all the company’s facilities.
That person would be in a position to embezzle money, steal drugs, trade access to medical care in exchange for sexual favors, arrange kickbacks from drug and appliance suppliers and much more. Like a President, the job of Chief Surgeon would be one where good character and high integrity would be of the highest importance.
Most Americans Think A President’s Character Is Unimportant
The American people who voted for Donald Trump did not care that he was a convicted felon, that he arguably had violated and possibly would in the future violate the Constitution, that he was pro-Russia and cared nothing about NATO, that a civil jury had convicted him of sexually assaulting a woman in a department store dressing room, that he had bragged about being able to grab strange women’s genitals and get away with it. His negatives went on and on.
Like the rabbi who wanted to marry his mistress, like the judge who was open to taking a bribe for throwing a case, like the Germans who wanted their country to be rich and powerful again, the Americans who voted for Trump did so because they wanted what he promised he would do with the power they gave him more than they wanted or even cared about having a decent person of good character as the leader of their country.
I Used To Believe That We Americans Were The Good Guys
I used to think that the overwhelming majority of the American people were decent, fair, honest, and caring, were possessed of common sense and a basic intent to do the right thing.
A Majority Of Americans Are Not The Good Guys
I now know that, like the German people of the 1930s, the majority of the American people aren’t committed to doing the decent thing, to following the dictates of the Constitution or upholding the rule of law, but rather that they just had not previously been offered a reward that was large enough to cause them to select a person like Donald Trump as their leader.
We Are Only The Good Guys Until We’re Offered A High Enough Price Not To Be
Like the judge who had always been willing to throw a case but was waiting for a big enough bribe, the people who voted for Trump had always been willing to elect someone like Trump but hadn’t done so before because the previous flawed candidates’ offers weren’t attractive enough to them.
The 2024 election has proven to me that a majority of the American people are not now and probably never were the honorable, honest, decent, law abiding, common-sense, well-meaning, good people I used to think they were.
Like the 1930s Germans before them, the majority of the American people have made a deal with the devil, a deal that the United States will not survive as a free country.
Concentration camps are coming for Americans except that this time they will be in El Salvador instead of Poland.
Discovering the willingness of a majority of the American people to put their country under the control of a Donald Trump because they like the things he promised more than they care about the wrongs his election will allow him to do in their name breaks my heart.
The Wrongs That Our Leaders Do Are Committed In Our Name
In 1934 the Germans loved the rewards Hitler promised them and they didn’t care about the evil that he would do in their name to attain them.
They cared a whole lot by 1945, but by then it was way too late.
In 2024 the Americans loved the rewards that Trump promised them and they didn’t care about the wrongs that he would do in their name to attain them.
They will care a whole lot by 2029, but by then it will be way too late.
We will pay the price for the wrongs the leaders we choose commit in our names.
My heart is broken to learn that the majority of the American people are not now, and probably never were the good guys I always thought us to be.
— David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
