Nancy Pelosi says she doesnt hate anybody, and I have no reason to doubt her. She said so a few weeks ago in response to a reporter who asked why she hates Donald Trump. She cited her Catholicism for the conviction that hate has no place in human interactions. I am no longer a Catholic, but I am a liberal, so I think I understand how it works. I, too, if I am to maintain an honest self-awareness, do not hate the actual man so much as perceive what a grasping, transparently insecure, pathetic man-baby he is and always has been; but I hate every single thing he has done to my fellow citizens, and everything he seems poised to do. I not only want him out: I think he deserves prison.

If Im to talk honestly about my emotional and physiological response to the sight and sound of Donald Trump, it requires the airing of a long list of complaints encompassing not only what he does, but who he is; his projections of self upon our political and social landscape. I found I disliked him initially when he was just a bankrupt, two-bit showman and poseur with an unfathomable appeal to people who aspire to his level of vulgarity and ostentation. To me, hes a cartoon realization of what underprivileged people think a tycoon must be; an Ayn Rand captain of industry gone berserk.

My disrespect for the man is comprehensive. Im repelled by him for glibly mocking fellow humans at every turn, including all women, people with disabilities, anyone of non-European extraction, and any actual Europeans who fail to flatter him. I disdain him for his refusal or inability to learn, or to understand what he needs to learn; for his dismissal of science, his repeated attacks on the honest press, his frank racism and eagerness to inflame the worst racist hearts, his cruelty, his bottomless ignorance, his casual undermining of the very structure of democracy solely to enshrine himself as the biggest pig at the trough; for endangering the lives of desperate refugees; for sucking up to the worst dictators in the world; for lies and misrepresentation, at all times and about everything; for enriching himself and his entitled spawn at the expense of the American people; for dividing Americans at every opportunity; for false religiosity; for favoring the insatiable desires of billionaires over the needs of the people; for attacking public service; for open-faced corruption; for endangering our republic, spewing propaganda created by our adversaries, ballooning our debt and for his ridiculous haircut. All of it.

And most of all, I deplore him and every other member of the Republican Party for failing to rise to the most existential threat we have ever faced, an environmental catastrophe of our own making, a challenge for which they have not only failed to provide any leadership whatsoever, but have dedicated themselves to making things worse, sooner. That sort of ignorance deserves active and relentless derision. Trump and his Republicans have become insurgent outliers in American politics. They are ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of their political opposition. The impending doom from the inaction of these institutionally obtuse Trumpites will be famine and drought, the collapse of the oceans, the deepening worldwide refugee crisis, looming wars over resources and territory, epidemics and spread of disease, and extinctions; and all of it sooner than we previously feared. All of it is on Trump, and on Republicans, every last feckless one of them.

Trump is a man so uneducated and, frankly, stupid that he either believes there is no crisis as long as he still has a bedroom thermostat, or he doesnt give a tinkers curse as long as hes still rich. His sole claim to respect comes from his Machiavellian self-preservation. But even this is in peril as Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and others, ask questions about the fairness of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells proposed approach to the impeachment trial. We cant impeach him for hatefulness or stupidity. We can, however, impeach him for corruption, for obstruction, for abuse of power all of it blatant and uncontested. In the pestilent cesspool of stupid that is the Republican defense of Donald J. Trump, the stupidest thing being said is that liberals are trying to undo his election because we hate him. If that actually did it for us, wed be the luckiest group of voters in the world.

Gerry Dionne is a writer, musician and coffee-table philosopher who moved to our area when he was 18. Hes in his 70s now, so yall give him a break.

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OPINION: Hateful, and then some | Cit - Independent Tribune