I Knew it Would Happen

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

I just didn’t know it would be a family friend. I thought I had weeded out the total right-wing nut jobs from my Facebook pages, and I have kept several Republican friends, but mostly the ones I know won’t go all Sarah Palin on me. I thought I was rid of anyone who would be vocal about supporting Donald Trump for president, and could justify it without being racist or judgemental, but I was wrong.

The person in question was a longtime friend of my parents, interesting there in that he was only a year older than me. He was a very wealthy doctor who lived in Redlands, my parents’ home town, for many years before moving to San Diego about 20 years ago. The man still practiced in Redlands one day a week, so my parents offered their house as a place he could stay on the nights before his Redlands work day. This went on for a good ten years, and on the nights I happened to be visiting, he and I could talk about sports (which annoyed the hell out for my dad, who had no interest). He rooted for San Diego teams, and me being a San Francisco fan across the board, I thought that might be the only disagreement we would ever have.

No, it turns out he’s pretty far-right, and it makes me wonder how my mom, such an unabashed liberal, could have welcomed him into their house nearly every week.  I mention all this because two days ago, he posted a one-sided, partly racist link on Facebook, then tagged it with the age-old “America is a business; we should have a businessman running it.” I avoided the response, “Yeah, sure, a businessman who’s gone bankrupt four times, that’s a good idea,” in favour of  “My mother would turn over in her grave, except she was cremated, to know you feel this way (and by the way I’m no Hillary fan either), and would disagree with you as vehemently as I do.” His response was a very cutting, “Relax, he’ll be better than Obama.” I realise many will agree with that last comment, possibly even a few liberals, but it read so much like a personal attack, I didn’t hesitate to un-friend, and encouraged my brother and his wife to follow suit, which they did.  A shame about all that, but I get really touchy when any political disagreement gets personal. I’ve had to un-friend people I’ve known for nearly 50 years, including some relatives, over such situations in the past.

The sides are pretty well drawn over here in the vote on June 23 which will decide whether Britain leaves the European Union or stays in. London in general seems to want to stay, but Britain’s equivalent of the Red States, i.e. everywhere else, seems to be pretty solidly on the leave side. Trump has spoken in favour of leaving, while Obama came over here specifically to offer his support to embattled prime minister David Cameron, who is a Conservative yet is campaigning for staying, much to the chagrin of so many in his party. If the people vote to leave, Cameron is toast, and in his place will be former mayor of London Boris Johnson, who rivals Trump for perennial bad-hair-day, and is on many of Trump’s political wavelengths. On the social media, I have not seen a single post from any of my UK FB friends or Twitter followers supporting leaving. It was also nice to see Trump’s UK TV counterpart,  Lord Alan Sugar, a billionaire and host of UK’s version of “The Apprentice,” airing his views on the potential disasters Britain face if they leave.  His simple question was, “Why gamble on an uncertain future,” which is a pretty solid grass-roots argument to me.

As for the former family friend, I find it ironic that he has been married to a Mexican immigrant woman for nearly 40 years, and in December, he announced they had retired to live in Guadalajara, Mexico. What’s he gonna do when his beloved Donald is voted in and a major conflict erupts between Mexico and the US? He’ll find it a little difficult to go back and forth to his homeland if they’ve built that wall Trump keeps promising.  It’s a shame too, as both he and his wife really liked my parents a lot, and the feeling was mutual, in spite of the political differences they no doubt had.

Are we looking at a Trump presidency and an isolated Britain? Scary but more than possible! I do suppose Trump (I will NEVER write the word president in front of his name, even if that becomes his title) would try to protect his interests in UK, but then that isn’t much more than a golf course in Scotland. Either or both of the above scenarios could spell disaster for a lot of people. I cross my fingers and hope the will of the people isn’t too terribly swayed.

May 31st, 2016



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