There is nothing more American than Americans of all walks of life formally or informally organizing, forming political or social movements and groups or just getting together to support causes, people, issues close to their hearts or to oppose those that are far, far away from what they consider to be good or decent.
We have Americans for Prosperity, for tax reform, for limited government, for the arts, for Israel, for campaign reform. etc.
We have Americans Against Fracking, against anti-Semitism, against food taxes, against double taxation, against gun violence etc.
Some evolve into powerful, successful grassroot movements, some are just blogs and Facebook groups – but just as passionate and committed.
The Trump era has seen a surge in activism and the explosion of dozens, if not hundreds, such groups, websites and blogs, many of them diametrically opposed to each other: the “For Trump” and “Against Trump” movements and groups.
More interesting to this grandfather are groups and blogs such as “Grandparents Against Trump,” “Grandmas Against Trump,” “Grandmothers Against Trump” and one in particular: “Grandpas Against Trump”
“Grandpas Against Trump” was started by a 67-year old retired lawyer and school professor from Columbus Ohio, Rick Daley, even before he became a “grandpa.”
In Daley’s own words, in his very first post in Sept. 2019:
…I recently found out that my daughter and son-in-law are going to make me a first-time grandfather when they welcome my granddaughter into the world in December of this year. Like most prospective grandparents, I now find myself looking at every life occurrence and circumstance through the lens of what its impact will be on my granddaughter’s life.
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Can I as an upper-middle-class, old, white guy survive four more years of a chaotic and misguided Trump presidency? Yeah, I probably can – and likely may end up with a balance sheet in 2024 than is fatter than it is today.
The same cannot, however, be said for my granddaughter. I am in the fourth quarter of my life. My granddaughter is just starting hers. She cannot afford to begin her life in the context of an American presidency that glorifies lying, narcissism, and petty name-calling, while doing everything in its power to advance the cause of rich, old, white men (like me) to the eternal detriment of every other global citizen.
He concludes:
… My granddaughter’s life is way too precious for me to sit idly by and allow Trump to be re-elected President without doing whatever I can to encourage his defeat at the ballot box.
So, blog away I will over the next fifteen months. I hope all of you who love your grandchildren will give me a listen.
And Daley has done exactly that, with more than 70 inspirited posts under his belt.
Many of his posts highlight Trump’s dishonesty, lack of principles, decency and morality.
Today, during the coronavirus crisis, in what seems to have become a “us vs. them” battle, Trump’s dishonesty and incompetence have become redundantly clear, this time with disastrous consequences.
In his recent posts, Daley highlights those aspects of Trump’s “presidential” character.
His most recent post, “Captain MAGA — We Are Not Buying What You Are Selling,” digs into Trump’s “wholly fallacious and disingenuous syllogism” during the unprecedented crisis the American people are experiencing, when America needs an honest, competent leader more than ever.
Here it is:
Captain MAGA (aka @realDonaldTrump) clunkily strides to the microphone wearing his Make America Great Again hat slightly askew over his semi-blondish and rapidly balding head of hair. He looks down with disdain at the reporters gathered to hear his remarks from the Rose Garden (except for Peter Alexander and Yamiche Alcindor, who have been dispatched to Idaho under Captain MAGA’s recently-issued social distancing guidelines for members of the “lamestream media”). Captain MAGA pauses for effect before he launches into this wholly fallacious and disingenuous syllogism.
1. All the scientists tell me that if I had ‘done nothing’ – you know, just ‘ride it like a cowboy’ – 2.2 million Americans would die from the Chinese virus.
2. I did something (even though it wasn’t all that much and was way too late), so only 100,000 to 200,000 Americans will die. That’s a ‘very good job.’
3. So, the bottom line is that I Captain MAGA (aka your ‘wartime president’), saved the lives of 2 million Americans.
4. And, by the way, ‘I take no responsibility’ for the 100,000 to 200,000 people who are going to die from the Wuhan virus. You know who is responsible for their deaths – yeah, the governors because they ‘got off to a very late start’ and, of course, Obama – just because.
5. Finally, one thing I can tell you is that I never, ever said that the Chinese/Wuhan virus “is a flu and I didn’t know people died of the flu,’ or that ‘we have it totally under control,’ or that ‘ by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.” Some people say that Sleepy Joe said that, not me.
Pretty funny bit of irony, huh? Or at least it would be if it weren’t so damned true.
To read Rick’s posts, please got to Grandpas Against Trump and cast “a vote for your grandchild’s future.”
