Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa . . .

There comes a time in virtually every strong, self-confident adult’s life when one can find personal fulfillment by running one’s worldview through a contemporary filter, then, after assuming responsibility, confessing and apologizing for one’s former faulty thoughts and deeds.

I am no exception.

I have a confession to make: I voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and I cannot truthfully excuse myself by claiming that I was not warned against doing so.

NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Associated Press, among other “highly-credible,” “nonpartisan” “news” sources, individually and/or collectively, warned me that if I voted for Trump, among other inhumanities, a dictator would occupy the Oval Office, the rule of law would be at least compromised and likely destroyed, the economy would tank, crime and racial violence would increase, and World War III would be imminent.

But, I voted for Trump anyway, and, sure enough, since then, the occupant of the Oval Office has dictatorially defied a Supreme Court decision declaring his unilateral redistribution of student loan debt unconstitutional. Furthermore, he has suspended the rule of law in Stalin-esque show trials intended to disqualify his 2024 opponent; a brutal inflationary economy is ruining middle-class households; crime and racial violence have surged; racially-divisive rhetoric dominates his messaging; our allies mistrust us, our enemies are laughing at us; and, by authorizing Ukraine’s use of American-built weapons inside Russia and turning a blind eye to Iran’s nuclear weapons development, he has placed America on the brink of WWIII.

Imagine my embarrassment! I screwed up! Since his 2020 reelection, President Trump, the guy I foolishly voted for, has been a complete, utter disaster!

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

I should have seen it coming, though. After all, Trump started doing all of those things in 2017, right?

Wait! What?! Trump didn’t do any of that? He wasn’t reelected, and he peacefully vacated the Oval Office in January, 2021?

Well, what was Trump’s record until then? After all, the ubiquitous “they” say Trump was just a mean old meany who stayed up nights posting mean tweets. He must have at least put the negative events of the subsequent three-plus years into irreversible motion before he left, right?

…Huh? Really? America enjoyed the world’s respect when Trump left office? Our military was strong? The world was at peace? Russia, China, North Korea and Iran were behaving? The Trump administration-negotiated Abraham Accords quieted the Middle East? Tax rates had been lowered? Annual inflation averaged only 1.9 percent? Gasoline and other energy prices were affordable? The economy and the dollar were strong?

The evil SOB!

But, at least, the mean tweets stopped.

…What’s that?! Trump can tweet again, he’s on TikTok, and he founded Truth Social, his own social media website the market value of which may have increased his personal fortune by $3 billion? OMG! What’s this country coming to?!

Confused, I did some research. I wondered, if Donald Trump didn’t do all those lousy things post-2020, then who the heck was responsible? So I Googled, “Who won the 2020 presidential election?”

The first hit was a website called “TIME for Kids” that informed me: “Former vice president Joe Biden has won the 2020 presidential election.”

Now, I’m really embarrassed! Any child who accessed “TIME for Kids” would have known that Joe Biden was elected in 2020, and, here, all this time, I (just kidding) and virtually every actual Biden voter (not kidding) have been blaming Donald Trump for everything Biden and Democrats have done to weaken and/or destroy political civility, the economy, the constitutional rule of law, social and cultural norms, national security, and public health and safety!

Darn it! I could have done what Biden’s far “smarter,” more “virtuous” 81 million (LOL) voters did. I could have cast my ballot for a racially/class-divided nation, massive deficit spending, merciless inflation, a shambolic foreign policy, global conflicts, an illegal invasion across America’s open borders, fascistic, anti-Semitic thugs taking over woke campuses, soaring crime rates, increased homelessness, trans-activists undermining women’s rights and invading their facilities, and federal services spying on American citizens, coordinating lawfare against administration opponents, and destroying “equal justice under the law.”

…What’s that? He’s what? …Trump is doing…WHAT?! He’s running for president?…Again?

And just when things were going so well…

https://www.pottsmerc.com/2024/06/17/jerry-shenk-mea-culpa-mea-maxima-culpa/