I grew up in Idaho which is as Republican as you get. For all of my life I have noticed that Republicans believe that those in authority automatically deserve respect and trust.
This isn’t how people in my generation think. For us, respect is provisional and trust is earned. Let me explain exactly what that means.
We will respect everyone provided and on the provision that we are respected. I think that everyone has this basic attitude. If you feel you aren’t being respected by someone, you tend not to respect them.
With that said, there are people who we cannot respect. We cannot respect those who think that other people are subhuman. I have seen many videos of people explicit saying that “I think they are subhuman and I don’t care” and you can watch in the video below saying that Trump should get rid of people like you. I don’t know about you, but that almost says that you are saying they are deplorable?
I think we can all agree that this conversation is not respectful. He also says that he is an immigrant. Interesting isn’t it?
No one but a racist would say that a Nazi is someone you should respect. Yet we hear that from people increasing in social media. Can you imagine how that would have been perceived in the good old times of the 50’s when even suspected connections to communism questioned your patriotism?
Now lets talk about earning trust. No one is trusted until they show they deserve it. There is an old saying “We are tested in little things, so we can be trusted in great ones.” We see from peoples history what they can handle and what they can’t. Why should we give someone part of our power in governing us, if they are not qualified for the task? If getting rid of DEI levels the playing field, then earning peoples trust is part of the deal as well.
Let me give you some examples. In my small town I saw every kind of corruption. Things that I experienced first hand in the church I attended, the schools I went to, and the local politicians and institutions. We had the highest rate of sexual abuse in the state according to state provided information. It was because there was a patriarchy and a church LDS which said that men come first and women second. It supported the low spending on education, and was reinforced by it. It said that as long as you believe as a cult does, you will succeed in that environment.
When people don’t have checks and balances, power is abused. That is why we have 3 parts of government. When we allow someone to control things without any transparency or accountability, why do we believe they will help us? If they were given that power would they be so altruistic?
When have seen generosity of spirit and concern for the well being of the general welfare? We saw that Elon Musk abused his workers, and Donald Trump didn’t pay his workers. Why should we trust them? What have they done to earn our trust?
Democracy doesn’t die in darkness, it dies when people want a king and they are now the victim and Daddy is in charge. I don’t trust Daddy and I will never support anyone who wants to be daddy. That is what they call the leader of China. Daddy Xi. Are we now communist?