What if cheerleading for Trump is just an effort to stave off a great shame?

The human part of being lied to.

Photo by Tolga Ahmetleron Unsplash

All causes shall give way: I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.

Macbeth Act III, Scene 4.

Reality always wins. That’s, in fact, what makes it reality. You may fight against it for a while. You may defy it and deny it, and for a time you may succeed, but reality will always win in the end.

Now, I think, Trump voters — and the GOP in general — have been put in opposition to reality. They have been lied to, taken for the proverbial ride, used, conned, bamboozled, swindled, hornswaggled, and have gotten the flim-flam to a fare-thee-well. Between Trump, Fox News and a host of conspiracies, a solid wall of lies has been built, tightly screening them from the world as it is.

Those of us who can see it sometimes cringe and the enormity of it. We cycle through pity, retributive anger and helplessness at the fecklessness of it all.

I’ve never told another soul — I’m ashamed, but it’s true — about the time I got taken by a con man.