Opinion : EEK a Trump Supporter was helping

"When someone helps you when you’re down, or snowed in, it’s almost impossible to regard them as a blight on the world. In fact, you’re more likely to be overwhelmed with gratitude and convinced of the person’s inherent goodness." We wouldn't want to do that if they are a "Trumpite" now do we? We all know that "Trumpites" are evil.

She goes on, "You might end up like the upper-middle-class family I stayed with in France as a teenager. They did not attend a citywide celebration for the 100th birthday of Charles de Gaulle, the war hero who orchestrated the liberation of his country from Nazi Germany in 1944. They did have several portraits of Philippe Pétain, Nazi collaborator, on their wall.

When I screwed up the courage to ask how it was for them during the occupation, the lady of the house replied, “We were happy because the Nazis were very polis.” I didn’t know the word, so I excused myself to consult a French-English dictionary. I was in tears when I found the entry: “polite.”

Wait! Can I ask where in the world you find friends that like the Nazis? I mean, isn't that what "Trumpites" are labeled as? But she actually traveled to France to stay with these "friends." Okaaay. I just did a mental check list. I don't think I have a single friend that thinks Nazis are great.

She continues, "So when I accept generosity from my pandemic neighbors, acknowledging the legitimate kindness with a wave or a plate of cookies, am I also sealing us in as fellow travelers who are very polis to each other but not so much to “them”?" There it is, the Trumpites are Nazis, even though she herself said she has friends who thought actual Nazis were nice...I'm so confused.

And this is how you get a political point out there, all because your neighbor took pity on your and plowed your driveway. "Loving your neighbor is evidently much easier when your neighborhood is full of people just like you." Well, that'd actually probably be a bit cultish. 

"What do we do about the Trumpites around us? Like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who spoke eloquently this week about her terrifying experience during the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6." I will let the word eloquently pass and just point out that AOC wasn't even in the building when it happened, and I'd guess she had no idea what was actually happening at the time. But whatever.

"Americans are expected to forgive and forget before we’ve even stitched up our wounds.," (I assume she's talking about Biden's call for unity after 4 years of being kicked around? Oh but she's not.) "Or gotten our vaccines against the pandemic that former President Trump utterly failed to mitigate." Wait just a minute. You mean the virus that was released from a Chinese facility, and that the Chinese knew about but said nothing? And when Trump found out about it, he went to work making the way for a vaccine to be created in less than a year, requires car plants to go into ventilator production so much so that we had so many ventilators that we sent them to other countries, ordered a ship to New York to help out...you mean THAT failure to mitigate? Got it.

"My neighbors supported a man who showed near-murderous contempt for the majority of Americans. They kept him in business with their support." Oh puleaze.

"But the plowing.

On Jan. 6, after the insurrection, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) issued an aw-shucks plea for all Americans to love their neighbors. The United States, he said, “isn’t Hatfields and McCoys, this blood feud forever.” And, he added, “You can’t hate someone who shovels your driveway.”

At the time, I seethed; the Capitol had just been desecrated. But maybe my neighbor heard Sasse and was determined to make a bid for reconciliation.

So here’s my response to my plowed driveway, for now. Politely, but not profusely, I’ll acknowledge the Sassian move. With a wave and a thanks, a minimal start on building back trust. I’m not ready to knock on the door with a covered dish yet."

I'm rolling my eyes, oh the drama!

"I also can’t give my neighbors absolution; it’s not mine to give. Free driveway work, as nice as it is, is just not the same currency as justice and truth. To pretend it is would be to lie, and they probably aren’t looking for absolution anyway." Lady, they just saw that your driveway needed to be plowed and they must've known that you didn't have the means to clear it. 

"But I can offer a standing invitation to make amends. Not with a snowplow but by recognizing the truth about the Trump administration and, more important, by working for justice for all those whom the administration harmed. Only when we work shoulder to shoulder to repair the damage of the last four years will we even begin to dig out of this storm."

And that my friends is how if you are a "Trumpite" you can drive your liberal neighbors who write for the LA Times crazy, just show up and plow their driveway. It will keep them up at night trying to figure out why you did it. 

But honestly, I wouldn't. I swear after reading the neighbors article, I'd go and fetch every flake of that snow right back and dump it back in her driveway. I guess I am just not as nice as her Trumpite neighbor. I'd probably even haul and extra load or two back to her drive just so we're clear that we aren't terrorist.

I sure hope that this guy, whatever he does, doesn't mow her law if she gets laid up this summer, I mean, if he did that, she might go into some serious sort of break down. Quit being so "aggressively nice" already! Of course, that would give her another article, and he'd probably be slapped with a lawsuit or something for his "aggressive niceness."

In Iowa, all "aggressive niceness" is welcome, we won't compare you to a terrorist when you plow or shovel for us. we promise.

Sigh. 

Footnote: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-02-05/trumpite-neighbor-unity-capitol-attack