A very good friend of mine told me a story the other day that should have stunned me, but knowing the times in which we live … it didn’t.
My friend is conservative, in the mainstream sense of that word. He’s like millions of other Americans – not a big fan of Donald Trump’s character, but figures he’s better than what the Democrats have to offer.
But my friend has a sister, who when it comes to politics, plays deep left field.
How deep? Well, she won’t visit her brother because – wait for it – he lives in a red state. Red states are Trump states and that’s enemy territory as far as she’s concerned.
They talked by phone a few days ago and of course the coronavirus came up in conversation. As he relayed the conversation to me (and said it was OK for me to share the story with you), after the usual back and forth about how it was affecting each of their lives, my friend’s sister told him that, “If lots of people have to die to make sure Donald Trump doesn’t get re-elected, it’s worth it.”
He knows his sister’s politics, but still he was stunned. “Can you believe it?” he asked me, figuring it was the kind of question that required no answer. But I gave him one anyway. “Unfortunately I can,” I said.
I told him that his sister wasn’t the only one who thinks that way; that there are millions on the left who are just like her.
No, we don’t usually hear such candor from Trump-haters, not out in the open anyway. But she was talking to her brother on the phone – not opining for the world to hear on national TV. She felt safe venting, sharing her hatred.
But just because such bluntness is not part of the national conversation, doesn’t mean that the angry left isn’t secretly rejoicing that this killer virus just might bring down the president – even if the virus also brings down a lot of their fellow Americans in the process.
As my friend’s sister so elegantly put it: It’s worth it.
In that phone conversation, she said something else she thought would be worth it.
Again, as he related the conversation to me, she said: “If the economy collapses that also would be worth it” if it would bring down the Trump presidency.
And on this, again, she’s not alone.
Remember what Bill Maher said on his TV show last year: He would gladly accept an economic recession because, “We have survived many recessions. We can’t survive another Donald Trump term.”
Wishing for a recession, or worse, is easy for a guy who makes millions telling jokes. He won’t have trouble paying the rent. But if the recession cost Bill Maher his job he might not be so cavalier.
And the same is true for my friend’s sister. She thinks that “lots” of American deaths would be “worth it” if it means Donald Trump would lose the election. But would she think that if her children were among the dead?
Hillary Clinton got a lot of things wrong last time around, but she also got a few things right. There really are deplorable people out there – except they’re not all the ones she had in mind.
