An attempt to respond to Trump supporters without stooping to their level

I read a pro-Trump piece recently. Here it is, if you want to read it too. I can give you the gist of it. The author is proud to be a Trump supporter and tells her reader to “get over it.” She writes: “People are having their cars keyed for having Trump bumper stickers, [and being] harassed on the internet for re-posting Pro-Trump articles.”

She goes on to claim the Republican frontrunner’s policies are perfectly reasonable, providing this Trump quote as evidence:

“It’s a national embarrassment that an illegal immigrant can walk across the border and receive free health care and one of our veterans that has served our country is put on a waiting list and gets no care.”

The author seems to view this idea as some sort of self-evident truth. An ace-in-the-hole for her argument. A “Trump card,” if you will. But I vehemently disagree.

There are plenty of things in this country that are national embarrassments. The government providing a group of people the means to get healthy is not one of them. The latent assertion within Trump’s statement is that a veteran deserves healthcare more than an illegal immigrant. Veterans deserve a great many things, very few of which they receive. But they don’t deserve healthcare, because healthcare isn’t something you can deserve. It’s a basic human right.

In my opinion, a person that takes from someone to give to someone else cares about neither. But I will admit that the United States government has limited resources, and that it cannot provide everything for everyone. Perhaps some things do need to be cut in order to free up money for our veterans. I would even allow the possibility that cutting healthcare benefits for illegal immigrants is the best option in a list of worse alternatives. I sincerely doubt it, but I don’t know enough about healthcare policy or the federal budget to provide evidence to the contrary. What really bothers me is the cavalier way the issue is discussed by the author of this piece and by Trump supporters in general. The prospect of taking away someone’s access to healthcare (even if it is the only option, which I am allowing for the purposes of this argument) should make a person feel disconsolate, not excited. The sheer inhumanity of it takes my breath away.

I am reminded of a controversy in 1996 involving Madeline Albright. When a reporter asked her about the 500,000 children who had died in Iraq, then-Secretary Albright responded, “We think the price is worth it.” It is possible she’s right, and that the actions of the U.S. in Iraq were in fact the best possible way to deal with a terrible situation? Of course. Is that any way to speak about decisions that involve the killing or saving of human lives? Definitely not. And some things I have heard from Trump supporters make Madeline Albright look like Mother Theresa.

The author of the Trump piece also complains about being harassed on the internet while at the same time urging that people be denied medicine. Now, this should bring to mind a certain word that “liberal America” (as she calls us) likes to use. I will not use the “p-word”, however, because most conservatives cannot abide hearing it, and charged words rarely lead to changed minds. Instead I will call it Stunning Lack of Objective Perception, or SLOP for short. I do not condemn this individual for supporting Trump, and I would love to hear more of her opinions on the matter. I only hope she can try to be a little less SLOPpy next time.