Good to treat enemies as humans

(My Eastern New Mexico News column from July 25, 2018- posted in its entirety now that the paper's exclusivity has expired)

The political left, and much of the political right, keeps putting me in an uncomfortable position where I almost feel the need to defend President Trump. Almost.

It's not a position I enjoy.

I see no legitimacy in the office of president, nor in any other political office for that matter. I don't care about Donald Trump one way or the other; he's irrelevant to my day-to-day life. But the way the political left overreacts to everything he does goes beyond criticism into delusional territory. Pointing this out is seen as "defending" him. It's really not.

How could any sane person object to the people in charge of a couple of governments deciding to shake hands and put off threatening to annihilate each other's subjects and territories for a while?

Personally, I think it's a good thing he treats the U.S. government's enemies like fellow human beings. The other option is to encourage them to go to war. I can't see that as a good idea.

I'm glad Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un aren't behaving like some politicians and pundits seem to want them to behave. It's as if those other people are itching for a war. They probably are.

While I'm glad neither of them seems to want to start a nuclear war right now, I'm horrified the situation has been allowed to get to the point where such a thing is even possible.

I also prefer Trump and Vladimir Putin acting friendly instead of being at each other's throats. I see no benefit in the two governments wanting to fight each other. None at all. People I care about might get caught in the middle.

Sure, maybe Russian government hackers exposed the DNC's corruption, but which is worse-- the exposure or the corruption? And the U.S. government is always interfering in foreign elections so the possibility someone may have done the same thing to the U.S. doesn't upset me. You'd have to believe elections are a legitimate process for choosing a ruler to get worked up about it. I don't.

When Trump uses "alternative facts" people lose their minds, but when he tells the truth about the U.S. "intelligence" apparatus' complete lack of credibility, they don't like that either, and lose their own credibility through their hysterical reactions.

There is plenty to criticize about President Trump, but until his dedicated enemies of the Loyal Opposition stop screaming over figments of their imaginations and things which don't matter I can't take them seriously.

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