BrooksBearLives said:
I have literally served my entire life. I am an Eagle Scout. I took the EMT course as an 18 year-old because the volunteer ambulance service in my hometown wasn't going to be able to keep its doors open and offering services. I put off leaving for college for a year in part because of that.
I was a state scholar and national merit finalist. I won multiple scholarships for my efforts to rebuild a baseball field in my hometown so that our tee-ball program could be re-started (it's a poor part of the state so I had to raise the money AND organize the work myself). That work helped me get my full-ride to Baylor.
While there, I was a community leader even though I had all my financial need met. Honestly, I did it because I missed my family and being a big brother. From there, I was given an assistantship that would pay for my Master's program. I graduated and turned down offers from multiple schools to stay in Texas and work for a campus that I felt I could help. I thought I'd be there for 3 years, it's been 13 (I've had 3 promotions/positions created for me in that time).
I work for students and parents who need help accessing all the benefits that college can provide. I literally help students graduate 24/7. Part of that is working in conduct and Title IX. In that, I have advocated for both complainants and respondents to try and help them through some of the worst times of their lives.
My father, brother, and 6 cousins have all served in the Military. My brother is a West Point grad. That was the plan for me until I lost my kidney and wasn't eligible for military service (cancer sucks).
I have served roles in my church's vestry, altar guild and serve as on the lector rotation. We're in church every Sunday. I've served with Big Brother/Big Sister, continue to help out with Boy Scouts, and have served as chair for the largest Safe Trick-or-Treat in the county, serving over 1,000 kids and families every year, free of charge.
And on top of that, I am a PhD student trying desperately to be a good father, christian, husband, son, brother, boss, and friend while attending classes two nights a week with a 2 hour commute. I don't sleep a lot.
I don't know how any of this makes me a better patriot or anything. I just know how much I've been given by this country. I won the lottery just by being born here. I feel we get the government we deserve. I just want us to deserve better.
Hopefully I've passed your bull**** test. If I haven't, I guess you'll have to learn to live with it.
Seriously, these guys are supporting a corrupt businessman who, before his election, used lawyers to get out of keeping his contractual commitments, who started a for-profit college that delivered only student debt, who is a serial adulterer and sexual harasser, and can't keep his big mouth shut now matter how high the stakes, because it's ALWAYS about him, 24/7, and everything else (except for his family, whom he views as an extention of himself) is a distant second, who expects the people who works for him to commit crimes on his behalf AND take the rap for it, and who is loyal to no one but immediate family but expects absolute loyalty from all who work for him, up to and including committing felonies.
Trump is a very, very bad president because he's a very, very bad man. And these guys won't acknowledge there's a problem even when he yanks us out of Syria like he's jerking the strings of a defective marionette.
So you don't need to defend youself to them. They obviously don't care how bad he is or how good you are. They have a vision for America that's sharply different from yours -- one where a few people getting theirs is a lot more important than our long-term survival as a vibrant, thriving democracy and the planet's survival as a pleasant habitat.
They're fine with it being all about Trump because they think he's all about them. They'll continue to think that until he does what he does and turns on them in some way--some erratic tarriff that cuts their business off at the knees, more "perfect" phone calls where he uses the power of the U.S. government to make himself or his kids richer while yelping like a spoiled puppy about Hunter Biden, and a few more nuke tests from his friend Kim.
Obi Wan Kenobi has left the building. Our only hope is that enough people get disgusted enough to vote him and his enblers out of office. Because, unless something changes, he's going to be able to create enough dust and noise to last til the election. And lots of these numbnuts will think that's a good outcome.