Chilling

The comment made the other from one of President-elect Trump's spokespeople should send chills up and down the spine of anyone who believes in truth. "There's no such thing, unfortunately, anymore of facts," said Scottie Nell Hughes in an interview. "And so Mister Trump's tweets amongst a certain crowd, a larger larger part of the population, are truth." On the one hand, such an attitude takes arrogance to a whole new level. Never mind facts or truth. Whatever the soon-to-be President says, then that is what is true - even if it runs counter to what he said before or what has been proved to be real.

On a broader scale, however, what is equally disturbing is that I feel Hughes' characterization of Trump's millions of followers is spot-on. Throughout the presidential campaign and in its aftermath, so many of these folks seem to blindly accept anything he says. All persons in power need to be treated with skepticism. At least that is how it should be in a democracy. Traditionally, in the U.S. we treat our leaders with a bit of distain, blaming them for most anything short of bad weather. Better this then giving them blind obedience or accepting their words and/or actions as gospel. Yet this is what Trump's followers seem to be doing.

As Trump himself claimed, he could shoot someone and people would still vote for him. This is not good or heathy for a free society. People need to be view Trump as he is rather than how they want him to be. Further, it is vital that voters take a step back from being angry and start using their noggins. Trump is not all-knowing or even particularly honest. These next four years will be a very tough ride, particularly if we ignore what is factual. In a free society, the truth trumps - pardon the pun - everything. At least that's the way it should be. I pray our apparent shift away from that is only temporary.