Could I Live With It?

As a writer I often have flights of fancy in which I have conversations with imaginary people (or I have imaginary conversations with real people, it just depends).

And you know I’m a recovering lawyer, so occasionally those conversations are a little like cross-examinations … or perhaps I’m channeling my inner reporter.

But in any event, I was watching a guy on TV the other day, a Trump supporter, who was asked what he thought about his president’s recent comments about shit hole countries like Haiti and El Salvador and each of the 54 countries in Africa … you remember that one. And the guy said, “Well, it was crude … but I can live with it.”

So that little voice in my head, you know the inner reporter or recovering lawyer or inveterate shit stirrer (hey, if the prez can say it, so can I) had a little talk with the guy, and it went a little like this:

INNER REPORTER: Do you think we need more white people in this country and fewer Black and brown people?

TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well … yes.

INNER REPORTER: Are you afraid of the browning of America?

TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well … yes.

INNER REPORTER: Does it concern you that white people are becoming a minority in a country your people built and fought for and died for?

TRUMP SUPPORTER: Exactly! Yes!

INNER REPORTER: Are you afraid of how you might be treated as a minority in this country?

TRUMP SUPPORTER: You’re damned right! I am!

INNER REPORTER: Like getting put in internment camps or reservations or getting bought and sold into slavery?

TRUMP SUPPORTER: Uh … well …

INNER REPORTER: I think a lot of people can entirely understand your perspective. But let me ask you, Mr. Trump Supporter, could you live with that?

We did.