by, Floris Wood – Guest Writer (and my husband)

It will be interesting, come Monday, to see just how the Republicans will portray Trump during their convention. Some current popular songs says something about fixing what I’ve broken. Can Trump‘s handlers fix what he has broken?

He never really won the popular vote even though he touts it as the greatest landslide victory in the history of the world. So his victory was sort of fragile to begin with. You might think that most newly coined Presidents would have trodden lightly at first, until they could have won over more people and secured enough popular votes to be elected for another term come the next election.

But that would not be Trump‘s style. Instead he wasted no time in insulting those people he thought needed insulting, which is almost everybody but his own political base. From the looks of the current polls he might even have insulted a few of them too.

His handlers must know that no matter how well they coach him to be a little bit nice, so he can win back a few of his disenchanted fans, he will quite likely become disenchanted with his handlers and go off script, to the delight and rewarding cheers of his doting base. And the D. Trump they all know and love so well will be regaling them again.

This is not to say that Trump will not win again in November. Somehow I guessed it right four years ago and declared him the winner a couple months before the election, even though I did not vote for him then and will not this time either. Nor would I ever, unless Chile‘s Pinochet were running against him.

It is to say that Trump‘s chances of winning again are slimmer this time. Biden is not Hillary. Many who would not vote for Hillary would vote for Biden. Whether they voted for a third party or not at all in 2016 doesn’t matter. If they vote for Biden this year and last election they voted for a third party or not at all, that is, of course, one new vote for Biden. But if they voted for Trump last time and Biden this time, which will mean one less vote for Trump and one more for Biden. That‘s like two votes for Biden this time. Convoluted, I know.

What‘s more, Bernie, my hero, is very actively campaigning against Trump and for Biden, reminding his loyal followers that they must put their weight behind Biden, not a third party candidate. Defeating Trump is paramount.

Now, you, who love Trump dearly, are not really devils or even children of a lesser God. I grew up partly on a farm . . . No, no, I grew all the way up, but partly on a farm in Michigan (though some would say I had it right the first time.) My Aunt and Uncle, who raised me, were conservative and I bought into it too.

They took the tabloid ˋGrit´ and listened to Paul Harvey every day on WJR radio, right after the stock market report out of the Chicago stock yards (I am afraid I have never figured out what a pork belly is). Edgar A. Guest was our Shakespeare. There was a commie behind every cow. Joe McCarthy went around with a crumpled sheet of paper in his hand saying he had a list of 205 (or whatever the number was) actors, senators, civil rights activists, generals and anyone else he didn’t like, who were communists or communist sympathizers.

Much to even McCarthy’s amazement he was able to destroy hundreds of people’s lives by just mentioning their names. Only a couple of you older readers know what I’m talking about, so, suffice it to say, we were conservative. So, I know at least a little about where you are coming from. For me it was a dark place and I needed more sun, so I lightened up a bit. Once I got a taste for it I went hog wild and became a social democrat (commie to you).

But I remember how I felt back in those dark days. I was angry and afraid. I wanted a strong leader who would not be deterred by mere public opinion, wrong-headed detractors or even the Law. Something had to be done. We never got such a leader back then, but you now have what we wanted.

And I can understand the adulation you shower upon Trump. I would have done the same back then. I would have cheered at every word or deed that made his enemies angry, no matter how offensive and hurtful it might be to others. I would have been sure of the rightness of his cause and accused the other side of doing exactly what I was doing, without realizing I was doing them too.

But as I grew older I came to feel there was something wrong. There was no religion, moral code or anything but my own anger and self-righteousness that condoned what I was willing to let a strong leader do in my name. Where was the quiet dignity, grace and integrity that I also valued? How far was I willing to let that leader go before I said that that was too much for me? When would I step back and say something to the effect, as Joseph Welsh did at the Army-McCarthy hearings, “Sir, (McCarthy) have you no decency”?

The path from conservative to social democrat was long and twisty, and not very interesting. Anyway, my point here is not to convert anyone to anything, but just to say that although I don‘t agree with you conservatives, I don‘t hate you, and I know that your feelings, beliefs and opinions all count and need to be woven into the fabric of our flag along with our own.

You conservatives may or may not win this election, but if you don‘t, I think Joe Biden is the best man you could have opposing you. He is the person most likely to listen to you and your concerns and do something about them.