AI-generated image of a beer can on grass.
Column By John Young
I should have confined my mind to what spring was doing.
Everything was greening under azure skies as I strode from the bus stop to where I teach.
A season born anew should have won every ounce of my attention. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but notice the litter of winter — a yellow fast-food wrapper; a Snickers wrapper; a plastic bag bloating in the breeze; a mangled, “gold quality” Stag beer can, and more.
Snatching up each for proper disposal, I silently cursed whoever discarded it, particularly that can. Wrappers might blow off a trash truck: That beer can didn’t.
Forgive me now for thoughts that came with that can, which made my hand sticky and stinky.
I thought about politics.
Politics? Yes — of people so into their thing they don’t give a damn about a horrible mess to which they knowingly, even zestfully, contribute.
What might be the politics of the man behind the can?
He’s either (1) a non-voter, or (2) a MAGA slob.
How unfair, you might say. Trump’s followers are patriotic, caring citizens.
For that matter, you don’t have to be a voter to care about things that matter, I guess. But here’s the truth.
Many people dumbstruck by Trump’s 2016 election wanted to blame the Electoral College. Sorry, folks. Too easy. The nexus of blame was miserable turnout in key states — the mass forfeiture of an American’s most precious right.
Add progressives who considered “third party” to be a valiant statement. (Maybe the man who tossed his can is registered as a Litter-tarian.)
But it’s a free country. Go ahead and shrug on Election Day. “Who cares?” just might fit your life’s mission.
Since it took some effort to crush that can and fling it, I’m more inclined to believe that the man behind the can is full-on MAGA. Scream if you will (we’ve heard it at the rallies). The heedless disposal of that beer can is completely in keeping with what Donald Trump is: a disrepair agent. He leaves a trail of rubble and debris wherever he goes.
MAGA voters call themselves lovers of country, saluters of flags. But let’s see what else they salute. Let’s see what applies to you.
— Do you consider those convicted of invading the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, bashing windows and law officers’ heads, dotting its halls with excrement, “Horribly treated hostages”?
— Are you fine with how the Big Lie caused life-threatening recriminations against election executives and secretaries of state?
— Do you support liars like Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani who caused a living hell for election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, calling the latter, as Trump did, “a professional vote scammer”?
— Speaking of courts, do you still believe the 2020 election was stolen, though more than 60 lawsuits brought by Trump failed to convince even one judge of this, including several appointed by Trump?
— Do you believe that someone adjudicated as a sexual assailant (indeed a rapist in the judge’s words), whom a jury found liable for defaming his victim, and who now is on the hook for half a billion dollars of damage for defrauding New York, is the man to lead this country?
— The judge in the latter case has barred Donald Trump from operating a business in New York for three years. Is that a person you still would hire as the nation’s chief executive?
— Do you find it problematic that Trump’s vice president, his attorney general, two of his chiefs of staff, one defense secretary, one chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and one former national security advisor all consider him unfit for office?
Honestly, among Trump’s underlings (the ones who haven’t been convicted and pardoned) who supports this man now?
There are a few defining questions for those who think that Jan. 6 was just a few broken windows and hurt feelings and that Donald Trump loves America as he claims.
Would someone who salutes such behavior, the chaos and costs that emanated, have any qualms tossing a beer can on God’s greening land? No. Not a chance.
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
