South Africans who support Donald Trump bother me.
Whenever I write something about Trump and what a horrible person I think he is, I get at least a dozen messages from people who challenge me on it.
And it always sinks my heart with despair to know there is local support for such a despicable human being.
It was no different last week when I wrote about the global anticipation for the midterm elections in America.
I was keen to see if voters would give Trump a mandate to continue doing what he’s been doing, or if they would stop him in his tracks.
Well, they did neither. Or they did both, depending on how you look at it.
Trump’s party still controls the upper Senate, while the opposition Democrats now control the House of Representatives.
It’s going to be interesting to see how it tries to reel in Trump and his attempts at full political and judicial control.
But that is not what this is about.
It’s about my dismay at how South Africans can support this man in any way or form.
Given our history and our status quo, I have to wonder about the support for a man with such open disdain for women, brown-skinned people (especially Africans), critical media and telling the truth; and whose main support base is hate-filled right wingers.
How can we process our own reality and still support the Trumps of the world, and there are many in leadership positions now.
It’s not rocket science that his short-term policies WILL pay off; even creating immediate jobs.
But the long-term global costs are immense.
And we should know this better than most people, as we continue to battle the effects of our own past.
When the reversal comes, it will be speedy, catastrophic and definitive.
Unfortunately, his jaundiced supporters will find ways to blame his critics and detractors, failing to see how they had been seduced by a man who ticks almost all the boxes that puts him on the road to being a dictator.
We will feel the effect of Trump’s ignorance and arrogance after he’s gone.