Love Trumps Hate

Sorry in advance for getting political again. Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and I completely missed an opportunity to blog about my favorite of his quotes.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Donald Trump is going to be inaugurated as President of the United States this Friday, and the big problem that some people have with that idea is how hateful Trump is or seems to be. He's not afraid of expressing his opinions, and he seems to have strongly negative opinions about some people and groups. He has been accused of being racist and sexist, and those who admit to having voted for him have been subjected to similar accusations, and that's where things turn sour, in my opinion.

It's one thing to have opinions and to express those opinions, but let's refrain from labels and insults, please. We're better than that. One of the campaign slogans against Trump was "Love Trumps Hate," and my response to that is "Prove it," or rather, "Yes, it does, so let's prove it." Let's prove that people don't need to hate those they disagree with. Let's prove that getting angry with your political opponents isn't the best way to win over the public opinion. Some of those who oppose Trump have insulted his intelligence, relating his communication skills to those of an angry child. Let's prove that our conversations can be more civilized than his tweets.

Regardless of how we feel about the President-Elect, there's not much we can do about the election now, and arguing and getting angry was never going to solve anything anyway. For the record, Trump wasn't my first choice for President, but he wasn't my last choice, either. I was leaning toward Ben Carson for a while, but in the end, I wrote in McMullin, not that any of that matters anymore. If we want to have a discussion about politics, policies, the role of government, how strong it should be, and other related topics, we can do that, but let's make sure that it remains a discussion. Regardless of anyone's feelings or opinions on these or any subjects, let's try not to get angry at each other. I'm tired of all the hatred that comes out of political "discussions." Let's try love instead.

Getting angry with each other and hating our political opponents isn't going to make things better. Having peaceful, respectful conversations might. At any rate, we won't get rid of the hatred some claim Trump represents by expressing how much we hate him and his supporters. Personally, I'm willing to give him a chance and his supporters the benefit of a doubt. There weren't many good options this time around, and many of them dropped out before election night. Given the options we had, I don't blame those who ultimately voted for Trump, and I certainly wouldn't accuse them all of being racist and sexist. If I were to have voted for Trump, I would have done so in the hopes that he'd have the business experience needed to fix the economy, not because I agree with every opinion he has ever expressed.

Anyhow, now I've expressed my opinion and allowed myself to talk more about politics than I ever wanted to on this blog. I hope I have also made my point about the counterproductivity of hatred in speaking against hatred. I dislike anger, and I don't have to get angry to say that. Love is far more useful for establishing peaceful communication and cooperation, and if we express more love and less hatred, then there will be at least that much less hatred in the world. And I think we can agree that the world could use a lot less hatred than it has now.