“He’s the president so i have to follow him.”

A mini political rant because I can’t go to sleep until I get this out of my head.

Today I was sitting with friends of my mother’s when one of those strange moments happened where we sitting and chatting about conspiracy theories (ok, it was aliens) and all of a sudden they outed themselves as supporters of the current administration. I don’t think it was intentional, it was like…la la la, conversation, laughing, and then “well, he’s the president, so he’s my president, and so I have to follow him even if it’s to the bowels of hell.” And like…they’re doing me a favor by watching my dog while I’m away so I had like seven layers of internal hell and the outer layer was laughing and reaching for another cigarette and the second layer tore through that thin facade and managed to say “You don’t have to…” and then the third layer stomped the second layers toe and pulled us all down into the quiet despair and internal turmoil of layers four and five and layers six and seven just, like, screamed.

Because that excuse, that he’s the president and we have to follow him is like, the most un-American thing I can think of. And it’s always this slightly off-to-the-side statement, almost wistful, almost resigned, that is just…loaded with meaning that I can never quite unpack all the way.

Like, are you saying that you don’t support him but you feel like you have to because you’ve been indoctrinated so deeply that even though you disagree you…