Collateral damage
So many Palmer Report readers have shared experiences about friends and family who they’ve fallen out with because of one Donald Trump. It’s happened to almost everyone I come in contact with.It happened to Denver Riggleman.
Riggleman is a former Republican who also aided the January 6 committee. He’s been very strong in his criticism of Trump. And he has a new book coming out. In this book, he shared his own sad Trump story. Riggleman said that after he went on television and condemned Trumpism and QAnon, he received a text from his mother. It said she was “sorry you were ever elected.”
It’s heartbreaking. But it brings me to the “collateral damage” brought forth in the Trumpism era. So many good and kind people have become estranged from the ones they love. I hear their stories constantly. Spouses have divorced because of polarizing political views. Children have been pitted against their parents—siblings against siblings, friends against friends.
And it’s sickening. It should not happen. My heart goes to Riggleman and anyone who became collateral damage because of one idiotic monster named Trump. “What will it take to wake you up, son” Riggleman’s mother wrote.
This story moved me deeply, so I chose to write about it. Look, we only get one life. And, of course, we want to share it with those we love and care about the most. And when those people go down the rabbit hole — and turn on us — it can be undeniably painful– sometimes brutally so.
“You are now part of the swamp,” Riggleman’s mother wrote. Riggleman and his mother did reconnect eventually when his sister had health issues. But he writes he never disclosed his work on the January 6 committee.
I wish I could write that everyone will get their loved ones back the way they were. It would be nice. But reality usually doesn’t work like that.
The expression “hurt people hurt people” comes to mind. Those who chose- or choose- to pick Donald Trump over the ones they love are reacting from a place of failure, hurt, and anger. Many of them likely feared reality which is why they were drawn to Trump in the first place.
Riggleman writes: “If I can help even one person turn away from this fringe conspiracy culture or recognize Trump for the un-American grifter that he is, it would make everything worth it.” I very much hope he succeeds.
