COLUMN: Viewpoint – Talking to Americans

We are spending February on the Honduran island of Roatan. Even here you cannot escape from the American political upheaval. It crops up in almost every conversation.

What shocking thing will President Trump do next? Decimate vital government departments without benefit of legislative approval? Appoint people with no apparent qualifications and a history of personal scandal to important cabinet posts? Free jailed insurrectionists who tried to kill his former vice president? Demand Ukraine give him half their minerals? Unilaterally change the name of a body of water? Propose turning war-torn Gaza into an exclusive holiday destination? It never stops.

One afternoon here on Roatan we went on a guided snorkeling excursion and shared our boat with two American couples. Early in our conversation they let us know they were Mormons from Utah. My husband after introducing us as Mennonites from Manitoba made a comment about how Canada would soon be joining their country as the 51st state if their president had his way.

The four Americans who told us they had voted for Trump chuckled at my husband’s remark and said their president’s musings about annexation of our country were just a big bluff and a negotiating tactic. “Don’t take him seriously about stuff like that,” they reassured us. I wanted to tell them that perhaps it was a little easier for them not to take their president seriously than those of us who live in countries whose independence is being threatened.

Our snorkeling companions explained various facets of their Mormon faith to us. I was so tempted to ask how people who follow a religion that emphasizes the eternal nature of the marriage covenant could have voted for a man who has been divorced twice, convicted of sexual abuse and whose infidelity has been well documented.

I explained how a key tenet of the Mennonite faith is pacifism. One of the men who said he was a career military officer claimed to be a pacifist too. “Our American wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq were pointless,” he told us. “We gained nothing from them.” One of the reasons he supports Trump is that he has promised to expedite an end to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, other futile wars in our snorkeling companion’s opinion.

The day we were snorkeling the scandal-ridden Robert Kennedy had just been sworn in as the new Secretary of the United States Department of Health. We asked the Americans sharing our boat what they thought of that.

“We love it!” they said enthusiastically. They told us all the stuff in the press about Robert Kennedy being anti-vaccine were propaganda and lies. “He just wants vaccines to be solidly researched before they are used and wants pharmaceutical companies to be transparent about possible side effects.” They continued, “Kennedy is a former environmental lawyer who has fought for many important causes like the protection of our water supply. He’s got good ideas for how to improve the health of Americans.”

They went on to tell us how corrupt they believed most American government agencies and employees had become. They thought Trump’s plan to get rid of many of them was exactly what was needed.

I didn’t know if I should be encouraged or dismayed after our conversation with our American snorkeling companions. Encouraged because according to them the current state of affairs in the United States is not nearly as scary as I believe it to be or dismayed that seemingly good hearted and intelligent American citizens have been so duped by Trump and his MAGA movement they are sure everything is just fine in their country.