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It is true after all. Donald Trump could actually shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue in New York City and not lose any voters.

Siding with Russia over America didn’t bother Trump Republican in the least. In fact, 70% of them said they supported what Trump said and did in Helsinki.

But, then, abusing immigrant children didn’t bother them either. Nor does the fact that kidnapping can be added to the reasons Trump’s policy is so morally reprehensible. More than 463 parents have been deported already without getting their children back.

So, yes, Donald Trump was right when he said he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose any votes.

It’s not that Republican support of Trump is irrational. More accurately, it is non-rational, as they refuse to draw on reason, logic, facts, or evidence in making their decisions.

This is why they remind me of Harry Truman.

Not the Harry S. Truman who was the 33rd President of the United States, but the Harry R. Truman who was the owner and caretaker at Spirit Lake Lodge that was located at the foot of Mt. Saint Helens volcano in Washington state.

In case you don’t know, Mt. Saint Helens is one of several volcanic peaks that dominate the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, lying about 50 miles northeast of Portland.

Scientists call Mt. Saint Helens a composite volcano which means that rather than putting forth slow moving lava, it’s the kind that erupts with a terrifying force, posing extreme danger to all nearby life and property.

It was very active during the 19th century, then went quiet for more than a hundred years until the spring of 1980 when scientists detected a 4.2 Richter Scale earthquake at the base of the mountain.

After several weeks Mt. Saint Helens went quiet again until scientists in helicopters observed a dome forming inside the volcano. They surmised it was a build up of gases that might be signs that an explosion was immanent.

State, federal, and local officials issued evacuation orders for everyone living nearby and warned those who lived miles away to leave the area until it was deemed safe to return.

Harry Truman lived the closest to Mt. Saint Helens, but he paid the warnings no mind. The 84 year old knew the history of the volcano so he was aware of what could happen, but none of that mattered. He told officials he had lived there for 50 years and he wasn’t going anywhere. If Mt. Saint Helens took him down, he said, so be it. Tragically, it did.

At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mt. Saint Helens volcano erupted with a fury beyond anyone’s imagination. Hot ash travelling 300 miles an hour, reaching temperatures as high as 600 degree Fahrenheit, spread over a 200 square mile radius, ultimately killing 57 people in its path along with countless wild life of every kind.

Harry never had a chance. He was gone in an instant, along with his Lodge and Spirit Lake, all laying beneath 150 feet of burning ash.

Trump Republicans remind me of Harry because, like him, they are people who intentionally ignore facts, reason, logic, evidence, consequences be damned, only in their case the consequences include “the country be damned.”

That is something I don’t think I will ever understand, and, I confess, when all is said and done, will find difficult to forgive.