The Luv Doc: Shortcomings

Dear Luv Doc,

I am increasingly feeling emotionally distanced and morally ashamed of my younger brother who is a family man and caring dad while living in the outreaching faraway suburbs of Austin, Texas. Why is this? My younger brother appears to possess a constant conservative mindset, is a Trump supporter and recently posted a photo on his Facebook stories condemning Gay Pride Week, and instead being a favor of “Family and Religion” night for the Texas MLB Rangers instead. This brother also skipped my California cousin’s epic fun and universally attended wedding in Los Angeles, California, because my female cousin was marrying another adult woman. This brother has ceased to practice Christmas festivities, despite previously merrily enjoying Christmas before he was married. In addition, this brother made the conscious effort to place all three of his children in an Austin charter school called Valor, because of its “classical education curriculum.” This Valor Charter School experiment failed miserably after one year, his kids hated it, and have now normally returned to stable standard AISD public schools. I would like to love my brother and I guess will always have to, yet his adulthood’s major drift to conservative bullshit, prejudiced viewpoints and support of one of the top three worst, most crooked, inept, awful and asshole presidents in USA history is disheartening to me. This brother’s general right-wing leanings have me wanting to distance myself from him, uninterested in listening to him or care what he says. I am embarrassed and saddened by his right-wing views, and it makes me despise him some. Luv Doc, how can I try to harmoniously love and coexist with this younger brother in my family?

– Blue Big Brother

Top three? I don’t think you’re giving Octagon Don enough credit. There have been some criminally inept presidents – well-meaning chaps who lacked the intellectual wherewithal or perhaps the emotional fortitude to do the right thing, but you can’t say they weren’t acting on their convictions. There have also been some morally corrupt presidents – fellows who made the wrong choice based on common beliefs of the time. However … credit where credit’s due … I don’t think America has ever had a president who has openly exhibited ignorance, hubris, cynicism, and pathological dishonesty in a way that comes even remotely close to Donald Trump. Nor will you find a president so openly and brazenly corrupt. Feel free to jump in here, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and edumacate me on James Buchanan’s drunken dithering, or perhaps the imbecilic, racist reconstruction policies of Andrew Johnson, but neither of them approach the insanely arrogant, belligerent dickishness of 47. And no president in history can match Trump’s level of corruption. That’s why he’s backing Paxton. He looked at ol’ droopy face and thought, “This guy is almost as sleazy as I am!” He probably had to cover up his corruption chub.

So yeah, I’m right there with you … maybe even beyond you … in my distaste for our fat-bottomed Führer, but the thing that I find infinitely more infuriating is the staggering number of simps and sycophants falling over themselves to keep him in power. Yes, I’m talking mainly about Republicans, but what do you call people like Todd Blanche, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and JD Vance? I don’t think they qualify as Republicans. I think they’d probably be most comfortable lurking under the president’s desk in a vinyl gimp suit. Then there is Stephen Miller. I guess we’re lucky he didn’t become a school shooter?

I think there was a time when one could argue that the attraction to Trump was that he was “an outsider who was going to shake things up.” That time was 2015. At this point all sentient humans have figured out the man has absolutely no redeeming qualities. What we’re experiencing now is a disturbing number of people who are unwilling to admit they were horribly wrong. I suppose that’s understandable. It’s a no-win game. Either you were duped into voting for a deplorable idiot or you are one yourself. That said, someone stricken with idiocy deserves compassion and understanding just like a drug addict or an alcoholic. You don’t have to harmoniously love your brother, you just have to love him … and try your best not to focus on his shortcomings.

This article appears in June 26 • 2026.