David McElroy

I was getting frustrated with the interview Sunday afternoon, but I wanted to keep things civil and polite.

I was a guest on an Internet radio show and I’d been brought in for a political discussion about Donald Trump. One of the hosts is a woman who lives in England and isn’t fond of Trump. The other host is a man in Ohio who’s a big Trump supporter.

As we got started, I first tried to find out why the man supports Trump, so I asked him to outline what he likes about Trump’s performance as president so far. It seemed like a reasonable place to start, but things went downhill from there.

The man has a lot of opinions, but when I tried to narrow down why he believed those things, he frequently had to admit that he didn’t know the facts about the subjects. He was opposed to “illegal immigration,” for instance — and insisted he wasn’t opposed to immigration overall — but he finally admitted he didn’t have any idea how U.S. laws determine who’s allowed to immigrate legally.

On subject after subject today, most modern Americans have opinions which are not based on any reality. This man had firm opinions, but his opinions weighed his mind down so much that facts weren’t necessary. He hadn’t thought through the things he believed — and it seemed to surprise him to have someone pointing this out.

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It happened again this week. Like a never-ending nightmare, I made the same horrible choice I’ve made before — with the same results.

For most people, the idea that eating could be an addiction sounds silly. For those who have experienced the patterns I have, though, it’s something that can feel both inexplicable and inevitable.

It wasn’t until I had a political friend who was a recovering alcoholic that I realized the patterns I go through with food are very similar to what any addict experiences. That shocked me at the time and it’s led me to think and read quite a bit about it over the years. The knowledge and insight haven’t stopped me from doing things, though — more often than I’d like to admit — that I know are unhealthy for me.

It’s never about the food. It’s always about the feelings that the food can mask.

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Alabama Republican Roy Moore is the latest poster boy for political evil and hypocrisy. I agree that he’s evil. I agree that he’s a hypocrite. But at the core, he’s no different from any other politician who seeks the power to control other people.

I wasn’t really surprised when news came out Thursday that Moore is being accused of sexually pursuing teen girls when he was a county attorney in his early 30s. The youngest of the women to come forward so far says she was 14 and he was 32 when he took her to his home for clandestine meetings — where he gave her wine and undressed her until she asked him to take her home.

The mental and moral gyrations of the Republicans still defending Moore today are far more disturbing than the actual charges from the past. Some say it’s not that bad since only one of the girls was younger than the state age of consent, which is 16. One Republican elected official compared the situation to Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus, because Mary was a teen and Joseph was an older adult. There are plenty of other excuses from Moore’s supporters. (For the record, I find the women’s account of their interaction with Moore credible and troubling.)

So why was I not surprised at the charges?

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