He’s not as popular with Americans overall, either.
There was a period when I was probably about 11 when I would sneak swigs out of a big two-liter bottle of soda that was in our fridge and from which I was not allowed to drink. I’d get caught on occasion and yelled at, as is the way such things go. At other times, I’d just deny having had any. One time, I’d managed to siphon off a larger-than-normal amount, prompting my mother to get particularly annoyed at me. True to form, I denied the scurrilous accusation, a particularly difficult-to-defend assertion, given the obvious decrease in volume. Soda, as you may know, does not simply disappear from a closed container, and this particular container was missing quite a bit of soda. But I was committed, pushing forward with my denials until I demanded the right to a trial by a jury of my peers; to wit, my older sister. We had a trial, and I presented evidence that the amount of soda believed to be missing would constitute only about two ice-filled glasses, an amount small enough that it was certainly feasible my mother herself had unwittingly consumed the soda without realizing it. I made my case and presented it to my sister for her verdict. She instantly declared that I was guilty. Because obviously I drank the soda. The point of this story is both to reveal what a dorky kid I was and to make a point about human behavior. Sometimes we say things that are obviously not true, but then have to keep making the same assertion even as it becomes increasingly untenable. There are about 14 Shakespeare plays centered on this concept and at least one arachnocentric aphorism. Lying begets lying. On a related note, President Trump’s approval rating among Republicans is not 96 percent. He keeps saying it is, over and over, as recently as Thursday evening.
