"Smell my fingers"

"Smell my fingers" is a much nicer game to play with Sweet Hubby than it was with the 9 year old boys who used to ask me to play, back in the innocent and often gross days of childhood.  I'll always take a sniff of SH's fingers because I trust him, and trust that his invitation means he has just washed his hands with one of the soaps I love.  I know him and know he wouldn't ambush me with a stink.

Trust is not a matter of hoping for the best, as in "I trust you'll do the right thing", which too often means "I sure hope you do the right thing, but I'm not certain you will."  Trust is actually a matter of knowing someone's character.  We can trust people to act in accordance with their character.  We can absolutely trust Donald Trump to be a liar, a bully, a narcissist, a sociopath.  Sen. Susan Collins' "aspirational" hope that Trump would grow into his position was bullshit.  She knew his character.  We all did and do.  It has been on display since before he even thought about becoming President.  It just didn't matter as much when he was a TV star and product huckster as it does now, when he has the nuclear codes and a very large microphone.

It took some time to get to know the character of some of the Republican Senators, those such as Cruz, Graham, and Rubio, who excoriated Trump's character when he was campaigning and then became some of his most devoted bootlickers after he gained power.  But now we know them,  They have revealed their characters and so we know we can trust them absolutely to abandon their principles and any pretense of serving the people of the United States in exchange for - well, I'm not sure what they thought they were getting in the bargain, not sure what made it worth it to them to sell their souls.  I have to think they have a very short view of history or they would have taken into account how their behavior is going to be logged in its annals and in the memories of those of us living through the nightmare ugliness of the last four years.  They asked us to smell their fingers, and too many of us fell for it.

So if someone betrays you, don't say you'll never trust them again.  Now you know them.  Now you can trust them as you couldn't before, because they have revealed themselves to you.  Now you know not to take a sniff.