By Eric Peters
Eric Peters Autos
June 23, 2026
Most everyone wants to be on he right side of things; the problem is discerning which is the wrong side to be on.
The COVID debacle is an example. It was difficult for many people to discern which side was the right side. Many probably thought they were on the right side, by siding with the experts who insisted everyone was facing the risk of death (and of transmitting death) if they didn't wear a surgical mask over their face. The same experts insisted that everyone had to get "vaccinated" - though it was never explained why the big whoop over those who declined to be "vaccinated," since the experts insisted that those who did get "vaccinated" were not going to get the bug the experts insisted was a threat to everyone's life.
The point being it is difficult or many people to ignore - to defy - the experts. Especially when it appears that most people are in agreement with these experts and are doing what the experts say must be done. The push to get everyone to wear a "mask" was designed to do just that. If "masking" had been voluntary, a lot of people would not have "masked up," and that would have made it harder to create the appearance of near-universal agreement that a deadly plague was on the loose.
In such a scenario, being on the right side is to be perceived as being on the wrong side. That's how it was for the relative handful of people who did not believe the experts and did not do what the experts insisted must be done. Such people - the ones who refused to put surgical masks over their faces - were subjected to public scorn and even (in not a few cases) physical violence for doing the right thing.
That's the thing. It is often difficult to do the right thing at the time when it really matters to be on the right side of things.
Another time is right now.
It is difficult for many to see that Trump is on the wrong side of things. Many of the people who voted for him did so because they believed he was on the right side of things. That he was going to put America first. That he was going to reduce the size and cost of the federal government and that the savings would be refunded to the Americans who had been forced to pay for it. Above all, that under his watch, America would not go tilting at foreign windmills.
It is easy enough to see that Trump is now on the wrong side of all of those things. The thing that was harder for many to see is that he was never on the right side of things.
Trump was president during the first year of COVID. His actions (and non-actions) were not on the right side of things. He said "two weeks to stop the spread" when he amen'd nationwide lockdowns, a prison term that has appallingly slipped into general usage outside of prisons - which means everywhere is now at least potentially a prison and for people who haven't even been charged with any crime. It turned out to be for the rest of 2020 - and then some. He was very much on the wrong side, then. And those of us who were on the other side were on the right side - and vilified for it.
Trump wore the surgical mask - embossed with the presidential seal. This gave aid and comfort to the experts who insisted wearing surgical masks was not just advisable but a morally required thing to do. In other words, those who did not submit were morally despicable people. It is easy to want those who are morally despicable dealt with. It was something analogous to the way Good Germans wanted other Germans who didn't go along with the rounding up of people who'd affronted the experts there dealt with.
Trump also declared an "emergency" over COVID - which could be forgiven, had he ended the "emergency." He didn't. That placed him firmly on the wrong side of things. It was the "emergency" that lead to mass absentee balloting and the counting of "votes" that had not been vetted. That assured the selection of Joe Biden and we got four more years of stopping-the-spread.
Is it really surprising that Trump has turned out to be on the wrong side of so many things again?
The question, then, is whether to be on the wrong side, with him again.
This article was originally published on Eric Peters Autos.