You know the old saying, right? The one that says that opinions are like butts; everybody has one. Well, that’s sort of how that old saying goes. You get my drift, though.

Now here’s the thing about opinions (and butts). Everybody is entitled to them. I still believe that I owned the best dog in the world. I believe it with my whole heart. Buck was a good, good dog.

That, friends, is called an opinion, which is defined as “a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter.”

But opinions can cross a line. For instance if I walked around saying, “My dog Buck was the best dog in the whole wide world. He was amazing. I really loved his devotion. When I was tired, he’d always cheerfully cook supper AND wash the dishes.”

Amazing all right. Also totally untrue, easily disproven. In short, my opinion has become a delusion, defined as a false personal belief that is not subject to reason or contradictory evidence

Recently, the newspaper ran a letter which began “President Trump is the most patriotic leader the country has been led by since our founding fathers.”

One might argue that this is an opinion and that the writer is entitled to it, despite the fact that he cites no reasons for his belief.

He cites the ‘fact’ that the president is serving his country for a dollar. One lone dollar. I can find no evidence that this is true. He stated that several times while running for president but has been decidedly silent on it since.

This masterpiece of writing continues: The press is labeled the ‘Big Lie Machine,’ a favorite epithet. Again, no evidence is actually provided. I find it interesting that the writer waxes hysterical in his attacks of Hil-LIAR-y and the press, completely ignoring the lies of his very own demagogue.

No press is necessary to see plainly that our president is dishonest to a level never before seen in our history. The lies come from his own mouth. He attacked then-president Obama for his golf vacations: “There’s just so much to be done,” Trump told CBS ’60 Minutes in an interview. “So I don’t think we’ll be very big on vacations, no.” Three months under this administration has proved otherwise.

He stated that he would provide his 2016 taxes when he was elected. That has still not happened.

He promised to divest himself of his business dealings, setting up a blind trust run by his children. In order for a blind trust to meet the criteria of a qualified blind trust “the trustee must not be affiliated with, associated with, related to, or subject to the control or influence of the government official. His children are certainly related to him and his plans to expand his hotel chain from 5 to 26 US metropolitan areas clearly demonstrates that he is still actively involved in the family businesses.

He accused the previous administration, Barack Obama in particular, of wiretaps. He provided no evidence. He was ordered to provide that evidence to the House Intelligence Committee. This never happened, despite his continued tweets insisting that this happened. The FBI requested that the charges be publically rejected.

The list goes on and on and on. These things stare America (and our esteemed letter writer) directly in the face. They are undeniable. Yet they are denied. Loudly, aggressively.

This is no longer opinion. It is a delusion, a false personal belief that is not subject to reason or contradictory evidence.

I leave you with one final thought from no less than Theodore Roosevelt: “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”

Our president is not a patriot. That is my opinion. It is backed by facts.