I am an old man now. I remember the attack on Pearl Harbor and trying to make sense of it as a five-year-old. I remember the struggles of World War Two and my oldest brother’s death in the Normandy fighting. I remember the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. I remember the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. On and on go the years and the list.
Last Tuesday night I went to bed and to sleep early as usual, announcing that I would learn about the election the next morning. But I woke up at 2:30, checked the phone, and found this on the front page of the New York Times. I stayed awake the rest of the night reading and watching. It felt like another of the turning points I have known since the Pearl Harbor or Normandy of my childhood.
Before this election, the President asked us to imagine we were voting for him and not the various candidates of his political party. It appears that the country did exactly that.
It seems to me that the country voted against his corruption, his wars, his retributions, his destructive tariffs, his dictatorial ambitions, his turning away from our allies and toward our enemies, his compulsions for his never-ending vanity projects, his efforts to divide America against itself, his abandonment of Ukraine and embrace of Vladimir Putin, the use of his office for his personal and family enrichment, his elevation of the billionaire class, his use of masked thugs against hard working and helpless immigrants, his many efforts to limit or eliminate our freedom of speech and freedom of the press, his efforts to hamper scientific endeavor, his selection of associates unfit to do their jobs, his pardons of those who stormed and violated our Capital trying to overturn an election he still claims to have won, his pardons of anyone who provides enough money, his cryptocurrency personal enrichment schemes, his courting of the “prosperity gospel” groups with their desire to get government money for their religious organizations in clear violation of the constitutional separation of church and state, his clear disdain for the poor and needy and despised and outcast of society – groups that were the focus of the teachings and ministry of Jesus Christ.
America was founded on a principle of religious liberty for all. Our government has no business favoring any religion or requiring one for that matter. In January we will get to see a Jew (Ossoff) and a Christian (Talarico) and a Muslim (El-Sayed) join the U.S. Senate together. A hopeful symbolism.
I do question the Times’ headline in the front-page view I observed at 2:30am. “Democrats Rout G.O.P.” No, no. This was not about the Democratic Party, but about a profound dissatisfaction with things as they are under the present administration. There is certainly hope that Democrats will be able to do something about our dire situation. But the country will wait and see how that goes. Democrats share the low approval rating of all political leaders in the country today.
The last thing Democrats need to do is act Trumpian and seek revenge and retribution. The first and foremost thing is to set right as many of the wrongs as possible. A good start would be a comprehensive ethics in government bill that would address the corruption and forbid huge corporate and billionaire campaign donations. Curtailing the excesses of ICE (the “masked marauders” per George Will) and arranging citizenship for honest and hard-working undocumented residents would be a great relief. Reasonable guardrails and oversight of AI development, and an effort to lead the development of an international agreement on the subject is sorely needed and would have widespread public support. Then there is the cost of healthcare, the need for raising the minimum wage, correcting the ridiculous cost and functioning of student loans, and of course resolving the wars in Ukraine and Iran.
The president has signaled his intention to thwart all such efforts as these by the elevation of Stephen Miller to be his White House chief of staff in the months ahead. This surely complicates my advice not to “act Trumpian and seek revenge and retribution” because Miller is the architect of revenge and retribution. It is hard to “turn the other cheek” (Luke 6:29) when it gets slapped again each time that you do.
In East Tennessee we used to speak of being “between a rock and a hard place.”
The rock is the discipline needed to keep from making revenge the priority. The hard place is a White House run by the man most associated with retribution.
God help us.