Crawling Out From Under a Rock and Getting Out of the Bubble

 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.  When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.  Psalm 146:3-4 ESV

The election is over.  Trump lost.  There is no credible evidence of "massive voter fraud."  The election officials who handled the process in their respective states did as good a job as they have ever done.  Trump's call for poll watchers produced what has become the most observed election process in American history.  And what we are seeing now, in the President's behavior and in the response of those who have had to buy into his political support for their own survival, is the pitiful proof of what his critics have said about his complete unfitness as a leader and the awful corruption of his administration.  End of story.  

This President's most ardent supporters, the conservative side of Evangelical, Protestant Christianity, are in deep trouble and open denial.  Denial to the point where you have to wonder if some of these people are living on the same planet with the rest of us.  Trouble in that self-proclaimed "Evangelical Christian" leaders are saying and doing things that undermine virtually every doctrinal and theological point they preach to their congregations.  It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to take some of these pastors, preachers and ministry leaders seriously because of what they are doing and saying when it comes to Trumpian politics.  Sure, this is America and free speech and expression are constitutionally protected, but there are consequences for lying and no excuses for these self-appointed leaders not to check the facts first.  Their credibility is gone.  

When Christian leaders get away from preaching the gospel and venture into secular politics, losing credibility is a risk they run.  When those leaders become so caught up in partisan politics that they deny the truth, the consequences can be disastrous.  And the fact of the matter is that the alliance that has formed between the Trump administration and some Evangelical Christian leaders is wreaking havoc on churches.  Offerings are down, attendance is down, membership is declining.  But beyond that, an increasing number of Christians, and I put myself in this group, are losing the trust they once placed in many well-known, self-appointed Evangelical Christian "leaders."  And there is more than just anecdotal evidence that this is happening.  

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.   Matthew 24:24 NRSV

When the author of this verse used the term "great signs and wonders" he was most likely referring to things that were miraculous or supernatural in nature, or at least appeared to be that way to those who were observing.  There are those within Trump's Evangelical base who indulge in "signs and wonders" and who claim that these things point to God's favor being bestowed upon this presidential administration.  That may be more widespread than it appears since it isn't theologically or doctrinally "correct" to admit to the presence of Pentecostal-type signs and wonders in some Evangelical circles. There are others who, without any substantiation or evidence, wrap themselves up in the lies and deceptions of conspiracy theorists like "Q Anon."  But whatever path they may take, I believe that Evangelical Christians who support Trump have indeed been led astray by a mirage reflecting things that do not exist, ignoring the evil that has been done.  

The evidence that is clear points to the truthful evaluation of the Trump administration as the most corrupt in American history, undermining the very roots of this constitutional republic and bringing us a close to the brink of a dictatorship as we have ever experienced.  It has eroded trust and confidence in institutions of our government on which its ability to function has rested.  It has been motivated by greed and self-interest, evident in the lopsided tax benefits given to Trump's wealthy friends and in the pardons handed out to self-confessed criminals who were deliberately obstructing the constitution and the rule of law for the personal benefit of this President, not in the best interests of this country. 

"Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.  Ah you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!  Ah you who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of their rights.  Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become rotten and their blossoms go up like dust, for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of Hosts , and have despised the word of the Holy one of Israel."  Isaiah 5:20-24, NRSV

Trump had a long legacy of corruption, business failure and fraud, adultery and lying, earning most of his personal fortune off entertainment businesses like strip clubs and casinos.  He literally glorified his womanizing, used it to build the kind of worldly reputation that he sold to the entertainment industry.  He gloated and celebrated the corruption he was able to get away with in business, and he brought it to his administration, resulting in multiple investigations and an impeachment.  Those who provided the testimony to, and evidence of, this corruption are his own business associates, lawyers and political appointees.  Check your facts on where all of the information in those investigations came from.  It didn't get "made up" by Democrats, it came from people who knew Trump personally and who accepted his offers of jobs, his business and now his political allies and associates.  Evangelicals who say "I'm not electing a pastor-in-chief" are hypocritical in their denial of the truth. 

It could be that we are seeing, in Biblical terms, the chaff being separated from the grain.  Evangelical Christian leaders have been like the proverbial frog in the kettle when it has come to seeing the signs of church decay and decline that church researchers were pointing out more than a decade ago, and have been loathe to admit it.  But the declining attendance and membership is also being mirrored in collection plates which is being followed by staffing cuts, elimination of programs and reductions in the number of missionaries being sent overseas.  The venerable Southern Baptist Convention, largest of American Evangelical denominations, has finally admitted that many of its state bodies, along with its own seminaries and mission boards, have burned through reserve funds and most are going through a massive reorganization, restructuring and downsizing process to adjust to the reduced income.  

Is it coincidence that some of the most monstrous scandals among Evangelical Christian leadership has happened during this same time frame and has beset some of Trump's most ardent admirers among the self-identified Evangelical community?  The scandal that hit the Falwell empire is as tawdry and twisted as some of Trump's antics have been.  Falwell has been as ardent of a supporter of Trump as he was a judgmental critic of Bill Clinton.  His recent actions show us that, for him at least, it was all about the politics and never about faith in God.  The silence about both Trump and Falwell from most of those considered leaders of the Evangelical political right is a demonstration of widespread hypocrisy.  Remember that the next time you hear one of them preach.  

Revival isn't coming as a result of electing the "right" politicians, notwithstanding the fact that someone who has made a public career out of indulging the flesh like Donald Trump would never qualify as the "right" politician in any case.  There's a commonly held belief among many American Evangelicals that they and their churches will be the vehicle through which America will experience a spiritual revival and a "return to God" so to speak because many of them think of themselves as being more doctrinally and theologically correct and closer to Biblical truth than other Christians.  But how "correct" can you be when your discernment has been so bad and you have been, and still are, blind to the reality that is staring you in the face?  No prophetic word is coming out of that kind of confusion. 

If Evangelical Christians have any hope at all of being part of any spiritual revival that God brings to America, if that's his will, they will have to crawl out from under the political rock that is powerfully holding them down and robbing them of their credibility.  Repentance, perhaps collectively in the case of some churches and denominations, is in order, from the sin of believing that political power is mightier than God's power and of acting like that is the source of truth.  A true spiritual revival, something that is talked about frequently but which is rarely seen, doesn't start in the voting booth.  It starts with humility at the foot of the cross.

"And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that he may exalt you in due time."--Peter, the Apostle, First Epistle 5:5b-6 NRSV

An American Election Primer From a Long Time Civics Teacher

This morning, I decided to stop looking at social media.  I taught Civics, Government, US Consttution and History for the better part of 35 years and it hasn't been very encouraging to observe most of the comments, wondering if any of my former students are saying some of what I'm seeing.  And I have to wonder, if all of these people finished high school in this country, how effective our social studies curriculum has been for the last half century.  From what I'm seeing on social media, we really need to make some drastic changes in what we teach and how we teach it.  

What's so hard to understand?  

Elections are Delegated to the States

There is only one "federal" election, the Electoral College, and even it is subject to rules made by the states.  All other elections are delegated to the states who then divide up the responsibilities to counties and municipal units which set up the logistics according to their own plans.  State legislatures make the rules for conducting elections, determining voter registration, how ballots are verified, cast, delivered and counted.  Most are fairly consistent but there are differences from state to state and those differences are responsible for some of the confusion that is happening now.  

Remember Florida in 2000?  The disaster that occurred in that state wound up holding up the results of the presidential election for over a month.  Every county had its own way of doing things and several of them used a "punch card" ballot that no one noticed was not really efficient until the close nature of the election required scrutiny of every single ballot.  But they learned something from the embarrassment of being labelled as "Flor-i-duh."  The legislature approved early voting.  People can vote in Florida for up to a month before the actual election date.  They introduced mail-in voting prior to the 2016 election, requiring ballots to be mailed in so that they can arrive before election day.  As soon as the early voting and mail-in voting starts, the ballots are verified and counted.  On election night, Florida's counties released the results of the 75% of the vote that had been cast by mail or in early polling locations before 9 p.m. Eastern time.  The election day tally was all that was left to count and they wrapped that up before 10 p.m.  

Pennsylvania's legislature is a little more old fashioned.  They do not allow any early polling locations.  Just this year, reluctantly and because of COVID, they decided to allow mail-in balloting, but they determined that no votes could be opened, canvassed and counted before 7 a.m. on Election day.  Most Republicans followed the President's rhetoric about both COVID and mail-in ballots and waited until election day.  But Democrats are a majority of registered voters in Pennsylvania and they, along with almost 60% of independents, opted to vote by mail.  That means more than half of what looks like it will be somewhere north of 7 million votes, have to be opened by hand, have the signatures checked and then the ballot flattened so it goes into the counting machine and then counted.  And that is why it has taken three days to count most of the ballots.  

If they had canvassed the ballots and checked all the irregularities prior to the election, all they would have to do now is run them through the machines.  But to make sure the count is accurate, and that there is no fraud, it takes about sixty seconds to process each ballot.  That's six million envelopes because each ballot is enclosed in an inner envelope with a signature inside the one in which it is sent.  

Even at that, most counties in the state are small in population and in the rural areas, there are more Republicans than Democrats and Independents, so maybe a fourth, or a third, of the ballots came by mail.  But the majority of Pennsylvanians live in clusters of counties around urban areas.  A fourth of the voters live in Philadelphia or one of the four counties that surround it and another 10% live in Allegheny County, which is Pittsburgh and its suburbs.  Smaller urban areas, Allentown-Bethlehem, Scranton, Erie and Harrisburg, account for another 20%.  So that means 11 counties have to count about 80% of the more than three million mail ballots that were sent in and they can't touch them until election day.  That's why Trump let by nine points at the end of the day Tuesday, and why his lead dwindled and then evaporated as mail ballots are counted.  Over 75% of the mail in vote has consistently gone to Biden, because over 75% of Pennsylvania's Democrats and independents voted by mail. 

The same phenomenon is visible in other states where there were high numbers of mail-in votes.  There is even more pressure in Wisconsin, for example, because the majority of its Democratic voters live in just a few counties and almost half of them live in the city of Milwaukee.  Wisconsin does allow early voting but the bulk of their mail-in vote was turned into boxes at polling locations the week before election day, so it took longer on election night to count.  Biden's margin in Wisconsin depended on the Milwaukee vote, which is why it appeared to "flip" in the middle of the night.  They counted all of their ballots then reported the results of over 100,000 of them at about 1 a.m.  Biden got over 80% of the vote in Milwaukee, so he went from being behind by a couple of percentage points to being ahead by a fraction of a percent. 

Social Media Distortions

The President gave broad hints weeks before the election that indicated he knew he was likely to lose it.  Social media picked up on his themes.  It really amazes me how, after four years of being caught having told some of the most outrageous lies that people still fail to question everything he says.  He has been setting up the narrative about not trusting the ballots since the last election.  But there's only fraud if he loses.  If he wins, then there's no fraud.  A sixth grader can see how ridiculous that is.  

Social media already had memes and posts available to start posting on election night to perpetuate the image that Trump was right about election fraud.  One post put up a list of official looking voter registration numbers and claimed that the vote totals in Wisconsin exceeded the registration.  It wasn't true, about 80% of the registered voters in Wisconsin cast ballots.  But that didn't stop the post from circulating.  Then there were the videos from people claiming to be poll watchers, telling of mysterious vans pulling up in the middle of the night, dropping off boxes of ballots to vote counting locations "after they had already counted all the ballots."  There's no shot of the van, the boxes or the votes being counted, it's just an allegation.  One of the videos claims it is in Detroit.  

It is certainly feasible that vans dropped off boxes of ballots at odd hours all night because over 100,000 voters dropped their mail-in ballots off on election day at the collection boxes scattered all over Wayne County.  Precinct workers bring the boxes from the polling places to the counting location, accompanied by one Republican and one Democrat poll watcher.  But the election board has to send workers to pick up the drop boxes and they also must be accompanied by one Democrat and one Republican poll watcher.  Since they can't open the boxes, they have to have vans to transport them and workers to load the boxes into the vans.  Wayne County was the most heavily observed vote counting location in all of Michigan so it is not likely that a van could pull up and secretly deliver thousands of phony ballots with over a hundred Republican poll watchers, double the number of Democrats, all over the room and 24 hour live camera streaming of the whole process.  

Racial Slurs

The focus on ballot counting in cities like Milwaukee and Philadelphia, and in Wayne County, Michigan and Fulton County, Georgia is a subtle way of saying that African Americans can't be trusted when it comes to counting votes. Trump's call for supporters to crowd into places where votes were being counted, aside from demonstrating inexcuseable ignorance of the vote counting process by a President who should know better, not only created confusion and chaos, which was one of his goals, but he was saying "you can't trust Black Democrats with the election process because they cheat."  This from a guy who knowingly accepted Russian help with his first election.  

There were not many other places in the country where the ballot count was watched as closely as it was in those counties.  Most states have strict laws requiring a Republican, a Democrat and an Independent voter to be present when ballots are counted, especially when mail-in ballots are opened and counted.  They must be involved in any decisions regarding handling ballots that are rejected by machines, witnessing signatures, transcribing ballots that are spoiled or won't go through the machine and everything is verified down to the time that poll workers take breaks and go to the bathroom.  Polling locations are watched just as closely.  

Of course, large cities with large African American populations have had some highly publicized incidents when it comes to attempts at voter fraud.  But the bigger picture is that voter fraud is rare, more legend than fact, and there has been more of it in rural areas and small towns, especially in the South, than in the large industrial cities of the Northeast and upper Midwest.  It has only been in the past three or four decades that African Americans have registered to vote in similar percentages to whites.  The number of incidents of voter fraud are tiny compared to the number of votes that are cast and the verification processes have become virtually foolproof. 

Of course, as the cities and their suburbs have become the centers of political power, resentment among those in places that can't match the vote totals grows and making accusations that "shenanigans" are going on is a way of venting frustration. As far as reported incidents of irregularities goes, smaller counties and rural counties have a disproportionate share of them. There will always be people who try to cheat, but there has not been any evidence at all of "massive voter fraud" in this election.  

If you want to read about real election "shenanigans" andwhat that looks like, check out The Mueller Report. 

   

George Washington was Right

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

This paragraph is from George Washington's farewell address given at the end of his second term,, right before he retired to his home at Mt. Vernon.  At the time, most Americans couldn't imagine the country without Washington as its President and having to serve in his shadow made things rough on his successor, John Adams.  Washington was an accomplished statesman, a figure behind which Americans, in spite of already looming regional, cultural and political differences, could unite.  He saw his main responsibility as one of setting trends and traditions which would be of benefit down the road to the new government.  Perhaps more than any other political figure of his time, Washington had seen first hand the bitter and deadly conflict that erupted between people of similar racial and cultural backgrounds over differences of opinion regarding the way human beings should be governed.  

There is nothing that illustrates the wisdom and truth of Washington's statement better than the last quarter of the twentieth century and the first 20 years of the 21st.  As a history teacher for over 25 years, these words of Washington are included among the more memorable contributions he made to this nation.  They tend to come to mind frequently in this period of time when political parties have become so uncompromising and insistent on their own way that they have disabled the government to the point where it cannot function as it was intended, on the backs of negotiation, compromise and mutual respect.  

I was just a junior in high school when Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency after his role in engineering the Watergate Scandal, which was perhaps the largest single government scandal in American history up to that point.  In school we were always taught that the principles upon which the country was founded were anchored in the Constitution and that a government "by the people" was virtually safe from crisis or tyranny.  Nixon's resignation, while providing a good example of exactly how the Constitution could work in a crisis, also created a sense of uneasiness.  My American history teacher pointed out that while Nixon's guilt was openly evident, there were those who supported him anyway, hard line partisans who shared his suspicions of media bias and promoted unfounded conspiracy theories, including one of the senators from my home state.  

Watergate was nothing compared to the Trump Administration.  When the Republican members of the Senate, except for one, determined that they were not willing to hear evidence in Trump's impeachment trial, they were doing exactly what Washington warned us about.  They set aside the Constitution in the interest of their own partisan agenda.  

If you want to read the evidence, there is a mountain of it.  The Mueller Report contains over 400 pages of documented evidence, almost all of it provided by individuals who worked for Donald Trump as part of his campaign or were appointed to his administration.  These are people who had to come to a point where they had to make a choice between loyalty to country or loyalty to Trump and to political party.  There were enough true patriots among them that they chose loyalty to country.  The same is true of the investigation into the Trump Ukraine scandal.  

Look at what has happened to those who left the Trump administration because their consciences could not support remaining in it.  John Bolton was one of the most respected, and most ambitious, politicians in the Republican party.  Quite partisan himself, Bolton was highly respected among Republicans for his hard-line positions when it came to the Middle East in particular.  Branded as a "war monger" by Democrats, Bolton had served as US Ambassador to the UN during the Bush Administration and as National Security Advisor during the Trump Administration.  Read his book.  It's an eye opener.  Coming out against Trump's corruption by publishing a book full of undeniable facts has put him on the outs with most Republicans.  Personally, I was never a big fan of Bolton but clearly, he's a patriot.  His facts, mostly eyewitness accounts, are irrefutable. 

And what's happened to General James "Mad Dog" Mattis, who served as Trump's Secretary of Defense, and General John Kelly, who was White House Chief of Staff?  Mattis, who was widely respected by members of both parties for his integrity was forced out of his position by Trump who refused to listen to his advice, resulting in the disaster which occurred when the US withdrew from Syria and abandoned our Kurdish allies who had basically defeated ISIS for us.  Kelly, a retired Marine Corps General, served initially as Homeland Security chief in the Trump administration, but as people kept leaving and getting shuffled around because they couldn't get along with Trump, Kelly became White House Chief of Staff, replacing Reince Preibus when he quit.  

It did not take long for Kelly to realize what a terrible position he had placed himself in. His influence diminished quickly as he clashed with his boss who refused to treat him as an advisor and who demanded that he be a "yes man."  He has become one of Trump's most vocal critics.  The way Trump treated these men and the derision he continues to hurl at them is perhaps the best example of what Washington was referencing when he spoke of "cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men who will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and will be able to usurp for themselves the reins of power."  Bolton, Kelly and Mattis were genuine obstacles in Trump's way.  Partisan distortion has made them goats, when they should be honored as true patriots.  

We are in this mess largely because our educational system has failed to give its students the kind of foundation in history and civics that is necessary to keep the electorate informed.  The video clip of Trump mocking a reporter with cerebral palsy should have ended his candidacy and resulted in his complete censure by the Republican party.  The fact that he is, today, in political rallies, praising and joking about some extremists who tried to run a Biden-Harris campaign bus off the road in Texas should tell you everything you need to know about his moral bankruptcy and that of anyone who thinks that was funny.  

Hopefully, it is not too late to heed Washington's warning and save our country.