I'm going to start out here by making a few statements so that you will know whether you want to continue reading this post or not. I'm not interested in engaging in a discussion with anyone who won't acknowledge or recognize facts, so before you read on, here's what you need to know.
- I am an Evangelical Christian and that is more than just about where I go to church. It's who I am. I do not believe that any genuine follower of Jesus who has repented, been forgiven and restored to God through faith in Jesus could have taken part in what happened on January 6 with a good conscience or without experiencing conviction. (*See the note at the end of this article for a further explanation)
- I believe that character is the most important aspect to consider when I vote for anyone running for public office (See Dr. Adrian Rogers, former pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis for a great sermon explaining why character matters, particularly in Presidential candidates). Therefore, the statement "I'm not electing a pastor in chief, I'm electing a commander in chief" is hypocritical.
- There is absolutely no evidence to support any claim that the election was "stolen," that there was "massive voter fraud" and that Trump really won. What the facts and the evidence indicate is that this election actually had fewer irregularities than most past elections because the technology and the accountability are better than they ever have been. All that so-called "evidence" you are seeing on extremist right-wing media and social media are phony. Go look at some of those court records. Do you know that Giuliani and Trump's legal team knew how bad some of that phony garbage looked that they never presented most of it, including almost all of the so-called eyewitnesses and their affidavits, in their court cases? They're telling you they did so they can get into your checkbook, but they knew all of that was a lie. Believing a lie just makes you a liar like Trump and Giuliani.
- There were no "Antifa" infiltrating the seditious insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. That's another lie. Maybe the extremists in right-wing media think that their audience is bottomlessly naive and hopelessly stupid. Trump tweeted to the MAGA mob while they were sacking and vandalizing the Capitol that he loved them and that they were special people. I don't think he would have said that to Antifa. Who was there? People wearing neo-nazi shirts with anti-semitic, racist slogans including racial epithets aimed at Latinos and African Americans, people wearing shirts and carrying KKK flags and Confederate flags, and many of them looking like barbarians who hadn't had a bath in half a year. This mob was incited by Trump, Giuliani and Don Trump Jr., among others and it was an attack on the United States of America, the Constitution and all that we stand for. These people are anti-American cultists.
OK. Now that we have that straight, here are some of the possible silver linings that either already have, are in the process, or will happen in the future.
Silver Lining #1: Donald Trump's Hold Over the GOP Has Weakened Considerably
The shock of a MAGA mob of Trump supporters getting into the Capitol and aiming at attacking members of Congress while they were performing a constitutional responsibility helped open the eyes of a lot of Republicans to reality. I don't think they were caught completely unaware, but they've kept their opinions to themselves. Trump lost the rest of the fence sitters on January 6, along with a good chunk of traditional, conservative Republicans. The insurrection gave them an excuse to bail, and a lot of them did. It remains to be seen, as this shakes out, how much gas gets let out of the Trump balloon but he lost enough on January 6 to bring it down to the ground and start to collapse inward on itself.
As far as the Congress itself is concerned, after the House and Senate reassembled, the loss of support for Trump could be measured in the votes that were taken. Trump has been pressuring Vice President Pence and many Senate Republicans for weeks to figure out how to disrupt or stop the count of Electoral Votes. He had members of Congress and the Senate who, in order to boot-lick and show their loyalty to the President, were planning to challenge the votes from the battleground states in hopes of preventing President-Elect Biden from getting what he needed to win. With a Democratic majority in the house, such a move was not possible, but Trump pressed it anyway. After the insurrection, only two of the six battleground states were challenged and the votes went heavily against the President. In the case of Arizona, the Senate voted 93-6 against Trump and to accept the state's electoral ballots. In the Pennsylvania case, it went 92-7 against the President.
Would that have happened if the vote were taken a day before the Trump insurrection?
The biggest signal of this major shift was the speech that was given by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell when the Senate returned to the chamber after the insurrection. His words, which were carefully chosen, made it clear that the break with Trump was complete and that they were moving on. Lindsay Graham's response was another sign. It is a rift that will widen once Trump leaves office. If the Trump Insurrection had not occurred, the difficulties of the transition that the sitting President has caused would have still pushed a lot of marginal Republicans off the fence.
I'm not so sure that he would have had as much influence and power as some pundits thought. The Trump Insurrection was a shocking event, as much as 9-11 or perhaps even Pearl Harbor. The effects of it are going to last a long time. In just a matter of a few hours, all but a few Republican Senators and about 80 Republican congressmen were raising their hands and declaring their frustration. Other than some of the extremists in the house who have joined the MAGA cult, most Republicans in Congress considered Trump a liability and knew there was always something right around the corner that had the potential to blow their own political ambitions out of the water.
Well, here it is.
Silver Lining #2: The Democrats Have A Wide Open Field to Expand Their Congressional Majority to Record Size
Hear me loud and clear. No political party is capable of resolving all of the problems faced by our nation. And that's really not what this is all about. This election is going to bring some relief from four years of nothing. Biden served as VP in the Obama administration which, while it took awhile, got the economy roaring. FDR and Clinton are the only other Presidents in the modern era to see larger drops in unemployment during their term in office.
In just a few hours, public opinion shifted dramatically. The reaction around the country from horrified Republicans, most of them Trump supporters, has been widespread. The mob in the Capitol, contrary to erroneous reports of some Trump apologists, has largely been identified as extremists. There were clearly a lot of Q Anon conspiracy theorists, a huge contingent of Neo-nazis who sure didn't mind showing off their anti-semitic, anti-African American, anti-Latino slogans and who carried confederate and KKK flags into the rotunda. There weren't many "real" Americans in the mob, no patriots for sure. Some eyes were opened. After all, it's tough to claim that Trump isn't anti-semitic or a white supremacist when he attracts people who won't support anyone that they are convinced does not share their ideology. Misplaced patriotism is loyalty to a person, not to the country. So there is now a rift between the MAGA mob and the mainstream GOP. And it is not likely that one side will vote for the other's candidates.
But the Democrats need to be smart and realistic, not idealistic. Biden is a centrist and that's where the party needs to be if his goal of healing the country is going to be achieved. The MAGA mob isn't going to participate, but they have little power at the ballot box without the rest of the GOP. People say things at emotional moments when things are happening but I anticipate several Republican Senators leaving the party and becoming independents if they feel the leadership isn't moving far enough away from Trump and Trumpism. In those places where the radicals made up a higher percentage of the GOP vote, Democratic candidates will do very well.
At just about the moment that the Trump Insurrection was turning violent at the Capitol, news came that Jon Ossoff had captured the second Georgia Senate seat to give Biden a Democratic majority in both Houses. Raphael Warnock set a vote total record in his win against Kelly Loeffler. Arizona also elected it's second Democratic senator this time around, as did Colorado. So there's momentum. The next two years need to be a genuine effort at healing. If you are going to use the term "socialist," then please go find out exactly what that is so you can participate in a discussion and not make yourself look silly.
Silver Lining #3: Goodbye, Ted Cruz. Goodbye, Josh Hawley. Goodbye, Matt Goetz. Goodbye Louie Gohmert. Goodbye Mo Brooks.
The Trump MAGA cult members of Congress and the Senate are on the run. Not towards the Presidency or some other federal office, but away from the anger and disgust that is growing daily because of their insensitivity, continued perpetuation of lies and deceit, and the role they played in helping spread the lies that led to the Trump Insurrection.
Ted Cruz is probably the most duplicitous, dishonest, conscience-deprived opportunist in the Senate. During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump pulled one of his most disgusting mud-slinging lies out and threw it at Cruz. He baselessly accused Cruz's father of being a conspirator in the Kennedy assassination. He insulted Cruz's wife, calling her "ugly" and leaving the impression that she had a checkered past. Cruz was pretty upset about it for a while until he realized what direction things were going and saw Trump starting to gather support. It wasn't long before the offense was forgotten and sucking up to a narcissist became Cruz's priority.
After the Trump Insurrection, Cruz continued his baseless challenge to Arizona's electoral votes. In spite of the fact that Arizona conducted two full audits of its two most populous counties, checked every signature on every envelope of every mail-in ballot against the voter registration database twice, and conducted three full audits of its vote-counting machines with members of both parties signing affidavits that they observed no irregularities, "Lyin' Ted" (Trump's nickname for Cruz) continued his effort to keep Trump's favor. Let this sink in. Forty-three of Cruz's colleagues in the Senate, including Texas Senator John Cornyn, voted against Ted Cruz. And now, many of them are calling for his resignation.
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, also a duplicitous opportunist who flips and flops in the direction he thinks will get him the most support, made a calculated error that will likely prove fatal to his future, and also likely to force him to resign his Senate seat. He got caught in a photograph with a raised clenched fist saluting the approaching traitors as he headed into the Capitol. It's not very likely he didn't know what was coming. He also had Presidential ambitions that fell by the wayside when 44 of his fellow GOP senators voted down his baseless challenge to Pennsylvania's electoral vote which had been upheld a few weeks ago by a unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court. Contrary to Trump and Guiliani's lies, Pennsylvania's vote was the most audited, checked and counted of any of the six battlegrounds stated they tried to challenge and the Secretary of State dutifully set aside over 10,000 ballots on Justice Alito's instructions because they arrived after election day. Those ballots have still not been counted.
Gohmert and Goetz, among other extremists in the House, signed on to the lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general demanding that Pennsylvania's votes not be counted. They offered no evidence and of course, the court rejected the challenge, not because of a lack of evidence, but because it was a complete violation of the United States Constitution. States are given full authority, under the Constitution, to pass any laws they feel are necessary and which will help them organize and conduct an election. These baseless challenges alleged that Pennsylvania's state officials illegally bypassed the state legislature by expanding the mail-in, absentee balloting beyond what the law allowed. But that was a lie. In fact, the Pennsylvania legislature, both houses with Republican majorities, overwhelmingly passed that law in March of 2020. There is no deadline in either the US or Pennsylvania constitution for passing election laws.
Brooks, well, Brooks is just Brooks. He'll be ousted.
The court threw the case out because the basis of it was a lie. Those members of the house who signed on to it are now subject to censure, or to the possibility of not being seated and it appears that the leadership is giving serious consideration to the latter. Yep, we certainly do have free speech, but with free speech goes big responsibility. Trump is a pathological liar and those who have learned to imitate him are about to find out that they are going to be held responsible. I'd suggest that the House throw all 140 Republicans who signed on to that frivolous and baseless lawsuit out. After all, no one is above the law.
Silver Lining #4: The Extremist Right-Wing Media is Paying an Immediate Price
You didn't expect any kind of repentant humility from the likes of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh or Tucker Carlson, did you? I didn't either. But their continued insistence on promoting the lies that led to the insurrection, and pushing the same phony "evidence" that even clueless Rudy wouldn't take to the courts because it was so obviously phony, has led to a steady decline in their ratings. Hannity got pretty shrill about it yesterday, which was also the third straight day his show's ratings lost to MSNBC and CNN, which posted record numbers for their weeknight news shows. Rachel Maddow has consistently been at the top of the ratings 70% of the time since just after the mid-term elections, but on Thursday and Friday, every MSNBC and CNN commentator's shows beat their Fox counterparts. Yes, I said CNN. MSNBC moved into direct competition with Fox and has stayed there for most of the Trump administration. But CNN is now there, too.
But the best part is that advertisers and sponsors, not wanting to be associated with lies that caused a mob insurrection against the United States Capitol and the Congress, are canceling their contracts. Fox, of course, is silent but the list of sponsors who are telling them to drop the lies or they are leaving is growing every day. A lot of extremists have moved over to propaganda outlets Newsmax or Brietbart, but those numbers are tiny compared to the number of Americans who now access the New York Times and the Washington Post every day.
There is a mountain of evidence that proves the accusations of massive voter fraud, and the more lunatic accusations of Venezuelan conspiracies and the company that manufactured the vote-counting machines to be baseless lies. There were more Trump supporting Republicans who served as official poll watchers in this election than ever before and none of those who actually signed in as poll watchers reported any irregularities. The people who made those allegations were paid by Giuliani to lie and he carefully avoided putting them in front of a judge where he could be disbarred and they could be arrested for perjury. Free speech is a precious right, but it goes hand in hand with responsibility. You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater and not receive consequences. Likewise, you can't whip people up into a frenzy by lying about massive voter fraud, incite them to commit sedition by an armed insurrection against the Capitol and Congress which caused the deaths of five people and get away with it. Any media outlet which has continued to promote these baseless accusations is subject to the full extent of the law.
Oh, the current administration doesn't care. But the next one does, and as of Wednesday, it has the power to shut down the liars. There are options for them to bring criminal charges which I hope they do. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media cut the President off, and they went to court first to make sure they could do it. They can, legally. The extremist right-wing media has been lying and creating this divisiveness in our politics for decades, going back to Rush's very first lies. It is time to fine them until it hurts and shut them down. That's not censorship, it's responsible free speech.
It's My Country Too!
I was extremely disappointed in 2016. Hillary Clinton bested Trump by three million votes, but a narrow margin of fewer than 60,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan gave Trump enough electoral votes to win. There were irregularities, especially with electronic voting machines in two Pennsylvania counties which delayed the count for hours. In Wisconsin, there were some concerns that voting machines may have been hacked. By then, there was clear evidence of Russian interference and there were those who felt that was enough to challenge the results of the election. I certainly did.
But Mrs. Clinton said no, even under those circumstances. Her words of concession were gracious in spite of the fact that Trump had been, well, his usual nasty self. In a matter of just a few days, Trump was sitting in the White House as a guest of the Obamas, who welcomed him and immediately began to facilitate the transition to the new administration. As a patriotic, loyal, proud American, I did what other patriotic, loyal, proud Americans who were disappointed with the election did. I accepted the results, went on with my life, kept informed and aware of what was going on and waited for my next chance to vote because that is how Americans do it.
After two years, it was clear to me that Trump was incompetent, inept, corrupt, and lacked the character to serve as President of the United States. When the mid-terms rolled around, I cast my votes for candidates who held similar perspectives and who I knew would not enable or support this President. Both the Senate candidate I voted for and the Congressman won their elections. Two more years of Trump and I did not change my mind. Long before the nomination process was over, I was committed to voting for whomever the Democrats nominated. In November, I voted, and along with 80 million legal votes of other Americans across all 50 states, Joe Biden succeeded in gaining enough electoral votes to win.
How is it that people think Trump was more popular than he really was? His Presidency was a failure all the way around.
- That border wall that was going to be built (during his first term I might add) and that Mexico was going to pay for has not been build, and Mexico has not paid a dime, especially not in the "trade deal" where Trump said it would happen. Our trade deficit with Mexico has grown during the past four years. There are about 58 miles of "new" wall construction along the border, most of what has been spent has gone to segments of the wall that already existed and the project, which stole money designated for military family benefits, is bankrupt.
- Eighty percent of Americans, most of them making less than $100,000 a year, had their taxes increased while the wealthiest 0.01% had theirs reduced by trillions. Fail.
- Trump moved the unemployment needle from 4.5% to 3.8%, er, ah, 7.0%. Obama moved it from 10.5% to 4.5%. Clinton moved it from 9.6% to 3.9%.
- There's no question among almost two thirds of the American people that Trump has miserably failed in his handling of the biggest crisis his administration faced, the COVID epidemic. It's hard to say how many lives could have been saved, how many jobs, how much of the economy, if we had executive branch leadership. What has been accomplished has been done by governors and those who were most pro-active got overwhelmingly re-elected.
- The attempt to get dirt on Biden by bribing the Ukrainian government, for which Trump was impeached, is one of the most corrupt acts by an American President in history. His incitement of the insurrection at the Capitol was the single worst thing any American President has ever done. So much for patriotism and "law and order."
When the Senate refused to hear any of the evidence presented against Trump during his impeachment trial and simply refused to remove him from office even though the House proved its case, I was disappointed. Actually, I was outraged at the sheer partisan political wall that protected criminals and refused to hold them accountable. But at no point would I have ever considered responding to a social media invitation to try to overthrow or disable the government. There were no such invitations. All of that frustration and energy was channeled into the 2020 election where it accomplished what the Senate wouldn't do. The people removed Trump from office, legitimately, peacefully, and in a patriotic, American way. That's because I love my country. I may disagree with some of its politicians, even passionately, but I would never seek to do harm to anyone who is serving the public as a member of Congress, the cabinet, the presidency, the judiciary.
Maybe, just maybe, in the aftermath of this horrific, anti-American, Trump Insurrection, the shock will help get us back on the path of reconciliation, healing, and healthy political debate. Well, I can dream.
*Note on the opening statement
Some of the response I've seen from readers of this piece prompt a further explanation. I am not judging anyone who may identify as Christian and who participated in this insurrection. There were, according to eyewitnesses, some indications that Christian slogans and symbols were worn by some of those entering the Capitol. I don't doubt that, Christian symbols are part of the culture and are found everywhere, not always meaning the same thing to the person using them as they do to you.
From my perspective, being a Christian is an experience defined in the Bible's teachings. It is a spiritual experience that is more than just intellectual assent to an idea. It involves believing that God exists and that he interacts with his human creation through the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin which separates us from Him, that the conviction brings about repentance and that repentance leads to restoration with God through the person of Jesus who was God in the flesh and whose purpose was to bring about redemption through the sacrifice of his death. Restoration to God is a gift of grace, not a human effort. The human response is gratitude for forgiveness and restoration and faith in God's presence, guidance, protection and interaction with us, and demonstrating this by following those principles and precepts found in the Bible leading to a life with a fulfilled purpose and blessings from God.
So if you got this far, there are some specifics of Christian faith and practice that relate to behavior which should be a visible characterization of someone who claims to be a Christian. These are more specific to the subject at hand:
- Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. Matthew 5:9
- You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Matthew 5:43-48
- You have heard that it was said, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. Matthew 5:38-40
- But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
- Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you; yet do this with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. I Peter 3:13-17
- If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother."
- And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31. (Note: Jesus defined "neighbor" in the parable of the good Samaritan.)
- Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all. Colossians 3:11
That's enough to develop a consistent perspective of what behavior and practice identifies one as a Christian. I'll be the first to admit that I experience lapses in judgement and failure to live up to these principles and expectations. I am not going to make a determination that someone who claims to be a Christian and who pushed their way into the Capitol on Wednesday isn't a true believer. What I am saying is that the behavior and intentions exhibited by the rioters in the US Capitol Wednesday is contrary to any principle governing Christian life found in the Bible and would be, for any Christian involved in it or watching and being supportive of it, clearly a matter of conviction and conscience.
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