"Business as Usual" as we Head into the Inauguration of the "Existential Threat to American Democracy"

What do we believe?  Who do we trust?  

The Word "Rigged" is Permanently Linked to "Election" in This Country

There are a few things, as we head into Trump's second inauguration, that are still troubling to me.  After eight solid years of claiming that the elections, both 2016 and 2020, were rigged, and yes, he was whining about 2016 and used the "rigged" excuse to explain away the popular vote, the rhetoric about the election rigging was ramped up, starting with his loss in 2020.  It was his top theme, one that the media helped him trumpet for four straight years, virtually every day.  It worked its way into his campaign, and it was the centerpiece of his self-defense when it came to inciting the Trump Insurrection and the fact that he never conceded.  

Did anyone check this time, to see if there might have been some rigging done by his side?  Of course, after his caterwauling, and the firm insistence of Democrats that the 2020 election was obviously not stolen, it would have seemed hypocritical for Democrats to make that same charge.  All I want to know is that someone was keeping a close eye on it and that all of the steps were taken to make sure that the certified ballots were accurate.  I never heard anything about that from Democrats, except that Harris would do the right thing, concede, and that there would be a peaceful transfer of power.  

And the contrast between this election, and the Trump Insurrection incited following the last one, will be memorable and notable history.  I just want to know whether we made sure Harris really did lose, or whether, after eight years of his describing American elections as rigged, it wasn't something they pulled themselves. 

The Weak Link is the Justice Department 

Jack Smith handed in his resignation.  We got a consolation prize in the release of his report, but it isn't much consolation to realize that the reason the country's biggest existential threat to democracy did not get brought to justice was because an attorney general, appointed by President Biden, deliberately slow-walked and dragged his feet on getting it to trial.  It is apparently damaging enough, given the reaction of Trump and his attorneys.  But this was one of the most egregious examples of gross negligence and incompetence in American history, and the one which will cause the most damage.  

The timely prosecution of those cases by the justice department would have sunk Trump's boat long before the Supreme Court could have attempted his rescue, since, in both cases, immunity would not have applied, even under their ruling.  If Merrick Garland had moved with the same kind of speed he did when a few scattered classified documents turned up in Joe Biden's garage, nothing of the kind like those top secret ones Trump had by the dozens, or with the kind of speed he showed in getting information released in the Hunter Biden investigation, Trump wouldn't be the one being inaugurated on Monday.  

Knowing and believing that Trump is an existential threat to American democracy, and doing absolutely nothing to stop him from running again is a dereliction of duty that both Garland, and President Biden, must share.  I appreciate the President, admire him, and celebrate his accomplishments, but that does not preclude holding him accountable for the Justice Department's inept incompetence.  His old school, partisan status quo approach to politics prevented him from doing what he should have done which was to fire Garland, and replace him with a go-getter who would have nailed this down in six months.  And we know that it could have been done, because we've seen it happen before.  

The Democratic Party is Responsible for Dropping the Ball on the 2024 Election

It will bother me every time I think about all of the things that went into this election loss for Harris, including the failure of a Democratic-appointed attorney general to prosecute crimes against Trump with the same enthusiasm and speed he did against the Bidens.  Why he wasn't fired, regardless of how political that might have looked, is beyond my ability to understand, and it has created doubts in my mind about the sincerity of the whole anti-Trump movement in the Democratic party.  His existential threat to American democracy was not taken as seriously as they made it sound, or that scenario would have played out much differently.  

I'm a lifelong Democrat.  The trust I have in the party has eroded considerably over the past six months.  The failure to follow through on what were some pretty solid plans for the Biden administration to be a "transitional Presidency," laying the groundwork for continued control of the White House once the Trump menace was defeated and gone, is partly responsible for his ability to run again and get elected.  And while I know it is difficult to convince a career politician like Joe Biden to step down when it was most prudent to do so, at the end of his term, and make that announcement far enough in advance to permit Democrats to have a primary and nominate a candidate with enough time to campaign, that was, in hindsight, something that should have been done.  If he was willing to step aside for the sake of the country 100 days before the election, he should have been willing to step aside a year earlier for the same reason. 

All that pearl clutching, hysterical confusion following the debate, especially the open influence of the rich donors, which did not give off the kind of image Democrats needed at this time, was costly enough to cost us the election, considering how narrow the margins actually turned out to be.  Those three weeks of a party in clear disarray, with oligarchs vying for control of it, was profoundly damaging and was, I believe, a contributing factor in keeping enough people at home to hand this over to Trump.

And now, well, the response of Democrats to this election loss stands in contrast to the response of Republicans when they lost in 2020.  I'm not saying we should have stormed the Capitol and created a ruckus like the Trump Insurrection.  But the silence has been noticeable enough to prompt quite a bit of reaction that is showing up in the audiences of daytime talk shows like Stephanie Miller and Thom Hartmann. There's also a high level of frustration coming from listeners on our local progressive radio station here in Chicago.  The appearance is of politicians and bureaucrats protecting their turf, jobs and paychecks, not of real anxious feelings over what's about to happen when the worst President in American History is inaugurated for a second term.

The inability of Democrats to get in front of the messaging, and to control the narrative, has been one of the biggest problems all along.  I've made the statement that Trump got media coverage for most everything he said or did, from the day he left the White House, every day, several times a day, while the Biden Administration's achievements occurred in relative silence.  It is unprecedented, the amount of coverage Trump got over a sitting President, and it appeared that Democrats either didn't know how to get past that, or kept up with their own protocols and status quo politics, hoping that reason would beat insanity.  

It failed. 

And why it is that someone, somewhere, either at the DNC, or in the Congressional and Senate delegations, or the Biden Administration itself, couldn't figure out how to get past that obstacle, and grab control of the narrative, is beyond my understanding.  I know Biden doesn't like to do press conferences because of his stutter, and that his voice can appear to be weak, but this was a failure at several levels.  The loss of Jen Psaki as an administration press secretary was huge, and left a big hole that never got filled.  The DNC seemed to be underfunded and out of it.  

So, we're about to see exactly how much of a threat Trump is to American Democracy.  Among Democrats, it ranges from the passive belief that no elected office holder can drastically change government, and while the policy will be crazy, and the threats insane, the guardrails will hold, to the belief that dictatorship will show itself in an array of executive orders on day one, making it difficult to preserve those elements of the constitution that provide guard rails against dictatorship.  

If we have the opportunity, then Democrats need to completely overhaul the party, including setting aside old school status quo politics, and elevating younger leaders to positions of responsibility, younger leaders who are willing to take risks, be bold, and who don't care about protocol.  And, who will fight back with intelligent rhetoric, reason and facts, making ideological progress of the Heritage Foundation difficult, if not impossible.  

Speculation is Not Necessary, We Are Entering a Political No-Man's Land

The only hope I have right now, that America will emerge from this nightmare with enough of the constitution intact to rebuild what will almost certainly be torn down, is the inept incompetence of Trump and the people he is choosing for his administration.  His first term in office was a complete failure, and he did have some people around him who were competent enough to prevent the collapse of the government.  This time, so far, there are few people he's chosen for his administration who are competent, capable leaders, or who have any respect or loyalty to the United States.  

The second term will be worse than the first.  The question is, are there still enough guardrails in place to prevent permanent damage from happening?  Nothing this man does is harmless, though nothing he does is successful, either.  How long it will take for people to realize he's not going to bring down their grocery or gasoline prices, and their mortgage payments, and taxes, will continue to go up?  With the weakest, most ineffective leadership we have ever had in the House, it remains to be seen what will happen in the Senate.  

And I'm waiting to see what Democrats do.  Some, I'm sure, will sit back and protect their salary and their job if they can.  We'll see if the boldness and the kind of leadership we need at a time like this, which will include being confrontational enough to keep Trump off balance and bumbling around, comes to the surface, or if the old political status quo still runs the party.  I'm a little bit concerned about the ability of the Democratic party to be the kind of opposition necessary to hold back all of the possible scenarios that come with a second Trump Presidency.  We didn't do very well in bringing him to justice as an insurrectionist, even with the evidence we had, which was pretty damning.  I hope that we summon a little more boldness and aggressiveness than that this time.

Can White, American Christianity be Forgiven After November 5th's Election of the Most Morally Bankrupt Man in History?

Baptist News Global: The (unforgiveable) Sins of the White, American Church

"In recent decades," says retired United Methodist, former Southern Baptist pastor Martin Thielen, "the sins of white Christian American have been fully ecumenical."  These include

• the poisonous political partisanship of the conservative, Evangelical church
• the subservience of women
• the denomization of the LGBTQ community
• the scourge of white, Christian nationalism
• the depraved, pedophile priest scandal of the Roman Catholic Church, with almost no accountability for abusive priests or the bishops who covered it up
• endless and ruthless battles over human sexuality

"Of course, these sins (and many others) in the American church didn't form in a vacuum," he says.  
"From the earliest centuries of Christianity, the church has engaged in horrific behaviors, including the Inqisition, the Crusades, witch burnings, bloody religious wars, child abuse at indigenous boarding schools, indifference during the Holocaust, and a steady stream of intolerance, racism and sexism, just to name a few," he says.  

As an institutional expression of the Christian gospel, found in the New Testament, preached and taught by Jesus, that's a terrible record.  Defined by a set of virtues known as the Beatitudes, found in both Matthew's and Luke's record of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which include, among other virtues, the blessedness of humility, mercy and peacemaking, labelled as the "salt of the earth" and "the light of the world," and placing the highest value of faith practice on loving God with all of one's being and existence, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves, it is a testimony to the strength of the gospel itself that Christianity became the predominant faith of Europe, and by extension the Americas, in spite of its record as an institution.  

The institutional church isn the church that Christ established.  There's a clear difference between the practice of the Christian gospel outlined by Jesus in the gospel accounts, which was a lifestyle described as both "salt" and "light," to be lived as a set of principles aimed at lifting people up, addressing their needs, including spiritual and emotional needs, and physical needs as necessary, and the church that has become anchored to its property and assets, and has intoxicated itself on wealth and power acquired from becoming a pawn of the political state.   Jesus reinterpreted the old covenant, lifting the practice of the worship of God out of theocracy and into a spiritual kingdom open to all of the people of the world.  But centuries of Christian leadership has turned it right back into the very thing that Jesus didn't want it to become. 

The very essence of the Christian gospel can be discerned by reading just a couple of printed pages found in Matthew's gospel, from Chapter 5 to 7.  In addition to the virtues found in the beatitudes, Jesus laid out what placing faith in, and practicing, the Christian gospel would look like.  At the very top of that long list of practices, all of which are aimed at lifting people up, not putting them down, is the commandment to love God as one loves themselves, and then, to equate loving God with loving our neighbor in the same way, defining "neighbor" as encompassing all of the other human beings with whom we come in contact.  

To be accurate, there have been Christians down through the centuries of the church's existence who have resisted the temptations of worldly power and wealth, in the same way Jesus is said to have resisted those temptations, in the narrative just before the Sermon on the Mount appears.  But looking at the long history of institutional Christianity, throughout its more than 2000 years of history, the overwhelming record that the church has made for itself greatly overshadows the kind of church existence that Christ preached, and admonished the church to follow.  The world would be a much different place if the church had fulfilled its purpose to live the gospel of Christ, instead of to become a theocratic, politically driven institution.  

"Like many other Christians," says Thielen, "I've chosen to forgive the church for its long list of infractions, including the ones it inflicted on me, personally," he says.  

In his own personal testimony,  Thielen explains the process of deconstruction and rebuilding of his own personal faith.  He talks about having lost faith in a literal Bible, the Evangelical church and its tradition doctrines, in the providence of God, in institutional religion, and in the traditional view of God that those of us raised in a more conservative tradition were taught to accept without question.  But in spite of that, he has retained his faith in God, love for Jesus and the values of the Christian gospel, appreciates the good that the church does in spite of its massive flaws, engages in Christian ministry, and experiences community with other Christians.  He says he is on a hiatus from institutional Christianity right now, living a Christian life free from traditional religious trappings.  

Can the White, Conservative, Evangelical Church in America Survive the Results of the November 5th Election? 

Thielen says that what pushed him into his hiatus from the pastorate and the church was the support given to Trump which helped him win the election.  There's no question that he could not have won without the support of countless white, Evangelical church members, who couldn't have provided that kind of support for someone as morally, ethically and spiritually bankrupt as Trump without complete abandonment of the principles and teachings of the Christian gospel. 

I agree.  Trump supporters simply separated their convictions from the politics, an act of direct disobedience for, and defiance of the Christian gospel.  And from my own perspective, while I still hold all of my values, care about the church, engage in the ministry, and work on living a Christian life, which includes believing in and worshipping God, I can't go back to an identity which uses the same terminology, and I have completely separated from any church that remotely looks Evangelical.  Part of the reason for the intrusion of licentious Trumpism into their churches is that their doctrine is wrong, and their theology, the perception of God that they worship, is wrong. 

It's not so easy to forgive this grievous apostasy of the branch of Christianity in which I grew up.  When this has been part of your life, starting at a relatively early age, in my case, before I can even remember, it is difficult to discern truth, because, in their fierce defense of their own perspective, they proclaim themselves as being fully righteous and doctrinally correct, while everyone else who doesn't subscribe to their biblical literalism and the legalistic fundamentalism it produces is wrong.  Their is no graciousness in their treatment of other Christians who do not share their own narrow view of the gospel.  

Southern Baptists actually split over the issue of biblical inerrancy, as the majority of the churches rejected what its universities and seminaries were teaching.  The end result of that split was that conservatives retained control of the trustee boards of the mission boards and seminaries, purging professors and inserting Jerry Falwell-Jack Hyles-Lee Roberson type fundamentalists in their place.  The more moderate churches formed their own fellowships, withdrawing from the SBC, while the universities and colleges escaped fundamentalist control by declaring their trustees self-perpetuating, some of them, like Wake Forest University and Baylor University establishing their own theological seminaries.  

White, conservative, American Evangelicalism will survive this current political captivity, but not intact.  In fact, denominations, and independent churches identified as Evangelical, including the fundamentalists, the Pentecostals and Charismatics, and a large swath of independent, non-denominational churches have seen as much as 30% of their membership and attendance dry up over the past decade, clearly the direct result of the intrusion of right wing extremism that includes a good dose of licentious Trump politics.  This intrusion, similar to what the Apostle Jude alluded to in his epistle, v. 4, has changed the nature of the church so much that it is no longer Christian in its identity.  And so, those whose convictions and conscience won't let them remain are either leaving, or they are purifying their congregations from the pulpit, making it uncomfortable for the right wing political extremists to stick around. 

Many, such as Thielen, have switched to more liberal churches in more liberal denominations.  Some have formed new churches, committed to keeping politics out, preaching against the heresy of Christian nationalism and the anti-Christian philosophy of white supremacy.  They will survive by deliberately keeping their congregants in ignorance, but will lose a lot of their influence.  It took over 80% of white, conservative Evangelicals to get Trump just enough of an edge to win this time, a considerably higher percentage of a shrinking number.  And if the second Trump administration becomes an even worse train wreck than the first one was, and I think it will, it will permanently damage American Evangelicalism.  

Forgiveness is unconditional in the Christian gospel, but it never abrogates the consequences of our actions.  

Justice, American Style

Those noises that people heard this morning, coming from cemeteries, burial plots and tombs in places like Mt. Vernon, Virginia, in the Christ Church burial yard in Philadelphia, near Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, in the Park Street Church cemetery in Boston, in the Trinity churchyard in New York, and scattered up and down the east coast, were the founding fathers of the United States of America, rolling over in their graves.  It's been happening quite a bit lately, as the constitutional democracy they carefully designed, debated, and finally drafted and ratified has come unravelled.  The noises were just a bit louder today, as the rule of law died with them.  

For the first time in American history, what these men found so unimaginable they provided no contingency or provision for its occurrence, a man convicted of a felony will take the oath of office as President of the United States.  What that says about the character of the country itself, the failure of its leadership, the lack of moral values of a plurality of its electorate, the ineffectiveness of its judiciary and legal system, and its respect for the rule of law is disgraceful.  

And what will the consequences be, down the road, as a result of teaching our children that there are certain people who are above the law?  How will they learn to have respect for a law that only applies to certain people, not to everyone equally?  

A Travesty of Justice

Thirty-four felony convictions, warranting a sentence that is basically no sentence at all doesn't make any sense, unless the judge was bribed, or his family threatened with their lives, or that he thinks Trump is right, and this is all just a witch-hunt, he's being persecuted, he's right and he didn't do anything wrong in spite of the fact that a jury of his peers believed, based on the evidence, he committed 34 serious crimes. Otherwise, such a sentence gives Trump's claims of this being the result of a partisan witch-hunt all the credibility he needs to take advantage of it.  Basically, this is jury nullification.  

As a progressive, especially when it comes to law enforcement and the administration of justice, I've never really been in favor of laws that mandate sentences for specific crimes.  On the other hand, the latitude that is often placed in the hands of judges implies a high level of trust in their impartiality which too many are unable to exercise, unfortunately, especially in this highly charged partisan, political climate. A mandated sentence here would have guaranteed that Trump would suffer some consequence for his crimes, and he should have.  

Aside from owing the American people, or at least, those of us who still understand and respect the rule of law, an apology, the judge owes every person in America who is serving a sentence for committing a felony an apology.  Frankly he also owes it to us to resign.  Or he needs to come up with a reasonable and logical explanation to millions of younger Americans why they should continue to respect the rule of law when the President-elect of the United States does not have to.  

Come on, people, let's not tip-toe around the reality of this situation.  This is what a travesty of justice looks like.  

Grasping at Straws

When indictments for the instigation of the Trump Insurrection on January 6th, 2021 and for the stolen classified documents were handed down, was there ever a reasonable expectation that he would ever be brought to trial, even at that point?  I watched every moment of the Congressional hearings, and they made a very solid case.  I also watched some of the reaction to the results of that from conservatives, and they, too, were pretty convinced that he was going down.  It wasn't so much what they said as it was how they said it.  

That was the time for bold action on the part of the Biden Administration and the justice department on behalf of the American people.  But they stuck to their old school, status quo themes, of wanting to separate politics from the justice department, and in maintaining a separation between the President and the Attorney General.  And the failure to bring Trump to trial for his crimes will be the historic black mark on Biden's otherwise excellent record.  

The special prosecutor, and at least one of the federal judges involved in the January 6th case did an excellent job of building their case on evidence that bypassed the Supreme Court's immunity standard, at least, the way it now stands.  If they had tried this in a timely manner, instead of permitting endless delays, and pushed to get it on the docket and in the courtroom in a timely manner, instead of letting it drag on for four years, they'd have had a conviction for insurrection that would have prohibited the GOP from nominating the orange buffoon.  

That would have been a convincing argument, and sound support for the Democrats' contention that they believed Trump was an existential threat to American democracy.  But the interminable delays, obfuscation, foot dragging, slow walking and long periods of no action at all, admitted to by the attorney general, are inexcusable, and they were fatal to the cause.  

Why are we even bothering to fuss about releasing documents associated with both cases?  What difference will that make now?  Crowing about the fact that the DOJ smacked Aileen Cannon down, and about releasing documents being dark days for Trump is a pitiful consolation prize against the dismantling of the rule of law that this represents.  

I call things the way I see them.  There are multiple factors involved in why Harris lost the election, including the decision by Biden to drop out made way too late, after so much support had already eroded.  But I think a lot of that support would have been there, if those cases had been brought to trial.  I don't expect polling data to tell the truth about anything at this point, but I think the failure to back up the claim about Trump's threat to the country with a viable, strong, solid case in the courts was a fatal blow to the party's chances at holding on to the White House.  It was part of way too much old school, status quo politics, that lacked boldness for support.  

Maybe I Should Be Patient and Wait on the Public Outrage That Should be Accompanying This Travesty 

I've concluded, by my own observation, that Trump is indeed an existential threat to democracy in America, based on his record from his first term in office and the threats he has made since.  He hasn't hidden who he is, though he whines and complains when people are honest about it.  But I don't perceive, from the manner in which the justice department has handled these cases, and from their acquiescence, instead of putting up a fight to get these cases into the courts, that Democratic party leadership believe this, or that they care all that much.  

All in all, from a political perspective, Democrats held on to a lot.  We lost a couple of good Senators in Bob Casey and Sherrod Brown, and a couple of losers in Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema.  We picked up a top notch Senator in Ruben Gallego, gained seats in the house, gained seats in multiple state legislatures breaking down GOP gerrymandering like Wisconsin and North Carolina.  So there are plenty of Democrats still holding on to their jobs.  We've heard a few peeps about the mid-terms, though the lack of bold innovation and energy has to be a lot higher than it is now.  

I'm a lifelong Democrat, and after what transpired with these court cases against Trump, I'm giving notice that my vote must now be earned by candidates.  Don't expect my support just because we happen to be in the same party.  The Republicans abandoned the status quo, old school political line a long time ago, and they now get the money they need to buy elections, tips from the billionaires for whom they work.  It's time for Democrats to empower younger leaders who will take bold risks to serve the American people.  

I'm talking about bold moves like breaking the Senate filibuster and then using the majority we had to pack that damn court with justices who would overturn the Dobbs decision and the ridiculous immunity ruling.  We could have done that.  Yes, it's risky, especially when the other side gets into power, but they're going to do the same when it suits them, so why not take the risk and get a job done for the American people, instead of circling the wagons to hang on to what power we can?  

I'll never vote Republican.  But I can leave boxes on my ballot blank, and I will do that to any politician who still wants to play by the old school rules, or who appears to be more interested in hanging on to power than serving the American people.  It's likely that we may never have that opportunity again, given the circumstances.  So on top of that, we need leaders who will fight against the tyranny that has been proposed.  We may need to fight to even have a mid-term election.  

We will certainly have to rebuild our justice system.  It should never, under any circumstance, take four years to gather evidence and prosecute a case.  

This Week of Memorials to Jimmy Carter is Emphasizing the Stark Contrast Between His Strong, Christian Faith and Trump's Worldly, Immoral Corruption

As attention once again focused on America's 39th President, Jimmy Carter, following his death at 100 years of age, the stark contrast between his Christian faith, which he characterized for Americans unfamiliar with conservative Evangelicalism back in the 1970's by using a term from John's gospel, "Born Again," and the conservative Evangelicals who turned away from Carter to the right, to support a divorced, "B" movie Hollywood actor with no ties to any specific religion, except perhaps the New Age superstitions of his second wife, is noticeable.  Carter, who is the only President to teach Sunday School while serving as President, and who has been a visible and notable role model in exhibiting the characteristics and values of the Christian gospel in his entire public life, stands in contrast to their racism, doctrinal purity and hypocrisy.  

The disconnect between Carter and the right wing Evangelical leadership has a lot to do with their blending of right wing extremist politics with their theology and doctrine, creating heretical principles requiring adherence to doctrinal conformity, and to certain political partisan perspectives as orthodoxy, rather than living the lifestyle that is the Christian gospel of Jesus Christ.  Carter's theology, as exhibited by what he has taught in his Sunday School classes, is consistent with the life he lives and the values he exhibits, which is what the emphasis of conservative Evangelicalism once was.  But the partisan political orientation of most of the rest of America's conservative Evangelicals has led them astray.  

And that's why they can't stand Carter.  People see the difference, and they associate Carter with the Christian gospel of Jesus Christ, and conservative Evangelicals with the partisan legalism they've embraced, including wrapping their arms around one of the most worldly, immoral, licentious-living, corrupt, anti-Christian human beings alive on this planet in Donald Trump.  

And of course, that's getting a reaction.  

Baptist News Global: Al Mohler Says He Hopes Jimmy Carter is Born Again

Baptist News Global: Al Mohler Accuses Jimmy Carter of International Crimes

Baptist News Global: The Moral Hypocrisy of Al Mohler and other Evangelicals of His Ilk

Carter's Faith Has Remained Consistent With His Beliefs For His Whole Lifetime

Carter, a Southern Baptist, was elected in 1976.  Just three years later, the Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest of America's Evangelical denominations, was embroiled in a doctrinal and theological controversy between fundamentalists, influenced heavily by Jerry Falwell and other independent Baptists, and more moderate elements, who were, at the time, represented by a majority on the denomination's executive committee and institutional trustee boards.  The aim of the fundamentalist group was to take over control of each of the six theological seminaries owned by the denomination, forcing them to fire professors who did not adhere to the literalist heresy of fundamentalism. 

It took a decade of campaigning, getting delegates, known as messengers, from churches to the convention annual meeting, but after electing a series of fundamentalist-leaning presidents with appointment powers, by 1989, the Southern Baptist Convention, and its six theological seminaries, two mission boards and Lifeway Christian Publishing house were under complete fundamentalist control.  

The campaign against Carter, let by Falwell and Pat Robertson, along with a Texas evangelist by the name of James Robison, got underway just prior to the 1980 election.  The first sign that the Evangelical political movement would be much more political than it would be Christian came when they chose to support Ronald Reagan's presidential bid.  Reagan clearly had no idea what it meant to be Christian, or what the difference was between Evangelicals and any other Christians but he had advisors who saw the potential swing of votes going from Carter to Reagan under the influence of these obscure leaders.  And so, a man who, by virtue of his divorce and remarriage, would have been ineligible for any leadership role in a church, was supported by these same people to be the political leader of the United States of America.  

Being a peacemaker is one of the prime virtues of the Christian gospel.  Jesus himself not only mentions it, but accords those who are peacemakers the honor of being known as "children of God."  But Carter's peacemaking, initially represented by the Camp David Accords, and the negotiation of what has been the longest lasting Middle Eastern peace agreement in modern times, did not sit well with the Evangelical fundamentalists.  Nor did his refusal to impose specific Evangelical beliefs and convictions regarding abortion rights and same gender relationships using the power of the Presidency sit well with them.  Carter held strong convictions regarding the morality of abortion and homosexuality, but he held equally strong convictions about the Presidency upholding the constitution, including the principles of freedom of conscience and separation of church and state and chose the right path in terms of where specific Christian moral issues stood as a matter of law.  

Carter had been opposed to racial discrimination and segregation from the day he was first inaugurated as Governor of Georgia.  And his convictions had led him and his wife, along with a number of other families, to form the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, which welcomed black members and even once called a black pastor.  And that, specifically, may have been what irritated conservative Evangelical leaders the most.  

Within the Southern Baptist Convention, when fundamentalists completed their takeover of the trustee boards and executive committee, effectively controlling all denominational entities, a group of more moderate Baptist churches formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a much more moderate, and more Christian, group of churches and individuals, many of which simply stopped supporting the SBC, though some formally withdrew.  Not only did the moderate Baptists object to the racist white supremacy of the now blended religious and political right, they also objected to their other legalistic stances, including forbidding women from serving as church leaders, specifically in the role of Pastor.  

Maranatha Baptist Church was one of about 3,200 churches which stopped their financial support for the Southern Baptist Convention, and joined the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.  As the gospel of Jesus Christ says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."  

Jesus also said, "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11-12, NRSV.  

Carter did far more for the cause of peacemaking than the Camp David Accords.  He devoted his life and the mission of the center he established in Atlanta to the peaceful resolution of conflicts around the world.  He provided not only leadership, but physical labor to help people realize the dream of owning their own home.  And he taught the Christian gospel, without the interjection of literalist, legalistic fundamentalism and right wing extremism.  

And so it is that the world can see the contrast between a true, born-again Christian in Jimmy Carter, and the worldliness exhibited by Trump, and supported by leaders of American Evangelicalism, who are distancing themselves from true Christianity and showing the true nature of their personal beliefs.  

Would Trump Have Won the Election With a Campaign to Annex Canada, Occupy Greenland, Take Over Panama and Rename the Gulf of Mexico?

It would be difficult to speculate, with the American electorate in such a condition as it is now, lied to by the media, wrapped up in one specific, one-sided media bubble or another, without a lot of facts from which to discern what's true, as to whether Trump's sudden recurring, repeated themes, which have deviated considerably from the attacks on transgendered persons, and exaggerations of the President's ability to control retail prices, would have been winning campaign themes.  People are so ignorant, stupid and blind to reality, all they see is the name, "Trump," and he gets their vote.  

So this craziness, which would be funny if it were part of a skit on Saturday Night Live, but instead is dangerous and fearsome because the senile old man who spouts it off as if it were a recording being replayed over and over is about to enter the most powerful political office in the world, is being treated by the news media with as much of a straight face as they can muster.  It's business as usual, as far as they are concerned, and if the topics sound like a comedy routine from a late night variety show, well, that's just news.  

The news conference Trump gave at Mar-a-Lago a couple of days ago was quite telling.  Whoever does his make-up is having a difficult time hiding his aged appearance.  He has difficulty focusing when anyone else is speaking, and no matter what was said, he has specific themes that get played, as if he's trying to remember his best applause lines from his rallies.  In the middle of some real whoppers, which are easy to detect from the tone of voice, facial expression and hand gestures that accompany every lie he tells, it was hard not to laugh.  And then, every time I laugh, I'm forced to remember that in 12 days, this man will be sitting in the Oval Office, behind the resolute desk, with his finger on the nuclear trigger.  

And, with his finger on every other trigger of the power of the Presidency.  How can we emphasize and underline the fact that we are in real trouble, since that simple phrase sounds to trite and casual to express realistically exactly how bad it is.  

Looks Like a Lot of Help for Putin, and a Lot of Empty Bravado

Personally, I'm systematically shutting down relationships, and a few friendships, with people who still support Trump.  If they are lacking in the ability to see exactly what is going on, of how much of an enemy of American idealism the cult that has formed around this man has become, and who is pulling the strings, controlling what he says and does because he has literally lost his mind, and keeps parrotting the same themes, then I cannot have a meaningful relationship with them.  And I'm not being arrogant, I'm being practical.  I have to keep my own sanity, and I can't be influenced or emotionally driven by responses to that kind of ignorance.  I'm extremely uneasy about living in a country where the political paradigms are shifting and I feel as insecure as I do when I cross the border into Mexico. 

I've heard it pointed out that most of the themes now running through Trump world originate with Vladimir Putin.  January 20th will be similar to Christmas day in Moscow, with Vladimir opening gifts of some things he could not acquire for himself.  I don't think Ukraine will bow the knee to either Trump or Putin, so his loudmouthed bragging about bringing that war to an end on day one will be for naught.  NATO countries have already agreeded to step up their support. Trump has no influence with the Ukrainian government.  They may wind up having to accept Russia's terms, and give up the eastern third of their country, bu

And that's where all the Greenland talk comes in.  Greenland is a large block of ice with a few square miles of land around the edges and about 50,000 people.  Trump claims that "people have been saying the United States needs Greenland for our security for a long time now."  

And what "people" would those be?  Aside from Harry S. Truman, who co-host Rosanna Scotto of Fox New's The Five, claimed wanted to buy it in 1867, 17 years before he was actually born, the same imaginary ones he cites without bothering to check is facts on every other issue?  And let me interject here, and say that if that bit of stupidity and made-up, fake journalism doesn't clue you in on just how untrustworthy, factless, clueless and deceitful the far right wing media is, then that has become the standard by which stupid is measured,

A US takeover or occupation of Greenland would be a hostile act to Denmark, which owns it.  And that causes a rift in the NATO alliance, something Putin would absolutely love to see happen.  If Greenland is necessary for US security, then Denmark, part of the NATO alliance, would recognize and facilitate that need.  But of course, most Americans couldn't even find Greenland on a map.  

Russia has a lot to do with the Panama Canal talk, too.  Trump claims China controls the canal, another one of his big lies.  They don't.  But you won't find any contradicting of his lie anywhere in the media.  Nor is there any justification for the United States taking back control of the Canal Zone.  Our military is always in position to protect the canal, we are allies with Panama and, in fact, our navy already guards the waters on either side, since we do have a two-ocean navy.  But of course, it would be to Russia's advantage to have a friendly Trump deciding who gets to use the canal and who does not.  

Changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico is a genuinely important issue in world politics today.  It ranks right up there with the price of a dozen eggs.  Well, it wouldn't be Trump if there weren't some kind of bigotry and hatred worked into the equation somewhere.  His niece has correctly told us the man is an egomaniac, and can't stand not to be the center of attention and will do whatever it takes to get him there.  Those same imaginary people who have been advocating for a military takeover of Greenland must be muttering about changing the name of a Gulf that forms the entire eastern coast of Mexico. 

I don't expect his base to really care much about any of this, or even have a clue about what he wants to do or why.  What I do hope this helps with is convincing those who voted for him along the margins, either to get back at Biden for his Israel/Gaza policy, or because they though Trump would do a better job bringing down the price of eggs or groceries or gas, that they were stupid and thoughtless when they voted, and that somehow they owe the rest of us our country back as the price for their stupidity and ignorance. 

Too Many Americans Are Past Caring About Their Own Ignorance

Ask Americans to explain how it was that Harry S. Truman wanted to buy Greenland in 1867, when he wasn't born until 1884.  And half the people that are asked will scream and whine about the question being an attack on Fox News, The Five, and Rosanna Scotto, rather than even think about the level of dishonesty displayed by a second rate television journalist on a cable network where lying and distorting facts is an industry. 

Ask Americans who voted for Trump to explain Project 2025.  Most can't.  

The problem isn't at the top, though.  Democrats, under the Biden Administration, had the ability to bring this criminal to justice in the first two years of Biden's term, and the justice department leadership they appointed to get this job done failed, either because they did not take it seriously, or they feared for their own safety, or they were paid off in advance and never intended to do a damn thing.  Sorry, but the blame cannot be fobbed off on the corrupt, inept, incompetent justices Trump appointed to the Supreme Court, or to the corrupt judges he appointed to the federal bench and expected to rule in his favor when he needed her to.  

And outside of those who understand this, and know exactly what we are looking at, people still voted for him, mostly out of complete or deliberate ignorance.  Those who do see this for the insanity that it is are excusing it by saying, "Well, it's just the way he talks, he really doesn't mean it."  But what politician, in his or her right mind, would even engage in ridiculous talk like this, and almost completely abandon the rest of their agenda?  That's the key here, in his right mind.   Trump isn't. 

The biggest fear of the founders who drafted the Constitution in 1787 was that a chief executive of the government would take power as a monarch, not that he or she would be insane or senile.  The provisions of what to do in the event that a President became unable, physically or mentally, to serve in office didn't come along until the 25th amendment was ratified in 1967, 180 years later.  Inciting insurrection wasn't added to the constitution until after the Civil War.  It doesn't appear that any consideration was ever given to the fact that voters would elect someone who was mentally unfit, either by insanity or by senility or dementia, to serve in office.  

Can We Salvage American Constitutional Democracy? 

An informed and educated electorate, something John Dewey considererd essential for the preservation of democracy, doesn't appear to exist in the United States any more. Media control is blatantly one-sided, evidenced by what the ownership of newspapers like the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times have done to throttle even their own political editors.  These are, by the way, among the media outlets who think Trump's erratic, demented behavior and displays of senility are normal, and that political conversations like renaming the Gulf of Mexico or making Canada the 51st state are just post-election norms.  

We can't sit around passively waiting for things to develop. Staying informed will take some effort.  There are groups forming, pushing some of the traditional, old-school political norms some Democrats seem committed to following aside, a measure of predictability that gives the GOP a distinct advantage, and take some bold steps, trying things out to see if they work.  New leadership will arise out of those places where we experience success, some of whom have already demonstrated a measure of boldness, and who have abandoned the old school successfully.  

And I think the most important thing we can do is remind ourselves that, even though some of this conversation and rhetoric coming from Trump is outlandish, threatening, ridiculous and often doesn't make sense, he, too, is restrained by a constutition that gives power to the people, power that we have ways to exercise, even without a majority of seats in Congress.  We're about to see how much erosion of democracy has taken place, and whether or not the rails will still hold.  

For my part, the blog, which may be old fashioned, but it belongs to me, will continue.  I have signed on to support the Leaders We Deserve PAC led by David Hogg.  Anyone who is bold enough to interrupt Andy Biggs in a Congressional Hearing and shout the truth until he is escorted from the room is bold enough for me.  I will step up my involvement in my own, safe blue state, to keep it that way and keep Trump and his feds out.  I have joined and will support Indivisible.  I will volunteer for candidates in my area, and close by, who exhibit the understanding that bi-partisan, old school cooperation with the Trump agenda isn't possible, since it represents an un-American, anti-patriotic perspective.  

We need to get the leadership and the knowledge that we have, collectively, to make sure Democrats take back Congress in 2026.  

 

 

The Bad Side of First Amendment Freedom

Baptist News Global: Trump's False Narrative on January 6th is Gaining Traction 

One of my favorite spots on the face of the earth is the famous "Copse of Trees" along Cemetery Ridge, above the field where Pickett's Charge took place during the Battle of Gettysburg.  The trees at the top of the ridge represent "the high watermark of the Confederacy," the furthest advance of the Confederate army against Union troops on the battlefield.  That's as far as Confederate troops got in their attempt to break the Union lines along the ridge.  It was the point of defeat for Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, and the end of the Confederate advance, the point at which the Union was saved.  

I have a canvas print of a photograph taken at that spot by a parent of former students, while on a field trip to Gettysburg.  It was taken right at sunset, after the clouds had broken up on a rainy day, so the pink and orange color behind the trees helps make a beautiful picture of a place that represents a small, but significant step toward freedom.  

January 6th was an Attack on Freedom and on American Values

We have vivid descriptions of everything that happened on July 3, 1863, including the facts which eventually show that the Confederate soldiers who briefly reached the Copse of Trees along Cemetery Ridge during the Battle of Gettysburg were at what would become known as "the high watermark of the Confederacy."  There's no video of the event, everything that happened there was described out of the collective memory of those who were there and experienced it.  

So how is it, with more video of the Trump Insurrection on January 6, 2021, that the false narratives coming from Trump about what happened that day are "gaining traction"?  What does that say about the value that many Americans place on truth, and integrity?  

I'm going to say this here, because it needs to be said.  Those who are Trump followers do not value truth and integrity, because Trump does not value truth and integrity.  

And there's the bad side of the first amendment.  Freedom of conscience means that even a conscience that lies, or that believes lies, and is intentionally deceitful, is protected under the Constitution of the United States.  

It takes a deliberate choice to be blind to January 6th.  Too many people were there, saw it, experienced it, lived in fear of their lives during it, to deny that it happened, and there are too many facts, openly stated by the more than a thousand individuals currently tried and convicted for participating in it, to put the blame anywhere else but on Trump.  So the only way that the false narrative surrounding January 6th, whether it's the belief that it was just a protest, or that it was peaceful, could gain any traction is for multiple individuals to be willing to surrender their own integrity and intentionally lie about what happened.  

So are lack of integrity, dishonesty and lying the new values of Evangelicals, the GOP and Trump supporters?  

I've Had This Conversation With a Trumper, and it Wasn't Productive

A friend of mine flatly told me that the attack on the Capitol was the work of Antifa.  

"Do you know what 'Antifa' stands for?" I asked.  

"No, they're just terrorists.  They are the ones who attacked the Capitol," he said.  

I decided to take the plunge anyway.  "Antifa stands for 'Anti-Fascist'," I said.  "They believe that Trump is a Fascist, and they are against Fascism, and so they are against Trump.  They would not attack the Capitol and disrupt Congress to support a lie they don't believe, and are fighting to stop," I said. 

I got a blank stare, then, "Well that's what they said on Fox News."  

The theory here is that "Antifa," which is a general term for all anti-Fascists, they're not just one large group, attacked the Capitol to blame Trump and make him look bad.  

My response was, "So name one person associated with Antifa, or with any anti-Fascist group, that has been arrested and charged for what they did in this riot.  Because I can show you that every person being charged is a Trump supporter, and those who organized the break in and gave instructions to the rioters on where to go and what to do are either Proud Boys, or Oath Keepers, both of whom are rabid, violent Trump supporters.  And they're testifying they got their orders from Trump."  

And we're now at the point in the conversation where the facts have brought about an awkward silence.  So I point out that everyone arrested and charged either pled guilty to get a reduced sentence, or went to trial and were found guilty were all Trump supporters who claimed that they got their marching orders from Trump himself.  I point to the electronic communications sent out by Trump, calling the protesters to come to Washington.  And I ask one important question.  

"Didn't you watch the video footage of what went on, and what they did?  There's as much as you want to see."  

And the response to that question was, "No, I haven't seen it."  

That's deliberate ignorance.  That's choosing to be ignorant, and I don't even know how to respond to that. That is a whole new level of dishonesty, a lack of integrity that undermines the trust I have in our relationship, and undermines our friendship.  I can't trust someone who lacks the integrity I think is necessary to sustain a friendship.  This isn't just a difference in perspective, this is a choice to deliberately ignore facts and deny reality because it doesn't fit the political agenda.  I'm not going to get all judgmental and angry, I'm just going to abandon the friendship and walk away.  Maybe, eventually, he will realize what he did. 

A Paradigm Shift in What We Value

This is not the kind of thing we can just ignore while walking past, or pretend it didn't happen, or chalk it up as another historical event.  This represents a paradigm shift in our cultural values.  The politician who claimed the election was stolen, and who continued to press that claim in spite of evidence to the contrary, which is itself an indication of emotional and mental instability, incited an insurrection intended to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the results of a free and fair election, for the first time in American history.  There's so much that's wrong with just those things, it's hard to even put into words the lack of integrity and honesty that represents.  

And then, after obviously inciting an insurrection and sitting in the oval office doing nothing to put a stop to it while law enforcement officers died as a result, which is a crime from any perspective, we, the people, are stymied in efforts to prosecute these crimes.  Letting him walk free is bad enough, but turning around and putting him back in the White House without suffering any consequences of his actions represents a paradigm shift in the values and integrity of Americans.  Clearly, a large segment of the population of this country no longer cares about telling the truth, or about honesty or integrity.  

And the irony of the situation is that those who whine the longest and loudest about the collapse of American values are the ones present who will be helping facilitate this and bring it along.   Thanks to Evangelicals, who clearly value money and power over truth and integrity, our nation may be on the brink of collapse.  We've put a criminal who belongs in prison into the White House.  How much longer do you think it will be before we start putting honest people with integrity in prison for their honesty?

One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous are both like an abomination unto the Lord.  Proverbs 17:15, NRSV

 

It's Been Four Years Since a Mob, Incited by Trump, Stormed the Capitol in an Insurrection Intended to Disrupt the Peaceful Transfer of Power

So it will be that on the fourth anniversary of the now infamous Trump Insurrection, a title which I will use, including capital letters, to communicate exactly what it was, the electoral votes of the former President who incited it will be certified as the winner of the 2024 election.  There's been nothing in American history quite like this, something which the founding fathers of this country could not, on the days when they were speculating about the worst that could possibly happen if they adopted the constitution they had drafted, have ever imagined.  

Today, the uniquely American values that were the result of America's evolution from being part of a colonial empire under the rule of the British monarchy to reaching the heights of world military and economic power as a constitutional democracy, will be tossed aside, trashed, and completely ignored as Congress certifies the electoral vote which will put Trump, the instigator and initiator of the insurrection, back in the White House.  The evil that has succeeded in edging its way back into power, after being defeated, and then showing itself for exactly what it was, has replaced patriotic American values.  A nation that once succeeded in replacing monarchial power with the rule of law has now abandoned that rule of law.  

I honestly have no words which can describe this historical abberration.  It is, in fact, much more than that.  It is a stunning reversal of the growth and development of America as the world's leading democracy, the intrusion of licentious demagoguery, a rejection of the values upon which this country was founded and has existed for over 240 years.  The constitution states that the nation has a government "of the people, by the people and for the people."  If this election really is legitimate, and the people, by a slim majority of those who bothered to vote, but more by the absence of millions who didn't bother, have chosen this as their government, then there have been some massive failures of cultural and social instutitions that once supported individual freedom, and protected individual diversity.  

Elections Have Consequences

We've done this to ourselves.  As far back as the Bush administration, Republicans were supporting plans to divide up and sell the government to the highest bidder.  "Privatize" is always on the table, as is "cut the budget," for the sake of cutting taxes for the wealthy.  And when it comes to controlling the narrative, and getting the message out to the electorate, we had Rush Limbaugh, who constantly advocated for a "winner take all" mentality, abhorring the give and take of bipartisan cooperation and negotiation.  Limbaugh pushed Republicans, who were more often than not a minority, to use any opening they had to stack the justice system in their favor, and to those who were appointed, he offered encouragement to ignore the law and always rule in favor of conservative causes.  

Democrats just couldn't seem to get their voters energized for mid-term elections.  We owe the current conservative majority on the Supreme Court to our party's efforts in mid-term elections being stymied by what was the minority party, because we kept playing the game the old way, long after Republicans changed the rules.  Some of those judges sitting on the federal bench, giving favors to the President who appointed them, rather than ruling according to the law, are gifts of elections we lost this century.

John Dewey, the father of progressive education in the United States, declared that maintaining democracy required an educated electorate.  Republicans, focusing on winning down ballot elections and gaining control of state legislatures during mid-term elections, cut the education budgets whenever they could.  This meant that public schools had to cut budgets, and in order to maintain a focus on more technical, science and math objectives, it meant cutting social studies requirements, which is just fine with Republicans.  And into this gap, in which we have also lost our free press, comes the fascist demagoguery of Trump.  

The Subversion of American Christianity

The blending of several brands of conservative Evangelicalism, including Fundamentalists of the Jerry Falwell and Bob Jones variety, with right wing extremist politics has produced a cult that has tranformed a good segment of American Christendom into an enemy of democracy.  One of the best books directly addressing this subject, prompted by the January 6th, 2021 Trump Insurrection is Defending Democracy From Its Christian Enemies by Dr. David Gushee, Distinguished Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University in Atlanta.  

Gushee points out that Christians in America once embraced democracy, supporting it wholeheartedly, and in the case of some Evangelicals, modeled their church governance in democratic fashion.  He gives a good perspective on how it was that, among the more conservative elements of Evangelicalism, some of its leaders, including Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson who openly organized conservative Evangelicals into political structures to turn the vote to Reagan in 1980, but that underlying their open support was none other than Rev. Billy Graham, and a group of other Evangelical leaders who didn't want to be as open with breaking down the walls of church and state, but who still leaned toward a Christian nationalist perspective with a measure of white supremacy thrown in for good measure.  

They've had to set aside their Christian convictions and values in order to embrace Trump's worldly, licentious lifestyle and blasphemous declarations of not having done anything requiring God's forgiveness, and this has allowed a vacuum to sweep in.  Evangelical leaders who support Trump have given in to the temptation to replace spiritual power to achieve the will of God with worldly power and wealth, which is not God's will for his church.  In so doing, they've become a cult that has misled millions of Americans. 

Can We Prevent the Destruction of Constitutional Democracy

The odds are stacked against that happening at the present time.  We have six justices on the Supreme Court, who have the responsibility for interpreting the Constitution, who have already ruled against its basic principles, and the clear intentions of the founders, to do political favors for the President who appointed them, and who want to use their position for their own accumulation of wealth and power.  And there are plenty of those with the same motives sitting on the federal bench, as we have seen in the case of classified document theft.  

We've lost our free press.  It's not possible, it seems, to penetrate the media bubble in which many Americans seem to be lost.  

We're about to find out exactly how bad it will get.  Whether we can hang on until the mid-terms, or if we can even make a difference at the mid-terms, we are still a long way from finding out.  And when we had the chance, the Justice Department fell short of the mark.  That makes me wonder whether Democrats really did believe Trump was the existential threat to Democracy that was being claimed.  

We will know soon enough.