1. With the country so divided and any administration’s need to make difficult decisions on issues that negatively impact one side or the other, it will be exceedingly difficult for any party to secure re-election to the Presidency. Our political calendar will be like a pendulum in a large grandfather clock, moving to one side and then the other. Mid-term elections will signal popular satisfaction with the incumbent party, or dissatisfaction. Their outcomes will alter the political landscape and either increase or reduce the power and maneuverability of the party in power. The public will always answer the clarion call for CHANGE.
2. Character no longer matters when it comes to the Presidency. It is all about the policies and the perception of benefits to constituent groups within our society. Many leaders of white evangelical churches have led their flocks to trade spiritual power and the true meaning of Christ’s teachings for the perception of political power. This will go down as a historic nadir in the life of the American church. Yet another obstacle has been placed in the path of missionaries sent overseas by American evangelical churches and mission entities.
3. Civility and integrity have been casualties of the American political process, especially on the Republican side. Only God knows how mainstream Republicans could silently tolerate Trump’s blatant lies, hypocrisy, fearmongering, and mean-spirited statements about his political opponents, the press and all who dare to criticize him.
4. Surprisingly, not all women are upset about the overruling of Roe v. Wade, and the draconian laws that have been enacted in Republican controlled states that put their reproductive health care decisions in the hands of politicians and lawyers rather than family and physicians. That issue was clearly way back in the list of what many voters saw as pivotal issues, like inflation and the high cost of living, immigration and crime control.
5. With such a large portion of our citizens dissatisfied with the way our Constitutional system has been working, we are clearly at a tipping point on whether our democratic republic will survive the next four years. The wealthy and largely white power holders are NEVER going to allow a coalition of minorities and liberal whites to wrest power from them, to in effect use the legal and tax systems to transfer wealth to the poor and disenfranchised. Both Plato and De Tocqueville recognized this reality, and wrote that when a democratic republic fails, it is followed by an authoritarian regime.
6. Disinformation showered down upon an electorate that is entrenched in its views about a whole range of issues and educated under a system that sanitizes our history to exclude systematic violent and racist attacks upon vulnerable minorities by both public bodies and private citizens has eroded the already weakened mortar that holds our society together. AI could finish the job of ending our experiment in government of, by and for the people.
7. Trump’s election could profoundly change the entire global system of political, economic and military alliances. Our allies know it, and surely are game planning various scenarios. Our enemies are ready to benefit from a transactional President who has little appreciation for the history, the values and benefits of alliances.
8. Being elected by the citizens of this country absolves our President of all civil and criminal liability for any past actions that have even the most attenuated link to his official duties. It is sad but true that he represents the character and unbridled self-interest of many of the people who elected him. Watch out, my fellow citizens. Your courage and patience will be tested. All the men and women who attacked the Capitol Building on January 6th will be treated as patriots and pardoned. They will form the core of a militia not unlike Hitler's brownshirts that will be at the ready to help our leader maintain control.
9. Our Supreme Court will forever be seen by many of our citizens as a rubber stamp for an authoritarian executive. When necessary, as in the recent Virginia case involving systematic removal of voters from the election rolls, the Supreme Court can act in a matter of days to support the faction that put conservative Republicans in the driver’s seat. While the vast majority of lower courts, both federal and state, continue to maintain guard rails against violations of and threats to the rule of law, eventually the Supreme Court will have an opportunity to address the problem.
10. Lastly, I pray that our country and people will survive the combination of domestic and foreign threats that it now faces. I will pray for all our elected leaders, including our new president, because that is what my faith commands. But I will hold fast to my faith in an all powerful, loving God, who will ultimately control our destiny as a nation and people, and indeed His entire created world. Amen.
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