What should the majority of Americans do should Joe Biden win the presidency in two weeks with the supporters of President Trump to reclaim a United States of America? According to Russ Joseph’s “A Radical Proposal for Dealing with Trump Supporters After Biden Wins,” published last week in medium.com, put aside differences and reach out to them.
It’s understandable and high-minded. But it isn’t very smart, because it ignores recent history.
What folks might not understand or appreciate is the depth of animosity of Trump supporters toward anyone who disagrees — and not only that but that such animosity against “liberals” has been percolating for decades before he came on the scene (I began noticing it way back in 1980, in “Christian” media). Even then, if you knew where to look, you could hear broadsides against the government, the media, the Democratic Party, the “deep state” et al. Today that list has been extended to Black Lives Matter supporters and Antifa activists, the latter of which Trump has accused of burning down city neighborhoods (though in fact it’s been pro-Trump forces causing the riots).
These were the folks who wanted Bill Clinton strung up — for the “crime” of getting elected president — and helped to spread salacious rumors about his sex life. These are the folks who questioned whether Barack Obama was actually born in this country and have referred to his wife Michelle as “he.” And those are just off the top of my head.
Clearly, we’re not dealing with a full deck here. Such folks have forfeited any right to power or authority and ought not to be brought back anytime soon — if ever — because their intent always was, and apparently still is, division.
Joseph tried to make parallels to post-Nazi Germany and Japan after World War II. The difference is that those nations not only recognized where they went wrong but at least made some effort to change their ways and responded when former enemies reached out to them, and both nations are allies today, in large part due to different leadership. Not so here, especially with pro-Trump militia members recently plotting to kidnap governors in two states and try them for “treason” due to their actions to combat COVID-19, linked to the complaint that the only alternative to Trump is “communism.”
Anyway, a better example would be ancient Israel under Roman rule. The Jewish people of that day deeply resented Rome and sought a Messiah who would overthrow it similar to what happened a century earlier when Greece occupied — the impetus for the holiday of Hanukkah — and Jesus became that person (one reason He never volunteered that he was the true Messiah was because the term had political implications that He wanted to avoid). After His ascension, however, that resentment still lingered, which is likely why the Apostle Paul, in Romans 13, instructed the early church, which of course was heavily Jewish, to pray for those in authority — to save itself from bitterness. Eventually, but not right away, the Roman Empire ended up not only conquered but destroyed from within.
Joseph mentioned that “I ... hope you’ll join me and the rest of the Democrats, Independents and Never-Trumpers as we forge a relationship with Trump supporters.”
That simply will not happen, as no relationship is possible or even practical. We can do the “love” thing all we want, but in the Greek, true “love” is synonymous with justice, which often demands confrontation — which they’ve always tried to avoid.
Best to leave them alone otherwise.
1 comment:
I have thought about this piece so many times in the time since you wrote it -- thank you for helping me find the words to talk about this.
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