Who’s crying now?

Last week I tore a Trump bumper sticker off a fleet car that I had picked up for work. The bumper sticker read: “Trump 2020 — make liberals cry again!” (The paper’s editorial board endorsed him for president.)

I thus note, with some irony, just how many people are crying now that he lost that election — and I don’t feel sorry for them. Not one bit. Not only are they crying but they’re also raging, many making the baseless (as it turns out) charge that the election was “stolen,” echoing their fearful leader.

Because if your only or primary purpose in engaging in an election is to humiliate your opponents, you have no business being in power. Folks understand that, which is why he engendered so much hatred — enough to cause those hated liberals to organize against him, beginning in 2018.

And this is what Trump supporters simply don’t care to understand, which is why they’re complaining, essentially, “We wuz robbed!” No, they weren’t. They tend not to talk or listen to anyone else and thus have no idea how much his policies, let alone his attitude, hurt others.

Some people are saying that Trump critics should reconcile with Trump supporters so that we can have a “United States of America” again. I don’t favor that because we’re still dealing with sore losers who see anyone who disagrees with them as an enemy — which is why we’re in this pickle to begin with. Many of these same folks made largely baseless claims about Bill Clinton, wanting him taken out for far less than Trump has admitted to, and hating Barack Obama without cause.

Should the legal challenges to the election stand, and I expect them to, and Joe Biden becomes president in January Trump and his supporters will still be crying. Frankly, they brought that upon themselves; as Jesus Himself said, “The measure you give will be the measure you get back” (Luke 6:38).

False prophets, false prophecies and false prophecy

Probably the biggest earthquake with last week’s election of Joe Biden as president surrounded those in the Christian realm who confidently predicted a landslide by Donald Trump, who they were convinced was God’s “anointed.” When it became clear that he was falling behind in the polls, likely thousands of Trump-supporting Christians fell to their knees in prayer and Paula White, a member of his religious advisory team whom he had known for a decade, called on spirits from Africa and South America to intervene. Indeed, the night after the election several red-hatted believers were spotted praying on the steps of the courthouse in Clark County, Nev. (where Las Vegas, one of the swing regions, is located and votes were being counted).

What that instead resulted in was an embarrassment to the Body of Christ in America, especially since many are still in denial about the outcome.

The first thing to understand about “prophecy” is that it is not “fortune-telling” or “soothsaying” — it’s about declaring the heart, mind and intention of Almighty God in a specific situation. For that reason, prophecy can at times be jarring and, depending on the situation, downright insulting, which is why some of the prophets of old met early deaths — they are as likely as any to say, in effect, “You missed the boat.” Basically, if a “prophet” tells you what you long to hear, you should question whether the person is really speaking for God.

More accurately, the true prophet really doesn’t care whether he or she has an audience or not. When I hear about these so-called prophets with huge followings I immediately become suspicious, wondering if they’re giving the people what they want in order to fleece the flock.

Moreover, a lot of these people take Scripture out of context. Some have referred to Trump as a latter-day King Cyrus, the Babylonian king who allowed Israel to return to her land and try to, shall we say, “make Israel great again,” ignoring the fact that she was sent into exile in the first place for disobedience to the Law of God, and showing no repentance anyway for their gossip toward and character assassination of political opponents. Some even denounce the Democratic Party as “of Satan,” which certainly doesn’t help matters because that expresses a certain arrogance and bitterness that shouldn’t exist in their hearts.

Another major issue is Trump’s incompetence when it came to governance. We saw that specifically during the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer and, more importantly, his inadequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has by now cost over 200,000 lives — I’m not saying that no one would have died, but most of those deaths could and would have been prevented with stronger measures earlier as well as coordination with state governors. See, in this country, we have presidents, not kings who rule by decree, and just because the president wishes something would just go away doesn’t mean it will. After all, we’re not talking about God here.

As things stand now, even though votes are still being counted (and a manual recount ordered in Georgia, where Biden is ahead), it’s likely that Biden still defeats Trump. And if that be the case, what happens to the prognosticators who clearly failed? It’s not that God has — perhaps He’s elevating Biden to that office for His purposes. Furthermore, hopefully such folks would learn to hear from God rather than project their desires for political and cultural power onto Him, because when you do that you negate the Power of the Holy Spirit.

And if Biden wins …

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.

A ‘Hail Mary’ pass

You may have heard of the story in the New York Post last week about a new twist on the old, debunked story that Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter was trading on his father’s name while being on the board of an energy company in Ukraine. (I won’t get into the fabrications here.) You should know, however, that the story has already been proven unreliable, with the author(s) withholding his/her/their name(s) because it couldn’t be independently verified — and it turns out the former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now serving as personal lawyer to President Trump, planted the story as per Russian spies.

That said, this qualifies as a desperation move from pro-Trump media to find a way to take down Biden just weeks before the election. And it won’t work.

Reason?  This election is less a referendum on Biden’s fitness for office than Trump’s failure to govern properly. Unfortunately, Trump supporters aren’t interested in governing, only in power, and that’s been his, and their, downfall from day one.

Of late they’ve done their best to try to marginalize those they don’t agree with as, say, “radical left” or even the old, played-out cliché “communists” for standing up for justice.

You see, for some people the idea of “equality” is a threat, which to me is a tragedy but which is also why Trump is actually popular with his crowd. But the COVID-19 pandemic and especially the Black Lives Matter protests that took place over the summer discombobulated that hegemony and left him with little to work with because the nation had real problems that needed to be addressed.

In other words, he was exposed. And with even parts of his base, including some evangelical Christians, eroding, drastic measures were deemed necessary — thus the story about Hunter and Joe Biden’s alleged corruption.

The last time Trump wanted Joe Biden investigated, it got him impeached — more accurately, he tried to strongarm the president of Ukraine into announcing an investigation — because he feared Biden. And with Biden’s willingness to build a broad-based coalition, from far-left activists to disaffected conservative Republicans, he had good reason to fear.

I’d say that pass is incomplete or intercepted.

Thoughts on President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis

During the current COVID-19 pandemic a number of people I know often wondered what would happen if President Trump ever tested positive for the coronavirus.

We’re about to find out, since it was announced last night that he, First Lady Melania and other members of the White House’s inner circle have done so and are now in a mandatory two-week quarantine (and thus won’t be campaigning).

To those of us who admittedly don’t like Trump, this appears to be poetic justice. Since its discovery stateside in January of this year (and he later admitted that he understood the next month just how bad it would be but kept silent because he didn’t want to cause a panic), he has sought to downplay its effects — perhaps in the hope that what his supporters call economic “sabotage” would be minimized. Later, while visiting factories and holding rallies, he refused to wear a mask out of concern that doing so would make him look weak.

He may not realize that he isn’t God and that if you have to pump yourself up as “strong” you’re already weak — not just in the face of COVID-19 but also in his desire to humiliate his opponents.

And this is where I must speak out. If you ask people to join in prayer that the president recovers but not that he changes his ways, your prayer might fall on deaf ears. Understand that he got elected and remains popular with his base due to his bad attitude, and it’s that attitude that got him into this predicament in the first place.

Perhaps Trump’s diagnosis is thus the result of divine discipline — not for Trump per se, since I don’t believe that he’s a true Christian, but for many of his supporters who are believers. There are consequences to actions or the lack thereof which affect others, and now it’s apparently come back to haunt him. Repentance is in order, but I’m not counting on that happening.

The limits of ‘snarl’

Despite what was scheduled to be a debate but became what appeared to be a food fight last night between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, one thing became clear to me last night: Biden cares about the entire country. Trump does not.

That became clear to me when Trump, per usual, tried to run over not only Biden but also debate moderator Chris Wallace with lies, deflections and personal attacks.

But, as I think we’re beginning to see now, “snarl” can get you only so far.

Trump, significantly down in the polls in major swing states, has nevertheless never made any effort to unite the country, with his attacks on people of color, Muslims and especially “liberals” (which he overstatedly refers to as the “radical left”) being part and parcel of his never-ending campaign strategy.

But with the economy tanking, racial unrest rising and especially the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, he’s shown himself, as Michelle Obama said during the Democratic National Convention last month, “not … up to the job.” For that reason he’s maintained his propensity to lash out at enemies, real or perceived — he has nothing else left.

Last night’s debate sounded like a hot mess in a train wreck, and upon inspection it proved to be such (I stopped watching after 45 minutes). But there was a deeper meaning that you shouldn’t miss: This was a face-off between a bully and a decent person — and the bully is losing as things stand now.

Trying to ‘save face’

It does seem a tad daft that so many people, given the recent rise in COVID-19 cases, especially in “red” states, complain about the use of masks in public places such as stores and restaurants. They demand that they want to live normally and that their freedom is being squashed by left-wing governors more interested in pushing people around and embarrasing President Donald Trump.

But there’s a reason why you see so many people rebelling like spoiled children against directives from governors of “blue” states.

You see, it’s not about their “freedom” per se — it’s an attempt to save face, pardon the pun, on the part of many Trump supporters. Recall that Trump minimized the pandemic from the start in favor of economic prosperity, which he believed was his key to remaining in power, and they’re trying to dodge the reality that they were always wrong.

In other words, part of the reason they support him is to thumb their collective nose at the rest of the world.

Funny, but a life-and-death situation like the current coronavirus isn’t allowing that. And with the recent death of supporter and former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who tested positive for the virus after the Trump rally in June in Tulsa, Okla., the gambit that the pandemic could be dodged simply and clearly failed.

(It should be noted that COVID-19 doesn’t always kill directly — like HIV, it weakens the immune system so that other diseases can finish someone off.)

For the last four decades and even more so since Trump was elected, conservatives’ strategy was about “owning the libs”; now with the pandemic, however, the conservatives are the ones being “owned” and don’t like it. They have two choices — admit defeat or contribute to the culture of selfish immaturity, neither looking particularly promising now because the latter might lead to more deaths.