Whatever happened to American greatness?
By: Joel Mlay
Tags: Courage, Truth, Democracy, Integrity, Leadership

It seems ironic that four years after Donald Trump coined the MAGA slogan, it should find its appropriate meaning as he exits the stage.

Back in 2016, after Trump was declared winner of the general election, I got into a long discussion with some friends. My question was simply, how did close to 63 million Americans — 47% of voters — vote for Trump?

This was after all the revelations about him during the primaries and to the general election. I was genuinely baffled by the 47% The other candidate, by the way, Hillary Clinton, got 48%, meaning they both failed to secure a 50% mark.

But 47%, after what everybody knew or heard, was still disconcerting.

My friends tried their utmost, to explain to me that it was all a matter of ideological and cultural wars. That it was the conservatives determined to stick it to the liberals.

I must admit I was not completely satisfied.

And now, here we are after another general election, and it looks even more confounding than 2016.

To begin with, 74 million Americans voted for Trump. Percentage-wise, at 46.9%, it is the same as 2016.

Michael Moore correctly put it: “Our Fellow Americans Did Not Repudiate And Renounce Trump” (dailycaller.com, 11/4/2020).

However, more than 81 million — 51.4% — repudiated Trump. A margin of 7 million votes is not a small number.

Still, 46.9% of voters is a shocking reality. Why have these normal, rational, fellow human beings not seeing the light after four years? This is a deliberate expression, aware that there are accusations of mutual vilification by liberals and conservatives.

Numbers do not lie

We have been reminded, repeatedly, that numbers do not lie. That is not true only in the scientific community. It is universal

The election was over on November 3, 2020. We woke up with a president-elect and a vice president-elect. Trump was repudiated, the numbers do not lie.

Yet, Trump chose to create a lie and show he believes in it.

I say he chose, because he did not wake up on November 4, and decided he was going to lie.

He declared, long before the election, that he would accept election results only if he won. He made the same declaration back in 2016.

He suggested, long before November 3, that the 2020 elections be postponed because of the coronavirus. Even the Senate Majority leader rebuked him stating, “we have had elections every four years since 1789.”

Back in May 2020, Michael Moore, in the Vanity Fair, expressed fears that Trump would mess with the elections.

Sure enough. Trump has kept his word to the letter.

Numbers do not lie. But, according to forbes.com (11/18), 52% of Republicans think Trump “rightfully won” the election. They think — or better — they believe, because Trump tells them so. That is the only rationale I can think of.

What makes 52% of Republicans believe in a lie?

For example, on Monday, December 7, Georgia Secretary of State, a Republican, stated the following: “We have now counted legally cast ballots, three times, and the results remain unchanged.”

Votes counted three times. Recounts and lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada. No change in the results. Trump lost.

Still, he continues to pressure state officials to reverse the election results.

The Hill reported on December 5, that Trump was seeking to find out who the 25 members of the Congress who have recognized Biden’s victory are. This is intimidation and coercion.

Within a week, as of December 11, a total of 126 Republican members of Congress, including the minority leader, and 17 state attorneys general had signed on advancing his outlandish claims to the Supreme Court.

As expected, the Supreme Court swiftly dismissed the filing as moot.

Trump’s reaction? He tweeted, “The Supreme Court let us down. No wisdom. No courage!”

Let’s look at the tweet. Who is wise, the Justices or Trump and his Republican cohorts? Who is courageous? Can the adjective describe the 126 members of Congress and the attorneys general?

A coup d’état in the making

A coup d’état is the illegal, unconstitutional seizure of power by a political faction, the military, or a dictator.

Many may be familiar with the military coup d’états in Africa, Asia, and South America in the last century.

What is happening with Trump and his cohorts, by intimidation and coercion tasks, is nothing less than the maneuvers of a coup d’état. Military force may be missing now, but there is force in the play.

Everyone bullied into the clique of truth deniers recites the claim, “Trump has the right to challenge.” The rights and challenges have been tested in the courts of law and found to be frivolous.

Yet, they keep re-emerging.

Why?

Because the objective is to reverse or overthrow the outcome of a legal election process. The objective is a coup d’état by means other than military. Whatever the means, a coup d’état is illegal and unconstitutional.

White Evangelicals

Mr. Trump’s attempts to usurp power have not met any resistance from the Republican party. On the contrary, much of the party establishment and rank and file support his schemes.

No group within the conundrum is more entrenched than the white evangelicals.

During the past four years, most Christians outside the white evangelical fold found themselves unable to witness for Christianity given the contradictory embrace of Trumpism. It is not so much what they believe about Trump — controversial as it is — but the reasoning behind the beliefs.

Leading to the elections, white evangelical preachers used their sermons to declare purported, inspired, or spiritual messages from God. They prophesied and proclaimed that God categorically declared a second term for Trump.

If God decided, they insisted, it would come to pass. It is done.

After November 3, seeing that God was unable to accomplish his plan, they scrambled for explanations.

The internet and the media are full of the bewildered explanations about what happened. Look at one Youtube video, for example, titled Evangelicals Freak Out. There is quite a selection there but look at any one of them.

What you see on display is not comedy, certainly not humor. You have religious leaders calling on angels from Africa and South America to be dispatched here. You have white evangelical preachers declaring that God is in control and he is not happy with the election results.

In a debate in 2009 between the late Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi Harold Kushner, Hitchens observed that religion makes morally normal people say and do disgusting and wicked things.

Hitchens was a provocateur, by his definition, but hearing and watching the drama in the preachers’ sermons prove the point.

It is estimated that 90% of white evangelical Christians support Trump and his claims. His claims are disruptive, lawless, unconstitutional, and intended to sow distrust in the democratic process.

In normal Christian norms, such behavior is not only contrarian but subversive. White evangelical Christians stand in cohort with the forces of darkness.

Standing up for truth

One of the drawbacks of Trump’s emergence into national politics is the gradual erosion of truth and the promotion of falsehoods. This is in addition to the trampling of legal norms at the highest levels of society and disregard for constitutional norms.

This has been a trend throughout the Trump administration.

A pervert mentality of denying the truth and parlaying falsehoods of choice will have long-term effects. I believe those who stand for truth must speak out against the current perversion.

Another of the late Christopher Hitchens’ complaints was what he saw as “the willingness of liberals to capitulate to theocratic intimidation”

What we are witnessing is beyond theocratic even though the rhetoric of religious freedom is often the cry of some defenders of Trumpism and the denial of truth.

Democracy must be defended. The courts have shown an example as they have refused to entertain fantasies and conspiracy theories. They have stood up for truth, proof, and law.

While Trump, the Republicans, white evangelicals, and conspiracy theorists continue their assault on democracy, there is very little action from the other side — those who stand in defense of democracy.

The media is still a symbol of American greatness

Under dictatorships, the strongmen control the media.

In the U.S, Trump has relentlessly waged war against the media, especially the news media. The irony is that the media was instrumental in building the persona he displays publicly.

His claims about wealth and success would not flourish without the use of the media.

Still, the media has maintained independence from him. In return, he has spent the past four years maligning journalists and news outlets.

The independence of the media is one important area of American greatness that still stands. It could have capitulated like the Republican party. But it hasn’t.

The enduring American greatness

The foremost symbol of American greatness is its democratic principles and institutions. America can stand up tall before other nations and lay claim to greatness.

When individuals thwart the constitution, undermine the rule of law, undermine the functions of the democratic institutions, American greatness is thereby compromised.

Trump’s time on the national stage is over, his delusion notwithstanding. But during his four years, he has dangerously corroded the democratic principles. He has also sucked into his orbit those who would otherwise have stood up against his assault.

If those enablers would now step forward and renounce their actions, they would be showing wisdom and courage. They would be on the side of American greatness.

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