Tag Archives: donald trump

November 23, 2016 · 06:30

We Will be Remembered for What We Do and for What We Allow

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Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

Over the past couple of weeks I have been pondering the future and as I have stated numerous times I am hoping Donald Trump will succeed as president and also that he will not follow through on some of the very radical ideas that he proposed during his campaign. I am hoping that he will be guided by reason but I am afraid that many of our civil rights will disappear over the next few years, and that his economic proposals will end up people who voted for him hoping that it would benefit them in terms of their jobs and their future.

In light of that  I have been thinking a lot about the responsibility that all of us have as citizens, not to our political parties or ideology, but to the country and the whole idea of liberty. That may sound like an old fashioned and quaint proposition to people whose life is devoted to ideology, no matter if that is a conservative, liberal, progressive, or even religious one, but it is still something that I think is important.

As usual that thought took me back to Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. I as reminded of some remarks that Lincoln made less than two weeks before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. At the time it was still a controversial proposition, even for many people in the North, as is almost any proposition to expand the boundaries of liberty. The fact is that over the next few years many liberties will probably be rolled back as Trump appoints people to his cabinet who are opposed to almost every expansion of liberty going back to the 14th and 15th Amendments, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, LGBTQ rights, Women’s Rights, and even the rights of Workers.

In light of these things I am reminded of the words that Lincoln spoke when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation; words which are as pertinent today as when he first spoke them. He said,

“I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a paper addressed to the Congress of the nation by the Chief Magistrate of the nation. Nor do I forget that some of you are my seniors, nor that many of you have more experience than I, in the conduct of public affairs. Yet I trust that in view of the great responsibility resting upon me, you will perceive no want of respect yourselves, in any undue earnestness I may seem to display.

Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we here–Congress and Executive–can secure its adoption? Will not the good people respond to a united, and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they, by any other means, so certainly, or so speedily, assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not “can any of us imagine better?” but, “can we all do better?” The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”

These are words which all of us should ponder over the coming months and years. If we allow civil liberties to be rolled back we will only be harming ourselves and those who follow us. If we as citizens allow such things to happen the responsibility is ours as well, and we will have to answer for it before the bar of history. Our actions, to use the words of Lincoln, “will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.” 

Until tomorrow,

Peace

Padre Steve+

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November 20, 2016 · 14:09

A Grave Responsibility to Remember and Remind: The 71st Anniversary of the Opening of the Nuremberg Trails

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

Today is the 71st anniversary of the opening of the Nuremberg Trials. I write about this a lot and I know some people, even so-called progressives have told me that they know the Nazis were evil and that they don’t want to hear it, while alleged conservatives vehemently object because they do not believe that such things can happen again.

However that is not the point. The reason I post things like this is because the players in the drama are representative of humanity, and humanity is the one constant in all history. Human beings and their propensity for good as well as evil is what these posts are about, and the fact is that any human being is capable of committing such crimes or turning a blind eye to them, to simply go along with the system and not to make waves. That is part of human nature, we value liberty, but that liberty lies in our hearts, and when it dies there, it dies. As the great American jurist Learned Hand said:

“I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon law and upon courts. These are false hopes, believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias.” 

When that spirit of liberty is lost, when that sensitivity to the rights and needs of others trampled, when a desire for revenge and getting even displaces civility and compassion; there is nothing than stop evil, for evil will find ways to justify their evil deeds under the cloak of legality. That is what Germany did in the 1930s and what I believe may happen in the United States and other Western nations as the wave of populism and xenophobic racism sweeps the globe. Robert Jackson said, “The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.”

That is why it is so important to remember the evil that we as human beings are capable of and not to run roughshod over the rights of those with whom we disagree. Since the election of Donald Trump I have seen many comments of his supporters and the well documented writings and opinions of three of first appointees, Stephen Bannon, Michael Flynn, and Jeff Sessions. All have extensive writings and comments which advocate policies designed to limit freedom and excise whole groups from the United States. His supporters are condemning all forms of protest or opinions that disagree with theirs, and the President Elect jumps to his Twitter account to blast anyone who insults or criticizes him. Nothing in American history is comparable to the thin-skinned inability to tolerate dissent that is happening now.

In our country we have seldom had to fear that the outcome of an election could erase liberty, but it is possible now. Jackson noted, “One’s right to life, liberty, and property depends on the outcome of no election.” But it seems that this election may test that premise, the premise that Jackson so eruditely enunciated:

“The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy. One’s right to life, liberty and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly may not be submitted to vote; they depend on no elections.”

I do fear for what the future holds because of the many statements made by Donald Trump and his supporters during the campaign and even after. While I am willing to give the new President the benefit of the doubt, and hope that he will rise to the occasion, I wonder if that will happen, and for now I wait, and I send up warnings from history.

Until tomorrow,

Peace

Padre Steve+

 

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November 19, 2016 · 18:11

Fighting for the Proposition that “All Men are Created Equal” Reflections on the Gettysburg Address

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Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

One hundred and sixty three years ago Abraham Lincoln delivered a few short words at the dedication of the Soldier’s Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Those words, along with the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence are the American equivalent of secular scripture. Even more than the Constitution they define the ideal of what the United States can and should be.

Lincoln understood that ideal even during the midst of a war which devastated the nation and claimed the lives of nearly three quarters of a million American soldiers and sailors, from the North and the South. At Gettysburg, where just three and a half months earlier over 150,000 soldiers battled for three days, leaving about 50,000 dead, wounded, and missing on the battlefield. When Lincoln gave his remarks the cemetery, which now contains the remains of 3,577 Union soldiers, half unknown, was not yet half-full. Men were still engaged in the gruesome task of recovering the decaying remains from hasty graves all around the battlefield, as well as recovering and attempting to identify those who fell and remained where they died.

Lincoln understood that the sacrifice had to have a greater meaning, and he went back to that sacred proposition in the Preamble of the Declaration, the proposition that “all men are created equal.” It was a proposition that many in Europe mocked as impossible, and which many Americans believed only applied to white, male, property owners. But Lincoln saw beyond that and in his speech he began to universalize the proposition, and spoke of bringing forth “a new birth of freedom” and that Americans, both those gathered around him, and those who read the speech would “highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” 

I am ever the optimist that we will see that new birth of freedom, but I do expect in the coming years that we will again see many of those freedoms rolled back or curtailed as they were in the years following the re-establishment of white rule in the South, and the extension of Jim Crow to many places outside of the former Confederate States. Sadly, even the symbols of the Confederacy are on the rise, the Confederate Battle Flag is showing up in places that it never flew during the American Civil War.

I do believe that the ideals of Lincoln’s words are immortal, and are worth fighting for even when they are not popular, and even when the majority decides to crush the rights of the minorities that they despise, be they racial, religious, political, ideological, or even gender related. I do believe that we are at a crossroads, a crossroads where we will have to choose to fight for the rights of the weak in our legislatures and courts, and by our actions.

The Compromise of 1850 included the Fugitive Slave Act, a law designed to help slave owners recover their “property” anywhere in the country. It was a law that benefited slave states and overthrew the laws of Free States which were ordered to assist agents of the slave owners recover their human property. Many Northerners, even non-abolitionists were horrified by the new law and worked to protect African Americans in their communities. Southerners were infuriated and claimed to be the victims of Northern aggression and militant “Godless” abolitionists.

I expect that in the coming months that laws will be passed to discriminate against minorities of all kinds and that many of these laws will contradict individual state laws and protections. We are seeing White Nationalists like Stephen Bannon and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions as chief White House Counselor and Attorney General nominee. Neither have had any regard for the rights of racial minorities and may be setting civil rights policy. If those policies discriminate or roll back the rights of people they will have to be opposed.

Like the abolitionists we will have to make a choice, a moral choice and do what we can to mitigate those laws and protect those that they harm until the time comes when the people who passed them lose political power.

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Outside of my house I fly the 34 “Circle Star” Flag of the Union as well as the flag of the 69th New York Volunteer Infantry of the immortal Irish Brigade. They are symbols of my opposition to the neo-Confederate racism and xenophobia that is arising in the country. I will remain true to the Constitution, and I will never stop believing in or fighting for the proposition that all men are created equal, and that we shall indeed have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Peace

Padre Steve+

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November 18, 2016 · 13:44

What Matters is Justice… A Divine Spark or a Killer Angel?

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Southern Justice by Norman Rockwell 

Friend of Padre Steve’s World,

Over the past week and a half since the election I have seen many reports of attacks, violence, and harassment of people by persons that claim that the election of Donald Trump allows them to do so. Gays, Mexicans, Muslims, Women, Blacks, and people identified as being “liberal” have all been targeted, sometimes in person, sometimes by the posting of racist flyers on houses and cars, vandalism of churches, and online harassment and trolling. Sadly, these actions do not seem to be abating.

But then I think I know why. For decades those perpetrating these acts have desired to get even and take revenge on people and organizations that they fell are trampling their way of life, or in some destroying the racial and religious purity of the country, and over the years, goaded by preachers, pundits, and politicians their anger has become hatred of all who stand on the other side. Eric Hoffer wrote that “Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.”

As such, civil rights advocates, institutions that support equality, and the minorities in question become the target of long pent up frustration, and seething hatred that has built up for years just waiting for someone to release the valves and let it flow. To the people committing these acts that person is Donald Trump. It began in the primaries where supporters demonized and destroyed any principled GOP opposition to him, and now it has been let loose, and I see no end of it despite President Elect Trump’s call to “knock it off.”

We would like to such behavior is abnormal, but it is a deeply ingrained part of our humanity. I recall the words of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, one of my heroes, in the movie Gettysburg when he quotes Hamlet to the curmudgeonly Irish soldier Buster Kilrain, “What a piece of work is man, in form and movement how express and admirable. In action how like an angel.”  Kilrain, who had to flee Ireland responded “Well, if he’s an angel, all right then. But he damn well must be a killer angel. Colonel, darling, you’re a lovely man. I see a vast great difference between us, yet I admire you, lad. You’re an idealist, praise be. The truth is, Colonel… There is no “divine spark”. There’s many a man alive no more of value than a dead dog. Believe me. When you’ve seen them hang each other the way I have back in the Old Country…. There’s many a man worse than me, and some better… But I don’t think race or country matters a damn. What matters, Colonel, is justice…”

I constantly wrestle with the tension of my idealism and my inner realist, the inner realist being much more like Kilrain. So when I see the way people are venting their anger at their enemies, seemingly bent on revenge for grievances real and imagined I tremble. I know history and human nature too well, and the one constant in history is humanity which seems to be forever at war between its amazing and almost angelic qualities of goodness and compassion and its blind hatreds of things it fears.

In the past election campaign we saw people on every side of the spectrum demonizing and dehumanizing their opponents, and despite my best efforts not to give in to that, I too was guilty of at times doing just that and I am not proud, it is one thing to passionately advocate and defend, but it is not okay to dehumanize your opponents. As I wrote last night I have had to come to grips with that, and begin to try to help heal the wounds in our country by reaching out to specific people who I came into conflict with and with whom I must attempt to ask forgiveness for my actions, will at the same time attempting to forgive those who also wounded me. As I wrote yesterday, the latter will be much more difficult.

However, those feelings are still high on both sides of the political chasm and will not go away for some time, but one side now is taking control of all the levers of government, for good, or for bad, what happens next we do not know, we can only speculate and we have to ponder the question; in such an environment where long seated hatred and revenge seems to be such a big factor, can justice survive?

Donald Trump has done something that no single American politician has ever accomplished; he has single-handedly created a mass movement of people whose loyalty is to him and not the political party that he used to gain the Presidency. Some are comparing him to President Andrew Jackson but I don’t know if that is a good comparison, but I digress as I am thinking not so much about President Elect Trump as I am thinking about the mass movement that he has created, and what I have seen, read, and experienced at the hands of some of those people.

American philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote of people who become subsumed in mass movements:

“There is also this: when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are also rid of personal responsibility. There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgment. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom—freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse.”

I believe that we are beginning to see how that will play out. I could be wrong, President Elect Trump may take a hard line against those who commit violence, but his pick of Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General bodes ill for civil rights and based on his record and statements regarding them. He has called civil rights proponents “un-American” and in the 1980s he was rejected for the Federal Judiciary based on numerous racist statements and positions. Now he will be in charge of the Department of Justice and the Federal judiciary. So I think one can legitimately be concerned about justice and civil rights. Will Sessions enforce the law, or will he turn his back by not prosecuting those who use intimidation and violence to crush the civil and human rights of people who they despise? Will Steve Bannon, a man who just this summer claimed that his media corporation was a platform for the “Alt-Right,” exercise his influence as chief counselor and strategist to the President to push for even more radical steps against political opponents?

One hopes that our better angels prevail, or will we as a people demonstrate that there is no divine spark?

So with those questions asked I will leave you for the day,

Peace

Padre Steve+

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November 16, 2016 · 20:39

A Reality Break


Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

Just a short post today to emphasize a couple of things. 

First, just because Donald Trump is now President-Elect, life does not end. I have my concerns, but I still have family, friends, and beer. 

Second, beer is good. As Homer Simpson so correctly noted “ah beer, the cause and solution to all of life’s problems.” 

Third, and this is serious; I am going to hold off on anymore speculation about what a Trump presidency my bring. Right now everything is speculation and no-matter how well any of us think we are reading the the tea leaves the fact is the fact is that the internal divisions of the GOP may force Trump to work with Democrats to get anything done. Thus it is too early to do more than speculate what may happen after January 20th, even if we strongly believe (like I do) what will happen. 

Because of that fact I am going to restrain my comments until there is empirical evidence that I am right, and when I do write, my words will be carefully crafted in order to focus on policy and its effects than anything directed at any specific person. Emotions can carry one into shoal waters that are more dangerous than listening to the voice of reason. 

So tonight I am listening to great live music and drinking great craft beer with friends at our tapping of the Winterbock at Gordon Biersch Virginia Beach. 

So for the next few weeks I will be writing about things other than the Trumpsition. 


Have a great night, and remember, beer is good.

Peace,

Padre Steve+

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November 15, 2016 · 16:30

An Uncertain and Foreboding Future: Steve Bannon and the Alt-Right in Government

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Greenville MS 

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

In the days leading up to and following the election of Donald Trump as President there have been an increasing number of physical attacks, violence, and intimidation by Trump supporters against all kinds of opponents. A Black Baptist church in Mississippi was burned and marked with pro-Trump graffiti; a sign at an Episcopal church in Maryland which advertised a Spanish language service was defaced by the words “Trump Nation Whites Only.” Another Episcopal Church was vandalized with the words “fag church” and “Heil Trump” and a Swastika. In addition there have been numerous unprovoked acts of violence against individuals across the nation. The KKK is planning victory marches, while leaders of the neo-Nazi, White Nationalists and other components of what is being called by their leaders as “the Alt-Right” are rejoicing at Trump’s victory and his appointment of former Breitbart Media chief Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist and counsel. Bannon’s methods at Breitbart can best be described as similar to Joseph Gobbels, they are not journalism; they are propaganda, not much better than the propaganda of Julius Streicher’s Der Sturmer.

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Silver Spring Maryland

While Trump pointedly told those committing such actions to stop during his 60 Minutes interview Sunday night, the attacks and harassment continue.

Unlike Hitler who believed what he said about the Jews and others that he considered sub-human, as well as his political opponents, I really doubt the Mr. Trump does, despite having encouraged violence at his rallies during the campaign. I could well be wrong, he may really believe such things, but regardless of his motivation, his words during the campaign have emboldened a segment of the population that most people consider a fringe movement. To some extent they are, but now their thought is becoming mainstreamed on the political right through Breitbart and other outlets.

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Bean Blossom Indiana 

As I have mentioned before, I do not know what will happen in the coming months. My hope is that Mr. Trump will back off of some of his more extreme positions and also do what he can to stop the violence before it gets out of hand. However, his appointment of Bannon sent a chill down my spine. Bannon’s words of the past several years make everything that Mr. Trump has said on the campaign trail seem positively tame. Bannon admits his connection to and encouragement of the Alt-Right, but he refers to them as “patriots who want their country back.” But that is not true, Bannon himself is all about destroying the United States government and he has said so, and so do many of his followers. So let’s stop being polite and call the Alt-Right what it really is, a bunch of Nazis and White Supremacists who are not patriots.

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Michael Hill 

As far as Bannon and the neo-Nazis and Klansmen go I know what to expect. They are emboldened and looking for revenge. The day after Trump’s victory, Michael Hill, the head of the League of the South, a White Nationalist organization wrote:

“Once the globalist-progressive coalition of Jews, minorities, and anti-white whites stops reeling in confusion from the results of yesterday’s election, we can expect them to start striking back with trickery and violence. Thus, we as Southern nationalists face both danger and opportunity.

Now, more than ever, we need tight organization and numbers to help drive a stake through Dracula’s heart and keep him from rising once again to menace our people and civilization. No mercy should be shown to the enemies of our God, our Folk, and our civilization….”

Later that day Hill wrote:

“In the immediate aftermath of his victory, Donald Trump offered that olive branch to the left. Let’s hope he’s not serious.

So here is my warning to the victors: do not go back to sleep and think all is well. If you don’t finish the job by routing your enemies and driving them into the sea while you have the chance, they will re-group and be back at your throats in no time! You have been given a reprieve by God (probably undeservedly so); do not give your enemies and His a reprieve….”

A day later he wrote:

“If Trump is smart, he will listen to nationalists in various camps throughout America and then act on their ideas. They are the ideas of the future in the US, Europe, and the entire white world: true nations, based on the organic reality of race and ethnicity, kith and kin, blood and soil. They are the ideas that will permit greatness to re-emerge because of the unleashed genius and capability of the white race….

My advice to President-elect Trump is simple: don’t negotiate with serpents; you’ll get bitten. Listen to the truth, sir: your enemies, if given the chance, will destroy you and everything you purport to represent. Treat them like the danger they are. Serve those who put you where you are.”

I certainly hope and pray that President Trump rejects this “advice” out of hand, but with the appointment of Bannon who embodies exactly Hill and others as his chief strategist and counsel, all bets are off. I expect that between now and President Trump’s inauguration that the violence will continue to rise as racial minorities, religious minorities, LGBTQ people, and liberals are targeted. I have been dealing with their tactics of intimidation as well as death threats for years.

I guess this is what I fear about a Trump presidency, not Trump himself, but those who will use their new found status and positions in government to persecute their opponents in ways never seen in this country. But then there is something else that I fear, maybe even more than the overt racists and authoritarians; the silence of people who should know better. Hannah Arendt said, “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

The attitude of those who should have known better in Hitler’s Germany was dramatized by Burt Lancaster in the classic film Judgment at Nuremberg. Lancaster’s character, a prominent German jurist, Emil Janning noted:

“There was a fever over the land. A fever of disgrace, of indignity, of hunger. We had a democracy, yes, but it was torn by elements within. Above all, there was fear. Fear of today, fear of tomorrow, fear of our neighbors, and fear of ourselves. Only when you understand that – can you understand what Hitler meant to us. Because he said to us: ‘Lift your heads! Be proud to be German! There are devils among us. Communists, Liberals, Jews, Gypsies! Once these devils will be destroyed, your misery will be destroyed.  It was the old, old story of the sacrificial lamb. What about those of us who knew better? We who knew the words were lies and worse than lies? Why did we sit silent? Why did we take part? Because we loved our country! What difference does it make if a few political extremists lose their rights? What difference does it make if a few racial minorities lose their rights? It is only a passing phase. It is only a stage we are going through. It will be discarded sooner or later. Hitler himself will be discarded… sooner or later. The country is in danger. We will march out of the shadows. We will go forward. Forward is the great password. “

I just wonder if the unorganized attacks and intimidation by the White Nationalists and neo-Nazis of the Alt-Right become part of government policy once Trump takes office. That has to be asked, because we don’t know. Will most people go silent or even give their support if immigrants, Muslims, Jews, Gays, and liberals are targeted using the levers of government, or will they speak up. The haunting words of Pastor Martin Niemoller must be always on our mind as we give the new president the benefit of the doubt and wish him success, even as we have legitimate concerns about the role that Steve Bannon will play in the new administration and the potential influence of people like Michael Hill.

This is uncharted territory for us, and I do pray that Mr. Trump rises to the occasion and does not allow his administration to become the servant of the Alt-Right, and I think that there is a good chance that he will back off his more extreme statements and not let them take over, but I could be wrong, but I hope not. 

But those that supported him, especially the huge number that do not share the ideology of the Alt-Right must take time to reflect on what they will do if things get worse. Niemoller, who had initially supported Hitler wrote something that is good to reflect upon:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. 

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. 

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me. 

Have a great day,

Peace

Padre Steve+

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November 12, 2016 · 00:05

A Post Election Musing: What Now? 

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

Tonight I am writing from the outskirts of Washington D.C. as we gather with a group of Papillon dog owners. Our two girls are being very good and once she got used to everyone, Izzy is now trying to get all the other dogs to play. It is nice, I have really enjoyed getting to know some of the people here, especially our hosts. I’m hoping that I get a chance to visit the Manassas Battlefield Park this weekend, it has always been one of those places that I have always driven by but never have had time to stop and see, but I digress…

I have been trying for the last few days to stay off of social media for the most part. Too much of what is out there is just too toxic for me to deal with. Instead I have been reading more reflective articles analyzing the election instead of anything partisan, especially the kind of pseudo news from highly biased people and groups that populates Facebook and some other social media sites. I haven’t turned on the television since the election, there isn’t any baseball on and frankly I have been too busy and tired this week to even want to turn it on, especially cable news. Likewise, I have done some reading and I have a number of books that I am sifting through right now. 

But for me I have spent time trying to sort out what has happened and think about historical context and not just the 24 hour news cycle. As I mentioned Wednesday, I am not going to do to President Elect Trump what so many conservatives did to President Obam. While I disagree with almost all what Trump said his policy would be during the campaign, and while I will not give him a pass on his own conduct during the campaign, I think that as President he does deserve a chance to succeed or fail on his own merits, and the fact is that while Trump frightens me, the thought of a President Pence absolutely terrifies me. Thus when I read people talking about the possibility of impeachment already, including Republicans, I am not about to climb aboard that boat anytime soon. 

So over the next few weeks I will do some articles about what might happen during the Trump Presidency regarding civil rights, the environment, economic policy, healthcare, and foreign policy. I will also write some articles about what I think Democrats need to do to regain the trust of the American people, and not just well off white progressives. I will also delve in to the morass of the Alt-Right and its resurgence, and the rise in political and racial violence that seems to be accompanying the Trump victory. 

Anyway. Have a great Saturday and do not despair; for sometimes the greatest changes that actually shape the future come in the wake of defeat. This is something that we as progressives need to remember and then take concrete actions to enunciate in ways that people can understand. We don’t do that well and it showed during this election. 

Peace,

Padre Steve+

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November 9, 2016 · 15:09

I’m Back: Realism and Responsibility after the Election of Donald Trump 


Friends of Padre Steve’s World, 

Winston Churchill wrote: “Courage is is what it is to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” 

Last night I was in a state of shock regarding the election of Donald Trump to the office of President. I was despairing and I said that I was going to immediately put in my retirement papers and move to Europe. I did really mean it, and that may yet happen. But my wife Judy helped put things in perspective this morning and told me not to make any hasty moves. That allowed me to take a deep breath. I spent this morning alone in my office with the door closed. I pretty much stayed off social media and apart from checking my work e-mail and reading the comics I just sat back reflecting on what happened before taking the afternoon off and going to lunch. I needed to sit down and listen, and one of my older bar buddies showed up and he too helped me put things in perspective. 

During that time I saw a good number of comments posted to the blog and my Facebook account encouraging me to stay engaged and not to give up. Those were also helpful and while I have not answered any of them yet but I appreciate all of the kind words and thoughts. 

Now I am not happy with the results of the election and I am frightened at what Trump and his congressional majorities have promised to do. That being said now that the election is over I am committed to doing what neither he or congressional Republicans did for President Obama, I will give him a chance and treat him with the respect his office is due. I remember how badly President Obama was treated by Mitch McConnell, and if I thought it was wrong for him to be treated in such a manner, how could I be a part in doing that to anyone? even Donald Trump. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and if you are a Democrat, being obstructionists will only worsen the party’s situation. We have to be mature and show that we can endure defeat with dignity and grace. 

The fact is, that whether or not progressives like me like it, he has been elected with majorities in both the House and Senate, and we cannot change that. That being said, if we want to be taken seriously we must work for the common good and then figure out what we really believe as progressives and how to win elections. It is not good enough to simply oppose Trump and the GOP; we have to enunciate a positive vision and then go back to basics and that includes being the party of decency and civility. 

As for now I will not be retiring or leaving the country, even though an old German friend is now begging me to move there and promising to help me. That still might happen, but not yet. 

So anyway, it’s time to take a deep breath and do the right thing for the country. We cannot afford for Trump to fail, if he fails it hurts all of us and we can’t afford for him to screw up. If he does, let it be his doing, not ours, and let his supporters take the blame for electing him. As Abraham Lincoln correctly observed: “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they chose to turn their backs on the fire and burn their behinds, then they’ll have to sit on the blisters.” That may seem unpalatable, but it is reality, and I am the ultimate realist. I guess that’s why I’m still here. 

Until tomorrow. 

Peace,

Padre Steve+ 

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November 8, 2016 · 07:16

A Thought on Election Eve: Trump’s Genie Won’t go Back into the Bottle without a Fight

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Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

I came back from my trip to Gettysburg yesterday pondering the future of the country and I find little solace in history right now. It seems to me that no-matter what the outcome, whether Donald Trump loses, or by some chance wins, that the country will have been changed for the worse and that no-matter the outcome that the results of this election will continue to divide the country. The seething hatred which has been building for years through conservative talk radio, political preachers, and a Republican Party so devoid of ideas that it has to cow-tow to the raging racists of the Alt Right, Neo-Nazis, the KKK, and paranoid preachers of doom to support Donald Trump is a genie that won’t go back into poisonous bottle from which it came without a fight.

If Trump wins we will have elected an authoritarian with no respect for any virtue other than might and money make right. We will have elected a man who has promised during his campaign to crush the very liberties enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; a man who has promised to jail, prosecute, or sue political opponents and critics; a man who has promised to rule through race and religion not the principle that “all men are created equal.”

Trump has brought out the worst in many Americans and he cultivates hatred and fear. He exemplifies what the late Richard Hofstadter called “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.” Trump demonstrates a profound sense of ignorance, rabid paranoia, wrapped in narcissism, and bathed in privileged self-pity never seen in a major party nominee for President in this country. Bit his followers don’t seem to mind. 

But then he has tapped into and attracted people who have been immersed in the paranoia of the religious right and the devotees of conservative talk-radio, Fox News, and the histrionic bevy conservative media websites and organizations, especially the Drudge Report, Breitbart News, and World Net Daily. These media organs have long prepared and sowed both anger and hatred toward any and all political opponents which made Trump’s rise a given. This is a group of people who have no sense of the Constitution or the merits of Republican government and democracy. What they want they want now, and they prefer an authoritarian leader who will trample the institutions of government that Americans have preserved for 241 years and endured a bloody civil war in order to protect.

Hofstadter, a historian who died far to0 young wrote:

“All this is the more maddening, as Edward Shils has pointed out, in a populistic culture which has always set a premium on government by the common man and through the common judgement and which believes deeply in the sacred character of publicity. Here the politician expresses what a large part of the public feels. The citizen cannot cease to need or to be at the mercy of experts, but he can achieve a kind of revenge by ridiculing the wild-eyed professor, the irresponsible brain truster, or the mad scientist, and by applauding the politicians as the pursue the subversive teacher, the suspect scientist, or the allegedly treacherous foreign-policy adviser. There has always been in our national experience a type of mind which elevates hatred to a kind of creed; for this mind, group hatreds take a place in politics similar to the class struggle in some other modern societies. Filled with obscure and ill-directed grievances and frustrations, with elaborate hallucinations about secrets and conspiracies, groups of malcontents have found scapegoats at various times in Masons or abolitionists, Catholics, Mormons, or Jews, Negroes, or immigrants, the liquor interests or the international bankers. In the succession of scapegoats chosen by the followers of this tradition of Know-Nothingism, the intelligentsia have at last in our time found a place.” 

As far as their leader, Trump himself, Hofstadter writing over fifty years ago wrote:

“As a member of the avant-garde who is capable of perceiving the conspiracy before it is fully obvious to an as yet unaroused public, the paranoid is a militant leader. He does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated–if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention. This demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly unrealistic goals, and since these goals are not even remotely attainable, failure constantly heightens the paranoid’s sense of frustration. Even partial success leaves him with the same feeling of powerlessness with which he began, and this in turn only strengthens his awareness of the vast and terrifying quality of the enemy he opposes.”

The style is that of despots worldwide, Trump’s rhetorical devices are much like those of Adolf Hitler. The message of Trump, in his own words is “I alone can fix it.”  

Tuesday, November 8th will be a watershed election, but as I said at the beginning of the article, no-matter what happens with Donald Trump, is that the paranoia and hatred that he has brought into mainstream will not go away quietly, and most likely will get worse, for in victory he and his supporters will take revenge on their opponents using the police power of the government that many so despise; while if he loses, the most frustrated and deluded of his supporters may turn to violence.

Neither is good for our nation, and I would very much like to be proven wrong in my assessment; but that being said and we must be vigilant if our Republic is to survive. 

Peace

Padre Steve+

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November 6, 2016 · 05:30

Gettysburg and the Meaning of Democracy: Can the Republic Survive?

Gettysburg Address

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

I am at Gettysburg with my students this weekend and today we finish our Staff Ride concluding at the Soldier’s Cemetery where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. I usual close the staff ride by reading his address. I always get a bit choked up because I realize just how important what he said was then, and still is today. 

I expect with our democracy under assault from Donald Trump and his supporters that I will choke up, for I know not what I will wake up to on November 9th. If Trump wins, and his supporters on the Alt-Right have their way, our system of government will be destroyed, the civil liberties that the men who died here to establish will be curtailed or even rolled back. I fear that possibility and honestly if Trump were to win I cannot imagine what this country will devolve into.

In November of 1863 Abraham Lincoln was sick when when he traveled by train from Washington DC to Gettysburg. When Lincoln delivered the address having what was mostly likely a mild form of Smallpox. Thus the tenor, simplicity and philosophical depth of the address are even more remarkable. It is a speech given in the manner of Winston Churchill’s “Blood sweat toil and tears” address to Parliament upon being appoint Prime Minister in 1940. Likewise it echoes the Transcendentalist understanding of the Declaration of Independence as a “test for all other things.”

Many in the United States and Europe did not agree and argued that no nation found on such principles could long survive. The more reactionary European subscribers of Romanticism ridiculed the “idea that a nation could be founded on a proposition….and they were not reluctant to point to the Civil War as proof that attempting to build a government around something as bloodless and logical as a proposition was futile.” [1]

But Lincoln disagreed. He believed that the “sacrifices of Gettysburg, Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chancellorsville, and a hundred other places demonstrated otherwise, that men would die rather than to lose hold of that proposition. Reflecting on that dedication, the living should themselves experience a new birth of freedom, a determination- and he drove his point home with a deliberate evocation of the great Whig orator Daniel Webster- “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” [2]

The Unitarian pastor and leading Transcendentalist Theodore Parker wrote:

“Our national ideal out-travels our experience, and all experience. We began our national career by setting all history at defiance – for that said, “A republic on a large scale cannot exist.” Our progress since that has shown that we were right in refusing to be limited by the past. The practical ideas of the nation are transcendent, not empirical. Human history could not justify the Declaration of Independence and its large statements of the new idea: the nation went beyond human history and appealed to human nature.” [3]

Likewise Lincoln’s address echoes the thought of George Bancroft who wrote of the Declaration:

“The bill of rights which it promulgates is of rights that are older than human institutions, and spring from the eternal justice…. The heart of Jefferson in writing the Declaration, and of Congress in adopting it, beat for all humanity; the assertion of right was made for the entire world of mankind and all coming generations, without any exceptions whatsoever.” [4]

Theodore Parker’s words also prefigured an idea that Lincoln used in his address, that being: “the American Revolution, with American history since, is an attempt to prove by experience this transcendental proposition, to organize the transcendental idea of politics. The ideal demands for its organization a democracy- a government of all, for all, and by all…” [5]

Lincoln delivered these immortal words on that November afternoon:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.[6]

In a time where many are wearied by the foibles and follies of our politicians, especially a man as singularity ill-equipped and ill-tempered as Donald Trump and his supporters, many of whom are White Nationalists and authoritarian types unseen since secession could possibly take power; one has to wonder if our very form of government can survive, or if  Lincoln’s words still matter. 

But they do. Dr. Allen Guelzo, Professor of Civil War Studies at Gettysburg College wrote in the New York Times:

“The genius of the address thus lay not in its language or in its brevity (virtues though these were), but in the new birth it gave to those who had become discouraged and wearied by democracy’s follies, and in the reminder that democracy’s survival rested ultimately in the hands of citizens who saw something in democracy worth dying for. We could use that reminder again today.” [7]

Dr. Guelzo is quite correct. Many people in this country and around the world are having grave doubts about our democracy. I wonder myself, but I am an optimist. I do believe that we will eventually recover because for the life of me I see no nation anywhere else with our resiliency and ability to overcome the stupidity of politicians, pundits and preachers and the hate filled message of Donald Trump and his White Supremacist supporters, especially supposedly “conservative ” Christians. 

The amazing thing during the Civil War was that in spite of everything the Union survived. Lincoln was a big part of that but it was the men who left lives of comfort and security like Joshua Chamberlain and so many others who brought about that victory. Throughout the war, even to the end Southern political leaders failed to understand that Union men would fight and die for an ideal, something greater than themselves, the preservation of the Union and the freedom of an enslaved race. For those men that volunteered to serve, the war was not about personal gain, loot or land, it was about something greater. It was about freedom, and when we realize this fact “then we can contemplate the real meaning of “that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.” [8]

Now I for one do not think that we are currently living up to the ideals enunciated by Lincoln that day at Gettysburg. I can understand the cynicism disillusionment of Americans as well as those around the world who have for over 200 years looked to us and our system as a “city set on a hill.” That being said, when I read these words and walk that hallowed ground I am again a believer. I believe that we can realize the ideal, even in our lifetime should we desire. That being said I cannot imagine what will happen to our country if Donald Trump is elected to the presidency. 

Have a great day and please stop to think about how important Lincoln’s words remain as we wait to see who will be our next President. 

Peace

Padre Steve+

Notes

[1] Ibid. Guelzo. Fateful Lightening p.409

[2] Ibid. Guelzo. Fateful Lightening p.408

[3] Ibid. Wills. Lincoln at Gettysburg p.110

[4] Ibid. Wills. Lincoln at Gettysburg p.105

[5] Ibid. Wills. Lincoln at Gettysburg p.105

[6] Lincoln, Abraham The Gettysburg Address the Bliss Copy retrieved from http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

[7] Guelzo, Allen C. Lincoln’s Sound Bite: Have Faith in Democracy New York Time Opinionator, November 17th 2013 retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/lincolns-sound-bite-have-faith-in-democracy/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 July 18th 2014

[8] Ibid. McPherson This Hallowed Ground p.138

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