“A Failed Presidency”

Some nine months into Donald Trump’s presidency the general consensus emerging among those who study such things is that we are witnessing a White House in chaos.  This week, the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who seems to be a reasonable man by almost all aspects, was quoted as having called the President a “moron.”  While this is consistent with the opinion of so many across the country, it is somewhat unusual coming from the current Secretary of State.  Likely, this is the result of Secretary of State Tillerson being undercut by the moronic comments of the President, who told him his dialogue with North Korea is “a waste of time.”  The President periodically tweets something in the middle of the night during his “regurgitation phase” after his daily dose of Fox News, which often either makes no reasonable sense, or directly contradicts something his senior advisors have just said the day before.

Since whatever the President of the United States says makes “real news”,  it is then left to the spokeswoman for the President and his other closest advisors to “pick up the pieces” and make whatever sense they can of the latest regurgitation of words by the President.  It causes those of us in the medical field to question if perhaps our President is losing part of his frontal lobe, which is designed to filter speech before just anything is said.  We call this in common parlance “early dementia.”  Hopefully, this is not the case, but it is difficult to explain the behavior of this President by most categories of reasonable thought, so we start looking for other explanations.

This week, the religious conservatives achieved a much desired victory, when the rules for insurers on covering contraceptives for women were changed to allow opting out for religious or moral grounds.  Much to the alarm of the 38 million or so women of reproductive age currently using these types of medications, including many good Catholic women, the cost of not becoming pregnant or regulating the menstrual cycle due to premenstrual pain just got more expensive.  This president is not content just to be groping women and treating them as second class citizens, but is trying to move back time before the 1960s when women began to realize they really do have an equal place with men in this society.  I expect the intent of President Trump and his cadre of religious conservatives will find this “small” change coming back to haunt them in the next election.  The shifting demographic which places younger less ideological demagogues into power is inevitable, given the fact that old white men eventually retire, even from the Senate.  When the Supreme Court finishes dismantling gerrymandering in Wisconsin, Texas and other places primed for change, many of the problems of today will be yesterday’s news.

Having been in the ministry of the Christian church for most of my life and directly involved with church folk in the conservative South, I am surprised, quite frankly, that the conservative religious folk, my neighbors and friends, are willing to swallow and even endorse a man for President who is so obviously unqualified for the job.  Rarely seen in church, with no pastor of any type ever seen in the White House, the President uses conservative agenda items as cover for his stated goals, such as supporting a religious objection for birth control, to then allow him to advance his much more sinister items such as discrimination against Moslem minorities and building a Great Wall on Mexico’s border.  I am surprised my conservative brethren are so naïve as to what is being done.  Much like Hitler obtained 80% of the German church to endorse his Nazism philosophy, with only 20% (The Confessing Church) opposing in Germany, Trump is playing a siren’s pipe of seduction for the conservative churches.  I am pleased that my church, the Presbyterian Church, USA, is opposing his agenda at every turn.

If a person keeps a woman from obtaining birth control so more babies of all colors can be born into this world, while at the same time plunges us into a nuclear holocaust with North Korea destroying millions and pollutes the whole planet for generations to come, has the “Christian agenda” been accomplished?  This is ludicrous for sure!  If the President moves back from the Iran Nuclear Deal, forcing Congress to vote on imposing sanctions again, will this not destroy the credibility of the United States in future negotiations, when every other nation, Russia, China, Britain, France still endorse the same deal?  If the President is concerned Iran is violating the agreement, let him vigorously enforce the agreement instead and prove that Iran is not abiding by the treaty.  This would maintain the credibility of our nation and not permanently damage our reputation in the world politick.  I could, of course, cite many more examples of Trump’s political naiveté.  (Please see my article, “Trump the Chump”, which analyzes our withdrawal from Syria, allowing Russia’s new projection of power in the Middle East and its negative effect on Israel’s long term security, as Israel is our longest term ally in the region.)

I point these issues out for review and discussion at all levels of government, as we are allowing an unstable, unpredictable “moron” of a man to make mincemeat of any coherent plan of government or any projection of US power across the globe.  President Trump has done more in 9 months to diminish the power, authority and respect for the United States among other nations than any President in this century and perhaps even the century before this one!

If the Republican Party which currently leads both houses of Congress had any sense of history and if they wished not to be labeled “moronic” along with their president, they would find a way to quickly distance themselves from this man and his administration and offer a real alternative of leadership in their party.  Republicans are playing with unholy fire thinking that Trump will somehow “learn the presidency” well enough to promote the Republican agenda, if they even have one.  The party itself is so split by ideological groups, as, for example, represented by the new ultra conservative elected from Alabama that it is itself without governance.  It may be too much to expect that such a dysfunctional party could actually lead this nation!

I speak as neither Democrat nor Republican.  I have voted the Republican side of the ticket in most cases, except I did endorse Obama in his administration.  I did vote for Clinton in the last election, while “holding my nose”, as I thought and still do say she had the better credentials, despite all her baggage.  However, what I speak now is neither as Republican nor Democrat.  I am speaking now about the integrity of our nation, about the ability of anyone of whatever political stripe to bring order into chaos.  The “swamp of Washington” is not being drained, but the alligators are fighting for both survival and dominance.   The result is what the media calls “chaos in government.”  When the Secretary of State is forced to make a sudden news conference just to say he is not leaving, are not some strange winds blowing through the White House?

I write as a Christian minister who prays for our nation to represent the best of humanity and not the worst of it.  This nation can no longer claim the mantle of being a “Christian nation”, even though the majority of us still hold that to the title of Christian.  In a pluralistic society of many kinds of persons and many religions, we can at least work for tolerance, kindness, generosity and goodwill among all people.  The Christian is never called to hate nor to destroy.  We will always argue about political differences and we may hold differences of opinion about whether God wants women to use birth control or not.  Such matters are best left to the personal conscience of each woman before her God.

However, I speak now of the survival of our nation, our culture, our democratic way of life!  We have a President who behaves and leads so chaotically that he produces chaos in his wake.  Is this the kind of man we want to be in charge of the policies and the nuclear weapons of our country?  I strongly advocate we replace him quickly with someone else.  Let Paul Ryan assume leadership.  If he refuses, then Rex Tillerson would be an excellent choice.  We need someone of reasonable temperament who cares more about this country than their place on the TV news and the daily popularity polls.  God help us, all we need is someone qualified to lead!

I sincerely hope that our Republican and Democratic leaders realize sooner than later this is a failed presidency and a deeply flawed President.  He needs to be replaced.  Someone with some sense invoke the 25^th amendment (“unfit for duty”) and replace this man, otherwise it may be too late to save our Republic!  The stakes have never been greater nor more fearful!  I am not sure we will survive another nine months or even 9 days of this man in the office of the President!  God help us!  God help us all!

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we pray, though Jesus Christ our Lord.  “Amen and Amen!”

“O Lord Jesus, hear our prayer and save us from this dark and unholy hour and from this chaotic man who makes chaos in his wake.  He claims to be something, but his something is nothing at all!  We see in him darkness on the horizon trying to break through and destroy all the good things of this civilization and our nation.  Our nation and our diverse people have so many gifts we could offer you!  Hear our prayer and save us, in this darkest hour, from a president who has no controls and even less power to control himself.  O Lord, bring good sense once again into our government though the wisdom, power and grace of your Holy Spirit…Forgive us our folly and our denigrating pride.  Make us to be reborn into a renewed people, with a new beginning, ready again to work for your kingdom on the earth as it already is in heaven!  To You our Lord be all glory, praise, honor and blessing, both now and forever!   Raise up good leadership once again in our nation!  Anoint for us a “David” and replace this “Saul” in all his madness for the sake of your nation and for the sake of all those your people who sincerely love You! In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen and Amen!”

The voice of one calling in this wilderness, “Make straight in this desert a highway for our God!  In Jesus’ name!  “Amen!”