Will America Get The President It Deserves?
In anticipation of last Thursday’s presidential debate, I started praying for our country at the 7 a.m. daily Mass. I went to another service at 5:15 in the afternoon. I prayed that President Biden could make the case for stability over chaos, truth over lies, unity over division, and competency over bombast.
It was clear minutes into the debate that my prayer would not be answered.
Why God, I wondered, would you hand a pass to Donald Trump, a man whose proven time and again his main goal is self-interest rather than service; vindictiveness rather than a vision for the common good?
Unless something changes drastically, it appears that Trump is on his way to cruising to a victory over Joe Biden in November. This despite the fact that inflation is down, jobs are increasing, the stock market is high, Covid has been curbed, and we have regained our standing and credibility on the world stage.
There are people who say they can overlook Trump’s character flaws and moral failings. They can ignore the fact that a court found him guilty of sexually attacking a woman he hardly knew in a NY department store. They excuse the fact that a jury convicted him on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sexual interlude with an adult film actress while his pregnant wife was home. They say they like his “policies” if not his “persnality.” Should our country, though, have to endure another four years of mendacity, narcissism and incompetence? The question should concern to every person of faith.
Surely some privileged folks enjoyed greater returns on their investments and lower income tax bills in the Trump years. But are our memories so short that we have forgotten that 400,000 Americans died of Covid on Trump’s watch in part because he was reluctant at first to even acknowledge the crisis — fearing it would affect his reelection campaign — and then because of his incompetence in executing a plan to deal with the pandemic?
Have we forgotten that children were separated from their parents and confined to cages on the southern border? Or the sight of young men marching through Charlottesville carrying torches, giving the Nazi salute — some of whom Trump defended? Can we simply dismiss the ultimate wound to our body politic: Trump supporters attacking police, smashing windows and defecating on the floor of our Capitol, the symbol of our democracy? Patriots, Mr. Trump calls them. Really?
One can go on and on. Hence my question, why God? Why give advantage to a man who is so unworthy of the task he seeks?
I gained some insights reflecting on several of the Old Testament readings I heard at Mass this week. They told of troubling times in Israel’s history when God’s ‘chosen people’ were overcome by brutal occupiers who killed thousands, desecrated the Jewish temple, and led most of the military and civilian population into bondage. Psalm 79 summarizes it all:
They have defiled your holy temple
They have laid Jerusalem in ruins
They have given the corpses of your servants
As food to the birds of heaven …
The underlying message seems to be that the people of Israel had neglected their covenant with God. They were no longer adhering to God’s precepts. God responds with a huge wake-up call.
At the same time, I have been reading letters exchanged during the 1960s between the great Trappist monk and spiritual teacher Thomas Merton and Chinese Catholic scholar John C.H. Wu. At one point, Merton confides he is experiencing a painful emotional struggle. Wu reads meaning into Merton’s turmoil and pain.
“Let the Lord beat your heart into pulp,” Wu tells Merton, “So that it is no longer your heart but the Heart of God with its all-embracing Compassion.”
Increasingly, we have become a country divided against itself, ensconced in a bubble of self-interest, hearts hardened toward the vulnerable. Perhaps we need another grueling, vicious and chaotic four years of Donald Trump to wake us up from the delusion that Trump is some kind of savior. Perhaps we need our hearts beaten to a pulp.
Several prominent newspaper editorial boards have recommended that Joe Biden step aside for the good of the country. The hope is that another, more vigorous candidate would be a stronger opponent to Trump. There is surely precedent for a leader stepping away. Pope Benedict XVI did it when he felt he could no longer effectively fulfill his duties. I hardly have the expertise or inside knowledge to know whether Biden moving aside is now the best course of action to save our country from an impending train wreck.
I do know that if it remains a choice between a candidate who compulsively lies, provokes violence, is bent on revenge, and has to tear down whole groups of people in order to build himself up, I’d rather vote for a man who stutters and stumbles and loses his train of thought. I’d rather vote for someone who appoints competent people rather than sycophants, and who has a heart for others.
Our country is not “going to hell.” Nor is it a “rat’s nest,” as Donald Trump would like us to believe. Neighbor still comes to the aid of neighbor, but our hearts are pummeled, to use John Wu’s analogy.
The choice we face is clear. On the eve of this Fourth of July, will we as Americans wake up?
