Trump will never really triumph
by Kenneth Bagnell
The role of fundamentalist Christians can’t be underestimated in the elevation of the unqualified Donald Trump to the American Presidency. Barbara and I watched today’s inauguration on television. The many Trump supporters who were there would be annoyed if they ever read what I write here. As Trump spoke, I remembered the title of a sermon preached by one of history’s greatest preachers and the father of liberal preaching. (I once interviewed him after he’d retired from New York’s renowned Riverside Church.) I refer to the late Harry Emerson Fosdick. Fundamentalists, as I know them, loathed him. That’s one reason that his autobiography, which he signed, is in my study. (I have almost every book he has written.)
A sermon he once preached, had a title that I recalled as I listened to all Trump had to say. The title was this: “Are you part of the problem or part of the answer?” I’m afraid Mr. Trump has already proven he’ll be part of the problem. The most obvious problem is the rejection of “foreigners” he doesn’t like, even if they are desperate refugees, including those from Islamic countries. Canada, in very recent years, received and settled roughly 25,000 Syrian refugees. During that same time former President Obama, a good and intelligent man, was in meeting-after-meeting promoting refugee emigration. How did he do? Not well. Why?
Well he was up against a cement wall, and dreadful as it was, it was virtually run by evangelical lobbies called Christians Against Illegal Immigration, and other fundamentalist news sites like “One American News Network.” (According to major newspapers, an American evangelical network cites the Ten Commandments and the Book of Genesis as being supportive of their favorable perspective on Trump.) A recent American newspaper ran an article titled: “The Evangelical Crusade Against Immigration.” This is Christian Stewardship? It’s not. (It’s a result of American syncretism. (If you’d like further explanation on syncretism google my blog titled: “Rights and The Refugees.” Moreover let’s also remember that well over 20 million Americans are reported as unable to read or write.) That helped Trump. He’s also the man who played to the fundamentalist right who, dreadful as it is to say, has a large portion of bigots. Hence, in one of his debates he said referring to Muslims: “They’re not coming to this country if I’m President.”
For a long time, today’s best known evangelical, Franklyn Graham, who was among the clerics who took part in Trump’s inauguration, has preached the following: (a) that gay people are of the devil. (b) in the wake of a killing by police of a black man, he told the black community to “smarten up” and stop resisting police (c) he once said business has a war on Christianity because Christmas cards only wish “Happy Holidays.” (d) he doesn’t know if Barrack Obama is a Christian and that his real problem is having been born a Muslim. I could go on for paragraphs. (He’s even called Islam “a religion of hate.” That’s truly disgraceful from an evangelical.
Yet Franklyn Graham was the man Trump chose from the Protestant faith group to give the prayer on Inauguration Day. There were several clergy, but I sensed none from the major Protestant denominations: Episcopalian, Presbyterian etc. I presume it’s because they are usually liberal in theology, an aspect of which Trump may have wanted to skip. (He said a few years ago that he attended regularly a mainline New York Church. The congregation, in a gracious style, publically differed.)
There are, I’m afraid, significant reasons to worry seriously on the near future with Trump as American President. The reasons are not just his limited intellectual range or lack of prudence and what we usually call “plain common sense.” For example, sometime ago, he was foolish enough to speak on a national TV program about – get ready – the size of his penis. A Presidential candidate! Can you imagine it? Well, stay tuned because it came up again in the campaign. (I wish the psychiatrists would speak publically on him, but they’re prohibited from speaking out on a person or patient.
Well, his unceasing critic (to me the most respected daily paper), The New York Times, once again went after him in a recent editorial among scores of Trump editorials always negative. It began this way: “Is Donald Trump a real Man? He certainly wants us to think he is. He lives in a gilded man cave, glued to the TV screen, chomping down junk food and hanging out with bodacious models and beauty pageant contestants. He loves to brag about his sexual prowess. He reminds us that he has big hands … And not just big hands….” You get the point.
Truly, how can we respect Trump in the gallery of history’s fine Presidents. Think for just one second of Abraham Lincoln. Don’t accuse me of exploiting Trump. After all this man is now President of the world’s most powerful and influential country and to me, he’s the least qualified President in known history.
That leaves a question: what are we to expect from him? In a single and honest word: trouble. However, it’s not impossible that under his advisors he just might become more diplomatic; or maybe it’s possible that for whatever reason, he might be removed from office. But that’s really unlikely. We are just in for a rough ride. For one thing, he is the most unfriendly environmental leader to ever hold high office; (b) he still has his ongoing secluded relationship with Putin which he refuses to acknowledge. In any case, I take the word of the professional security agency which this very morning, Inauguration Day, is reported to be a very serious matter in the most credible of papers, The New York Times. The piece was headed: “Trump’s Russian ties investigated.” One sentence will suffice: “The probe means that Trump will take the oath of office Friday with his associates under investigation and after the intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russian Government had worked to help elect him.” (It also includes Trump’s past business dealings and the dealings of several of his colleagues.) It’s not entirely clear if it also involves the hacking of the computers of the Democratic party’s computer system.
Given Trump’s almost bizarre recklessness, confirmed in many instances, the question of his relationship with Canada is uppermost in the mind of most of the deep thinkers, both scholars and essayists. I trust, to a good degree, the advice of Canada’s former US ambassador, Derek Burney (1989 to 1993) that we don’t overdo our concern and go into panic. That said, all major matters, ought to be reviewed in Ottawa‘s external concerns through what philosophers call, “critical thinking.” Burney was right when he said recently that the personal relationship between Canada’s Prime Minister and the American President is a critical matter we should never underestimate. It was a fine relationship between Obama and Trudeau. But Trump? That’s another matter and to me a wait and see relationship. Trudeau, despite a bit of recent travel carelessness, is obviously a gentleman. As for Trump, I try to keep an open mind.
There are serious issues Trump and Trudeau must engage. Be mindful that Trump is not much admired in Canada. He was a distant second in early surveys inquiring how we judged candidate Trump compared to candidate Clinton. (Almost 90 percent of Canadians were for Clinton.) As for the many issues Trump and Trudeau will have to discuss with divided opinions, the environment in on top. I don’t look forward to it. Trump has said, with great emphasis, that, if made President, he would abolish the American agency created to improve the environment. As for global pollution, notice that Trump has said he’d take the US right out of NATO. (It raises the danger of other nations withdrawing if the influential US does.) Another problem: Trump is so totally absorbed by business, he is truly vapid on moral and humanitarian issues. One example must suffice: this man has argued for the return of torture. It’s fact! As he put it, about a month ago, “Don’t tell me it doesn’t work, torture works.” (He affirms waterboarding with all its dreadful aspects.)
Finally, on this Inauguration Day, January 20th, 2017, there’s one quite disconcerting Trump ambition: Trump wants to banish NAFTA, which stands for North America Free Trade Agreement. Trump’s ambition, if adopted, could be very wounding for Canada. A few days ago some Canadians claimed it wouldn’t apply to Canada. They’re dreaming. Trump virtually parades Canada’s situation in blunt style. “I like free trade,” he said awhile ago. “but free trade is not free. It’s dumb trade because we lose with China, we lose with Mexico, we lose with Japan and Vietnam and every single country that we deal with. We lose with Canada big league… Tremendous, tremendous trade deficits with Canada.” You’ll understand why I feel the sooner Trump sits down with Justin Trudeau the better. Good luck Justin. Sorry, but all I can say is we’ll all be backing you. For sure.
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