Talking Politics

 That title might be enough for you to click away to a calmer topic. I understand -- I've avoided politics on my blog for many years. I avoid it altogether on my Youtube channel, and I try very hard to avoid addressing politics on Facebook. I'm afraid of offending friends and family whom I care about.

However, there comes a moment when one's silence is itself a wrong-doing. For me, that moment is now.

I've never supported Donald Trump's foray into politics. While so many of my fellow conservatives have supported him (either reluctantly while holding noses, or enthusiastically as if he were a savior), I've always smelled a rat. Trump has been in the public eye for most of his life. He never hid his character -- a bully, a braggart, a womanizer, a selfish manipulator, a vain and greedy man. Just because he bullied all other nominees out of the running in the GOP primaries in 2016 didn't mean he'd changed at all, to me.

Every move he's made has been for his own advancement. I feel he has the affliction of many elderly men past the age where sexual prowess is their driving force; he craves power and applause. He has successfully secured the one position in the world that gives him the ability to flex his political muscles. Is he neglecting domestic crises, focusing instead relentlessly on international dramas? Of course -- International muscles are more impressive that domestic ones. I have never seen a president less inclined to be a servant of the people.

As Bonhoeffer told us, to remain silent in the face of evil is to be complicit in it. "Not to speak is to speak." If I don't publicly state that I oppose the actions of Trump, then with my silence I'm saying that I support him. I cannot allow that. I must speak, even if only on a tiny old blog with few who see it.

I am mystified by my Christian friends who continue to support him. But I cannot let that silence me; that would be wrong. They must follow their consciences, and I must follow mine. The incident now that pulls me from silence is the attack on Venezuela, the bombings that took civilian lives, all so that Trump could kidnap a bad president and his wife and drag them to New York in handcuffs.

This is not the American way. Historically, we negotiate, we apply pressure, we unite with allies. But we don't bomb, we don't murder, we don't make lame excuses ("His people hate him!" "He's a drug thug!" "He probably stole an election!") These are not reasons the US gives for this kind of barbarity and invasion of another nation's sovereign space. It's not the American way, but it is the Trump way.

I'm watching Lucy Worsley's recent documentary, Blitz Spirit, about how common British folks handled the terror and trauma of WW2 bombings in England. They did not cave; they rose to the occasion to save their nation, to preserve who they were. I want Americans to do the same. Who are we? A band of thugs? Bullies in the world? Or are we the nation that sets an example of service, support, encouraging independence instead of stripping it away from others. Will Trump vocally honor Greenland's independence? Will he say what Americans have always said -- about ourselves and others -- that your land belongs to YOU, and we will defend your right to keep it and live in it and rule it as you see fit? That's the America we have been, and I want to  state loudly that we still are, in spite of the bully who currently sits in the Oval Office. May he depart back to his private life soon. 

We need a different leader who reminds us why we are great. We are great because our goal is to share freedom, independence, sovereignty, and self-governance around the world. American is great because she is slow to react, quick to help. We need a president who has those same values.