THE ELECTION AND AFTERWARDS

Heather Cox Richardson has penned a report that depicts the Trump and Harris campaigns in starkly different ways.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-4-2024. 

It is hard to disagree with her observations.

I agree that we should not ignore the hard truth about the fascist movement that Richardson and other observers have now - much too late - finally recognized in Donald Trump’s MAGA campaign. That does not mean Harris will win the election. It means that Trump and his supporters will never concede defeat if Trump and J.D. Vance lose.

Trump’s backers will do ANYTHING to prevent Harris from being declared the winner of the 2024 election.

They will flood courts with frivolous lawsuits. That has already started.

They will incite and commit violence at polling places, against election officials, and news reporters. That has already started.

They will claim victory BEFORE all votes have been tallied, and declare Trump and J.D. Vance President-elect and Vice President-elect.

They will dispute every final vote tally that favors Harris and Tim Walz in battleground states.

And they will flood airways, social media, and billboards with the message that Trump and Vance have won, that anyone who disputes this view is “the enemy,” and that Harris and Tim Walz should be stopped from being inaugurated, AT ANY COST, even if Congress certifies an Electoral College tally that Harris and Walz have been elected.

Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, and Donald Trump Jr. will lead the public effort backed by the same billionaires that fund the Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025 playbook.

And Trump and the MAGA movement will be ruthless in their efforts to get Trump back in power.

White people who call themselves "conservative evangelical Christians" will back them up, praise them, pray for them, and flood their accounts with donations. Without hesitation. Without shame. How do I know this? I know it because they have done so for generations.

Other white religious leaders who have refused to admit that "Christian" nationalism has long been how fascism is downloaded in this society - you know who they are and might even support and follow them - will not admit they were self-deceived. How do I know this? I know it because they have behaved that way for generations. 

Hedge fund managers and their billionaire investors will keep the money flowing for the MAGA movement.

Elon Musk will use his X (formerly Twitter) platform to promote MAGA propaganda, as will Fox News, Newsmax, and other right wing and white supremacy media outlets.

Trump and his supporters will never allow the final outcome of this election to be decided by votes. They are willing, prepared, and will try to decide it through violent tactics, messaging, and chaos .

For their part, no other outcome matters except restoring Trump to power.

We are about to see a horrific situation unfold over the coming weeks. 

Breathe. Pray. Stay alert. And struggle to save the democracy however you can. Think of what losing that struggle would mean for our grandchildren.

Decide that we will not doom them to that future. 

Protect democracy from the tyranny of fascism by Trump and his followers. That is our mission today, tomorrow, and every other day until the election results are finally certified by Congress in January 2025. 

We dare not fail.

Yet we should not fool ourselves by forgetting to ask ourselves and politicians of all stripes this version of something Jesus asked. What does it profit a nation to save its democracy yet lose its soul?

A nation that openly funds Israeli genocide in Gaza while boasting about being a bastion of peacemaking, liberty, and justice has lost its soul.

A nation that funds, arms, and upholds Israeli settler colonialism in the Israeli occupied West Bank - always mention that occupation - has lost its soul.

A nation that claims to care about human rights but does not care about starving, defenseless, unhoused, battered, and terrorized people within its borders, in Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Yemen, Haiti, people suffering from its trans generational trade and diplomatic embargo against Cuba, and covert aggression by U.S. armed operatives elsewhere throughout the world, has lost its soul.

A nation that boasts that it welcomes immigrants but elects leaders who denounce immigrants as villains, diseased, and diabolical has lost its soul.

A nation that says it loves all people yet denies women the right to choose, seek, and receive medical care for their reproductive health needs has lost its soul.

A nation that calls itself righteous yet refuses to make reparations for the wrongs, harms, and continued results of its history of racialized slavery, apartheid, land theft, and calculated violence against descendants of African, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous people has lost its soul.

A nation that sings that it is “the land of the free and the home of the brave” while leading the rest of the world in mass criminalization and elects leaders who call LGBTQI people dangerous has lost its soul.

Those violations of love and justice have always been deliberate, purposeful, willful, and brazen.

 

So let’s save the United States from fascism. But let’s not fool ourselves. 

The democracy we hope to save from MAGA fascism is an empire destroying itself. And Its capitalist greed, militarism, racism, patriarchy, misogyny, cruelty, and hypocrisy is plaguing the world much like the Covid virus did. As is true concerning Covid, too many people are ignoring the toxic nature and impact of the U.S. democracy. This toxic threat and its harmful consequences will continue no matter who becomes the next US president.

No one should feel good about that. However, we seem unable or unwilling to admit our plight, let alone do anything to atone for our transgressions.

I would like for the next president to lead us to change our ways. Sadly, I doubt that Harris is politically courageous enough to do that, despite my hopes. 

And we have no proof that Trump is morally and ethically willing to do it.

Wendell Griffen

www.linkedin.com/in/wendell-griffen

he/him/his

Author

Parable, Politics, and Prophetic Faith 

(Nurturing Faith, 2023)

The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope

(Judson Press, 2017)

Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Arkansas 

www.new millennium church.us

CEO, Griffen Strategic Consulting, PLLC

www.griffenstrategic consulting.com

Griffenstrategicconsulting@gmail.com

Co-Chair, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference

www.sdpconference.info

Hope fiercely.  Love boldly.

Love one another.  Jesus of Galilee 

We will find a way or make one.  Hannibal of Carthage 

Writing is how I fight.  James H. Cone

The time for pious words is over.  Allan Aubrey Boesak 

Justice is a verb!