“Donald Trump and a Generation that ‘received not the love of the truth’ but ‘had pleasure in unrighteousness.’©

 “Donald Trump and a Generation that ‘received not the love of the truth’ 

but ‘had pleasure in unrighteousness.’© 

Updated: 6 August 2023

Many, many politicians, pundits, journalists, and common folk like me have been deeply puzzled by Donald Trump’s strong base that stays with him regardless of his: narcissism, innate mendacity, total absence of moral character, irreligious lifestyle as the following list shows he commonly without conscience violates the sacred teachings, principles, and wisdom pertaining to civil human conduct of every known major religion; insatiable hunger for power and wealth, despotic desire to be a “strong man” tyrant, endorsement and embrace of neofascism, violation of his oath of office, unprecedented double impeachment in a single term, life-long womanizing and out-of-hand degradation of women and found legally liable in a court of law for sexual abuse, calling women he doesn't like "fat pigs," "dogs," "slobs," "bimbos," and "disgusting animals,” continually insulting, belittling and stereotyping women; running thoroughly corrupt business and political organizations; malignant tactlessness, mannerlessness, straight-faced hypocrisy; insatiable contention and litigiousness--using the courts as a weapon against opponents and enemies (over 4000 cases in his pre-presidency days), his never ending tactic to villainize opponents and worse, to aggressively pursue not only retribution but vengeance--to destroy careers, families, and lives of those he villainizes; repeated sophomoric threats to weaponize the DOJ against his enemies while at the same time complaining it is illegally weaponized against him; runaway pubescent playground bullying involving name calling and merciless mockery and belittling of everyone who annoys him in any way; bare racism, unbridled hot temper and volatile anger, ungoverned mean spirit, raw, uninhibited insults, vulgarity and crudeness, without refinement, class, and nobility in any form; duping and/or intimidating others, especially attorneys, to do his dirty work, yet absolutely disloyal to former friends, colleagues, staff, employees, and any peer who disagrees with or opposes him; repeated and ongoing intimidation of prosecutors and witnesses (he posted on Truth Social, 4 August 2023, the day after a judge warned him about this, "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU"); harsh, reactionary and juvenile judgmentalism; impulsiveness, showing signs of "impulse control disorders," or "disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders" which include “intermittent explosive disorder” and “oppositional defiant disorder;” apathy and indifference about negative consequences his erratic behavior produces, incessant character assassinations; egotistical, arrogant, and pompous to an unbelievable degree, at the same time monumentally and insufferably ignorant and stupid although he thinks he is always the smartest man in the room, ("my IQ is one of the highest" he boasted on TV), and see exhibit "A," his threat above, or that he apparently does not know the difference between a civil and criminal case, referring to the indictments against him as "law suits"; disdain for the expertise and opinions of others, especially those who disagree with him, and always right while everyone else is wrong; promotion of wild-eyed and irrational conspiracy theories, hysterical crybaby whining about his alleged victimization in contrast to his boasts of strength and toughness; speaking of toughness, Mr. Trump has remarkably thin skin, he can dish it out but he cannot take it as evidenced when Nancy Pelosi said this past weekend that Trump looked like a "scared puppy" when he came out of court in D.C., last week and Trump immediately responded on Truth Social, "I wasn't scared.  Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say!  She is a Wicked Witch ....  She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!"; cunning manipulation of others, greedy grifter enriching himself while allegedly serving the people, continual lawlessness, without conscience, a callous Spock-like deficit of emotional sensitivity, kindness, compassion, sympathy, or empathy, detached and cold; calculating, full of guile, relishes cruelty to others, thinks himself above the law; complete irrationality and utter disregard for facts, truth, and reality bordering on mental illness, a colossal braggart--"I will be the greatest job President God ever made" or "nobody builds walls better than me," and he claims a kind of clairvoyant and/or world-class historical knowledge without reading a book (or his security briefings) such that he knows and says really factual things the rest of us do not know or say, like his defense for saying he could grab women by their genitals without their consent, "Historically, that's true with stars.  If you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely true," or that Jack Smith is deranged and a drug user because he was photographed wearing a purple robe and his face is unattractive to Mr. Trump, or that the Bidens were responsible for the drugs discovered in a White House locker room, or that he could end the Russo-Ukrainian war in 24 hours, or he could build a wall and have Mexico pay for it, or touting disinfectant/bleach and hydroxychloroquine as a cure for Covid-19; persistent sociopathic if not psychopathic behavior, chronic exercise of unlawful influence by virtue of his position and status, abandoned recklessness with national security and handling of classified information, nearly unimaginable administrative incompetence like his deranged response to the COVID-19 pandemic and--where is the “wall” and what about the brainless scheme of Mexican money to pay for it?--that staggers the imagination!

What an example for America's youth! What a specimen of American politics! What a representative of the United States of America to put before the world! What a amateur, moronic madcap buffoon to put in charge of the most complex and powerful democratic government in the world!  What an unstable power-hungry demagogue to protect and uphold the Constitution with the freedoms and rights it guarantees! What a demon to have his finger on the nuclear button!

In light of all this, a base that remains loyal is not evaluating the man with a crystal clear critical eye, but are parading lemming-like loyalty to a political party and its frightful figurehead.  Their problem is that they are, as one long-time observer of the base, Sarah Longwell, founder of "The Republican Accountability Project" says, living "in an entirely different information ecosystem"(1)--that is they only read, see, and hear Trumpian propaganda such as Fox News.  In words borrowed from C. S. Lewis, they are enclosed "in a tiny windowless universe which [they] mistake for the only possible universe."(2) American education has failed these people according to the amiable Alan Simpson, former Republican Senator from Wyoming who defined an educated man as one who is "thoroughly inoculated against humbug, [and] thinks for himself...."(3) They evidence a similar irrationality, blind mindedness, and hard heartedness that characterizes the behavior of a religious cult like that of Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple or David Koresh’s Branch Davidians.(4) These same characteristics were hallmarks of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. I can understand Nazi Germany better now, in a way I never could before 2016. Understand may not be the correct word, but I see so many social and historical parallels that, if I were not a man of faith, it could be worrisome.

My wife and I read scripture together every night, and recently we have been reading Paul’s epistles. Within the week we encountered a passage that put Hitler, Fascist Italy, Communist Russia, China, and Cuba, Jones and Koresh, and Donald Trump and his base in a religious perspective.  In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 Paul is writing of a time when there was a “falling away, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” (Vs. 3)  He goes on to discuss Satan and his influence. I invite the reader to consider some of the characteristics of the period Paul is discussing in 2 Thess. 2:9-12. I have highlighted several that stood out to me.

KJV 2 Thessalonians 2: 9-12    9) Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,  10) And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  11)  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:  12)  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The context is, of course, a religious declension, but to me it also fits an ultra-contemporary political counterpart. Donald Trump and his ilk: Lindsey Graham, Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and a host of other like-minded irrational crazies and hypocrites should all be sent packing.  Latter-day Saints know the Constitution was inspired by God, not that it is perfect, but it’s the best this world has ever seen.  Why turn the government of this great nation over to people who act like the people Paul describes?

Until a year ago, I’ve been a life-long Republican, but these irrational demagogues have commandeered the party and turned it into a political cult revolving around the worst man to ever hold the office of President of the United States. So, I left and became an independent. I will not vote for Donald Trump nor Joe Biden. But, I believe we can go back to some fundamental Republican ideas and ideals without the baggage, and more importantly, the danger Donald Trump represents to our Constitution, the republican form of government it authorizes, the Rights it guarantees, Democracy in general, and to the good of our society and culture.

Let’s think together again, soon.

Notes:  

1. Sarah Longwell to Christiane Amanpour, 3 August 2023, on CNN @ https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-supporters-live-in-an-entirely-different-information-ecosystem-says-political-strategist/vi-AA1eNY3V

2.  C.S. Lewis, "Christianity and Culture," in Lesley Walmsley, ed., C.S. Lewis: Essay Collection: Faith, Christianity and the Church, London, Harper Collins, 2000, 81.

3.  Alan Simpson, Newsweek, 1 July 1963, cited in Stephen Donadio, et al., eds., The New York Public Library Book of Twentieth-Century American Quotations, New York: The Stonesong Press, 1992, 163.

4. See for example, this very recent article:  Seth D. Norrholm, "A Neuroscientist Warns: We're Watching the Largest and Most Dangerous 'Cult' in American History," Raw Story, 5 August 2023, A neuroscientist warns: We're watching the largest and most dangerous 'cult' in American history (msn.com)