In August of 2015, I must say I saw this coming. That's not to pat myself on the back or declare myself some modern day prophet, but to me, the frustration, and yes, anger, of much of what is often described as "middle America" was painfully obvious, and I really didn't understand why more did not see it. Maybe most didn't want to see it. I wrote a few blogs on it and after the debates critiqued them on Facebook. I reached the conclusion in the fall of 2015 that it would come down to Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton and that Trump would be the eventual President. He now is. So what the heck happened?
Evangelicals turned out for a morally challenged, many times lewd, crude and obscene candidate in numbers not seen since 2004. They saw no other choice. With the most openly hostile candidate to the unborn in the history of our nation as the opponent, and the Supreme Court on the line, Evangelicals held their collective noses and voted for the vile man who in the last debate gave the most impassioned defense of the unborn of any Republican candidate ever. Last night was a victory for those who view abortion as the greatest national sin in our history. May Donald Trump be a man of his word on it.
The political and media establishment was laid bare like never before with it's corrupt, elitist underbelly exposed and rebuked. I said this long ago, Donald Trump is not a Republican. He was a third party candidate who was smart enough to realize that apart from our corrupt two party system, you cannot win the Presidency. Through Trump's antagonism with both major political parties and the media, he began to reveal the utter mess that our system was through the primaries. How money had corrupted seemingly all involved. How the media instead of reporting the news attempted to shape it and make it depending upon their ideology. Through the providence, and I do believe that's what it was, of leaked emails, we saw behind the tattered curtain of the ruling elite and their willing minions in the media exactly how broken, and far from it's intended ways, our system has become. Yesterday America said no more. Whether true reforms in our system take place is still in question. They are desperately needed. It is time for term limits. It is time to remove the graft from political office where people go to Washington broke and return home millionaires. At no point since 1994 has this had a better chance of happening. It needs to happen.
Republicans are not the winners here. As I watch Paul Ryan as I write this, I still don't think he understands. Republicans were rejected just as much as Democrats. It is all of Washington that was rejected. These people DID NOT want Trump as President. They still don't. But they have little choice now. I'm sure over the next few months and year we'll hear of Republican unity on several issues where it is possible. But make no mistake, the Republican Party of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and the neoconservative, is officially dead, and Lazarus isn't walking out of the tomb. If this really is a movement as Trump declares, conflict within the Republican Party is coming and it will be intense.
The Clinton era of sleaze, lust for power, and the politics of personal destruction is mercifully over. As much as many consider Trump unfit to be President, and there are legitimate reasons that is so, Hillary Clinton is equally repulsive. The lack of honor and integrity, and the legacy of corruption and scandal has been a blight for many years. The very fact that this sleaze has been swept under the rug for political expediency and election results by the Democratic Party for 25 years is emblematic of how far from our moorings our system has drifted.
There is an insurgency in our nation and the world around us. Across the globe people are standing up, voting, and screaming that the status quo is no longer acceptable. Bernie Sanders, whom the Democratic political machine basically rigged the system against, led an insurgency from the left, just as Trump did from the center-right. Ideologies may differ, but the message is the same. How we are doing things is not working and is no longer acceptable. The problem with insurgencies is while they more often than not can identify the problem, enacting the repairs is a far different challenge. This is the dilemna that faces President Donald Trump.
The system is rigged, and guess what, it always has been. The rich and powerful have always ruled and they will not release their grasp on the levers of power without an all out war. There is an entitlement mentality among this ruling class that disdains the exact message that has been clearly communicated from the masses in this election. Last night was a revolution without muskets, but holding the ground gained will not be easy. In our nation, while independence was gained in the Revolutionary War, it was almost lost just a short time later in the War of 1812. The battle has just begun, and there is no limit to what those who lust for power and wealth will do to swing back the pendulum to the what they believe is their rightful place. For all who truly desire "equality and justice for all," know that revolutions are not events, but marathons. And they are bloody.
Racism and sexism were not what was in play. Hillary Clinton was not rejected because she was a woman. She was rejected for all I've cited above and many other things. Barack Obama was not rejected because he was black. Far more people voted for him, many of whom voted for Trump last night, than either of these candidates. His agenda was rejected on many levels, especially in regards to the sky rocketing health care premiums under Obamacare and his embrace of social liberalism. Immigrants either from war torn areas of the world or across our southern border were not rejected because they are Muslim or Mexican. People see what's going on in Europe through unfettered, open immigration, and want to do everything possible to keep that from here. People want the laws of the land as far as illegal immigration enforced. Those who seek to rule by division trumpet those things, but they simply are not the case. Do some undesirable elements fall under the Trump tent. Yes, no doubt. Are they what drove this? Not even close. This was not a race war that happened last night, or a gender war. It was a culture and class war.
I could go in to many other things. We'll definitely see the continued battle between liberalism and conservatism; big and small government; what to do about immigration, terrorism, health care, and multitudes of other issues. But those are the minutia. What happened last night was bigger than all those things.
Is Donald Trump the right man for the job? Can he be a providential wrecking ball that God uses like many unlikely figures in the bible? Is he King Saul, or Cyrus, or something in the middle? Is he in over his head? Is our nation ripe for judgment? No one knows except God.
As Christians we've allowed this election to divide us, and that is sinful. I've long felt Christianity is to politicized, that we look to Washington, the Supreme Court, and the things and ways of the world for change instead of the only One who can truly change, Jesus Christ. Our nation's and world's problems were not solved last night, only revival in God's church and a spiritual awakening in the land can heal and truly lead to a better world. Can we surrender to that, humble ourselves, pray as never before, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways from within ourselves, through the power of the Holy Sprit, apart from God's rod? I pray so. I fear not.
This world is far from God, and we alone stand as salt and light to it. O' church, hear the Lord's plea! Be transformed instead of conformed, and unite as one body for Him, not behind failed human ideology that can never succeed. Our hope is not in any of this, but in Christ alone. Last night didn't change that one wit.
