With the school year wrapping up, I had the chance to attend my boys’ elementary school choir concert last night. The songs chosen were inspirational in nature, with a majority of them from Michael Jackson’s catalogue. Everyone performed well, and the music holds a soft spot in my heart as a child of the 1980s. However, I experienced some dissonance—aside from the odd feeling of children singing songs by an artist whose relationships with kids were, at best, inappropriate. Living in MAGA country, it was disorienting to watch people enjoy ‘We Are the World’ and ‘Heal the World’ while supporting an ‘America First’ agenda that is literally taking food out of people’s mouths all over the globe. Of course, while I indulged my judgmental thoughts, a solo of ‘Man in the Mirror’ was being performed, and I wasn’t exactly engaging in self-reflection. As Doc Holliday from the movie Tombstone said, “My hypocrisy knows no bounds.” (RIP Val Kilmer)
The world is full of contradictions. For instance, if we could go back in time to the late 1990s, one of the biggest scandals was a sitting American president cheating on the first lady with an intern and then lying about it under oath. In true Tammy Wynette fashion, the Democrats were willing to “stand by their man” even as he did something most definitely beneath the office and obviously illegal. The Republican party’s response was one of moral outrage, scandalized at the thought that our nation’s youth would find out what a blowjob was before it was absolutely necessary. However, fast-forward forty years, and the Republicans now blindly support someone who makes Bill Clinton look like a saint and degrades the office on a daily basis. Meanwhile, it is the Democrats who are now on the side of standing up for notions of basic decency. While I support exposing the current administration for its corruption, incompetence, and unconscionable agenda, I won’t pretend that a pox can’t be placed on both of these houses when the time comes to protect their own.
But what can fall through the cracks as both sides default either to defending their tribe or attacking the other is the collateral damage in the form of human beings used, discarded, and/or forgotten. In the case of the Clinton saga, a 20-something named Monica Lewinsky was at the center of it all. I write this last sentence as if you don’t know her name… but you do. We all do, because for the rest of her life, her name and identity will be associated with the affair. Having her private life exposed to the masses, labeled a whore by the religious, serving as a constant punchline for comedians, used by Republicans to take down their adversary, and thrown away by the Democrats for derailing the Clinton presidency, the fact that this young woman fresh out of college made it through this public humiliation without ending her own life is nothing short of miraculous. That is not to say that she doesn’t bear any responsibility for her involvement, though the power dynamics highlighted during the ‘me too’ movement aren’t irrelevant. Despite the consequences of her actions leading to a version of hell that I don’t even want to imagine, she survived. Not only that, but she has also used her story to help others deal with public shame. As far as I’m concerned, she’s become an American hero.
While I’m no prophet, I can say with absolute certainty that some serious collateral damage is on the horizon as our current president continues down his destructive path. Not unlike Monica Lewinsky, it will be his biggest fans who are going to get screwed over… most notably, the folks J.D. Vance wrote about in his Hillbilly Elegy. How can I be so sure? Beyond the fact that Faustian deals with the devil seldom work out, there’s a metaphorical interstate lined with bodies Trump has thrown under the bus over the years—from his ex-wives, to those he’s stiffed on real estate deals, to students at Trump University, to the countless lawyers, politicians, civil servants, allies, etc. It takes a special kind of delusion to believe that this narcissist is working for the benefit of anyone but himself. Many Trump supporters haven’t picked up on this yet, as they are still in the ‘fuck around’ stage of the FAFO timeline. However, others are beginning to experience the ‘find out’ as jobs are lost, small businesses are closing, retirement accounts are being decimated, inflation is rising, recession is looming, and necessary funding is slashed or frozen. As we are being called to a scaled-back Christmas by dear leader while we also fund his birthday military parade, perhaps even more will connect the dots that our well-being isn’t exactly on his mind.
If I am being honest, there’s a part of me that enjoys watching those who thought Trump’s presidency would hurt everyone else but them reap what they’ve sown … though I’m not proud of this. As I reflect on these two instances of collateral damage—of those used and discarded—I have to ask myself why I am sympathetic to one and not the other. Perhaps it’s because of the gravity of the nightmare the MAGA base has thrown the entire world into. Perhaps it’s because Trump supporters haven’t had to fully confront what they have done yet. Perhaps it’s because none of this happens without conservative Christians ignoring the teachings of their own faith, particularly how Jesus consistently condemned the self-righteous weaponizing religion in their efforts to make Israel great again. Or perhaps my selective compassion is a result of my own hypocrisy—after all, I too could very well be ignoring the scripture that tells me, “Do not judge, lest ye be judged.”
To be clear, in making this statement, Jesus is not calling human beings to become moral relativists indifferent to right and wrong. As we go about our lives, we all make assessments of how we want to live in light of what we believe to be true. In watching what Trump and his followers are doing to our nation and beyond, we shouldn’t hesitate to condemn it … full stop. What Jesus confronts is the judgmental spirit that focuses on the actions of others and fails to appreciate that we ourselves have parts of our lives that we are ashamed of—our own hubris, our own ignorance, our own foolishness, our own mistakes, etc. I am glad that the full weight of this isn’t held against me, that there is an opportunity for redemption. The question is whether I am willing to see that others need this as well, specifically those who have lost their way in our current political moment. That’s not to diminish, trivialize, or ignore the abhorrent impact on people all over the planet, but just to acknowledge the humanity of those who have been caught up in this movement. The truth of the matter is that it won’t be too long before the consequences of trusting Trump will come to fruition in their lives as well. I can respond with ‘serves you right,’ or I can offer them a seat at the table, keeping in mind that I too have been deceived before and I’m sure even deceived right now in ways I can’t appreciate. The latter approach is the way of Jesus, who could look out on the crowd that would eventually kill him and “have pity on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Not only is this the correct posture but is practically wise. To stop what’s coming, MAGA defectors will be necessary. However, it’s hard to envision anyone crossing over if all they hear is judgment instead mercy. May I do better.