The Courageous Few
To the editor:
By now, if you still think Donald Trump is a suitable choice as a future president, then you have been ignoring current events and are unschooled in the critical lessons in psychology and history.
Not only is Trump not suitable for president, he’s not even suitable for being in what anyone might consider a normal relationship. After all, he threw Ivanka under the bus when she agreed with Attorney General Barr’s statement that there was no 2020 election fraud. Donald said about Ivanka: “she long since checked out.” She should have expected this because her father is not normal. Not even once could he be there for his daughter like a normal father. Here you have it. The old white guy cancelling his daughter because she disagreed with him.
Trump will never be normal like Cassidy Hutchinson. Nor as calm, collected, articulate and truthful as she skillfully described Trump’s actions in ways some did not want to believe. She was downright convincing. In two hours Cassidy proved she was more worthy of our trust than Trump could ever hope to achieve. She exposed Trump. Now we see Trump clearly when previously some of us were not ready to concede that he is a moral failure whose humanity is barely detectable.
Trump’s philosophy is not often discussed in such a way that everyone understands his motives. And he wants to keep it that way for good reason.
He is a “white Christian nationalist” — and the most unhinged we’ve ever seen. He’s the ringleader of the unhinged. But he “IS NOT” a Christian. He does not understand how to be a Christian. Nor is he interested in Christian philosophy. His interest is in himself and in attracting and controlling ignorant white Christian nationalists who buy his con.
For you see, Trump is focused on promoting a nostalgic myth to white Christian nationalists. (Not that he fully comprehends it.)
This myth is stated in the book “The Flag and the Cross”- White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy.
“The controlling myth of white Christian Nationalism says that God has specially elected the United States as a chosen nation and ideas of what constitutes a ‘true’ American must be zealously, even violently, defended.”
There is a new breed of uneducated white Christian nationalists emboldened by the ignorance of Donald Trump and all too eager to take a knee as they kiss his revolting outstretched hand. Where have you ever seen such ignorance in Congress as the likes of Lauren Bobert, Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Madison Cawthorne? Their cretin beliefs, rage, ignorance and outbursts are so convolved as to be uninterpretable. Optimistically though, they, and their ilk, can start filming for the next Netflix season of “Stranger Things.”
Then there are the innumerable unprincipled Republican cowards so beholden to Trump they cannot function as normal human beings. They cower to keep their jobs as they evade their moral obligations and ignore fundamental Christian behaviors. They are white Christian nationalists anxious to audition for “Stranger Things.”
My goodness, it was refreshing to watch and listen to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — both bold Republicans with moral compasses and well-developed understandings of the differences between right and wrong. They are to be commended for actually taking thoughtful, principled stands against a former president who initiated an attempted coup.
Among the Republicans who have testified in person and emerged as heroic are: The Justice Department trio of Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donoghue and Steven Engel.
And one of my favorite Republicans who refused Trump’s demands: Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state. Talk about having a backbone!
Everyone should be proud of the Republicans who spoke out passionately and truthfully against Donald Trump. They are the Republicans I can truly identify with!
They are, “The Courageous Few.”
Paul Kiefner
Saint Augustine