By PETER BERGER
By Peter Berger
I’ve always relied on the mediocrity of American leaders. Petty corruption and ineptitude were usually as bad as our politicians got.
Not always, of course. Joseph McCarthy truly had “no sense of decency.” George Wallace injected his poisonous bigotry into national policy. They were met by patriots moved by justice and braced by courage – Joseph Welch and Margaret Chase Smith, Rosa Parks and Dr. King.
Similarly, our worst Presidents, Pierce and Buchanan, earned their bottom ranking not for tyranny or treason, but for their exceptional incompetence and poor judgment as the South slid toward secession. It took Mr. Lincoln’s wisdom, perseverance, and compassion to save us in that crisis.
I see no Lincoln among us now.
Who will save us from Donald Trump?
Despite a quarter-million dead and twelve million sickened, he’s worked to convince a third of us that the virus is a hoax.
Despite election officials’ unanimous affirmation that the election was legitimate, and no evidence whatever of electoral fraud, he’s worked to convince a third of us that the election was rigged.
Despite his clear defeat and the summary dismissal of his sham lawsuits, he has obstructed the peaceful transfer of power and denied the next President access to government resources during the transition.
He has done these things deliberately and with apparent relish.
By his words and deeds, he’s undermined our democracy for at least a generation.
By his words and deeds, he’s crippled his successor’s power to protect us from the pandemic.
By his words and deeds, he’s jeopardized American soldiers’ lives and sabotaged foreign policy for the sake of vengeance and political advantage.
He is the only President among the forty-five who with malice aforethought has sought to harm the republic.
He regards the Presidency as an opportunity to advance his own interests, like a resort development or casino – just another gamble with someone else’s money. When adverse circumstances or his own advantage dictate, he liquidates the asset, takes as much as he can with him, and leaves the debt and the heartache with the suckers.
He is made in such a way that he can do this without blushing or remorse.
The mystery isn’t why he’s doing it but why we’re letting him do it.
Some Americans claim they love their country, but they love their violent hatred more.
Some do love their country, but they’ve been deceived by lies and rumors made credible by Fox, Facebook, and Twitter.
Some mistakenly believe that fascism can’t happen here. Except it’s already happening. Journalists, doctors, officials, and their families face death threats for opposing the will of Trump while Trump watches silently or even nods approval.
Then there are those in positions of trust and power. They know the election was fair and free. They know Trump lost. They know his dereliction as the virus runs rampant. But when they look in the mirror, they see a future President or Speaker of the House.
They think they need Trump on their side. For the sake of their ambition, they’re willing to sacrifice American lives and the life of the republic.
Pyrrhus, a Greek general, defended a Greek-held city against Rome. Pyrrhus’s army won the battle, but he lost so many men that when he was congratulated, he replied, “Another such victory and we shall be utterly ruined.”
Republican leaders, how will you weigh your gain against what we have all lost? How will you explain the ruin you and your Trump have brought on our nation? You may manage to rationalize and deny responsibility while you live. But history will record your complicity and treachery, and your children and grandchildren will read it.
History will marvel, too, at how citizens of a great nation preferred death to wearing a medical mask. Tell me, you who equate liberty with the right to infect your neighbors. How is your decision to go maskless in our public space any more a matter of Constitutional liberty than my decision to drink as I drive down the public highway I share with you?
The prophet Ezekiel taught that in perilous times the people appoint a watchman to warn the nation. If the watchman sounds the trumpet, and the people heed his warning, they will live, but if they ignore him, their blood will be on their own heads. If, however, the watchman fails to sound the trumpet, the people will die, and for his silence their blood will be on the watchman’s head.
It’s the nature of representative government that we elect leaders to govern and warn us of national peril. They are our appointed watchmen.
All the hirelings, the Giulianis, McEnanys, and Grahams, are culpable for the wounds they’ve inflicted on the republic. So are the Trumpist rumormongers and purveyors of deceit who pose as journalists.
But the other watchmen, all those who know the election was fair, who know that Donald Trump lost, who know his iniquity and the baselessness of his seditious lies, the ones who keep silent, who mince their words and mute their condemnation, who claim to embrace the party of Lincoln and yet withhold their warning – they are just as culpable.
The virus killed two thousand people today.
Trump’s mad attorney plotted to subvert the Electoral College.
And the man who sits in Lincoln’s seat mistook it for a throne and tried to steal it.
Sound the trumpet.
Peter Berger has taught English andhistory for 30 years. Poor Elijah would be pleased to answer letters addressed to him incare of the editor.
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