In 1968, the Rolling Stones released their song “Sympathy for the Devil”. While not their best-known song, it is one that you will not forget once you have heard it. The song engendered speculation that the band was worshiping Satan but that seems very unlikely given the lyrics of the song. However, if there had been a church for drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll, those boys would have been in the front pew. Give it a listen Sympathy.
When Donald Trump descended on the escalator in 2015 to announce that he was running for President, I told my wife that he was the “devil” and I meant that he was an instrument of the real Devil who appeared as a Serpent in the Garden of Eden and appeared as himself in the Gospels of the New Testament, tempting a weakened Jesus after his 40 day fast, promising him dominion over the entire world if he would just recognize him. Jesus refused. The American electorate did not share my concern about Trump.
I had been following Trump since the 1980s when he became the owner of the New Jersey Generals, a team in the United States Football League. He then single-handedly imploded that league when he challenged the National Football League in a court case. There are so many things to say about Trump, and most of them have been said, but I think the most succinct summary was just published by David Brooks in the New York Times. With Trump, the whole world is “us” versus “them” and “us” is always being screwed by “them.” Like Satan, outright fabrication is a necessary tool.
A few examples:
“They” stole the election from “us.”
“They” are overrunning “our” country, and “they” are not like “us”, so we need to keep “them“ out. (never mind that current “us” are the descendants of the “them” from an earlier time).
And he has made the Republican Party into a party of “grievance” because he is all about grievance and settling the score with his enemies.
To me, one of his more despicable comments was his reference to former Senator John McCain as a “loser” because he had been captured and spent five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp where he was so abused that he could not raise his arms. Meanwhile, Trump, who loves military trappings, made sure that he concocted bone spurs to avoid that same war.
The current polling data shows Trump winning in the electoral college states over Biden. I think the actual election will be much different as the economy continues to get strong, gas prices drop, and Social Security increases kick in. Nevertheless, the political class is apoplectic and in a complete dither over the current projections.
The editorial writers in all of our major papers, and the opinion columnists in those papers (whether conservative or liberal), in one form or another, believe that a Trump victory, as one of my friends said, would be the end of democracy and that the American experiment, almost 250 years old, would be over.
To which I say, quoting Pat Brady in the Roy Rogers television show of the 1950s, “Whooaa Nellie Bell” (the phrase he used to stop his Jeep, Nellie Bell). This flimflam artist – no matter how odious – has neither the discipline nor the smarts to undo 250 years of the American Republic. Will his four years be pretty? Absolutely not. But he will have a Congress and a Supreme Court to deal with, and he did extremely poorly with both in his first go round. Indeed, even though he self-proclaims himself a “winner,” he has been the regular “loser” in his thousands of court fights. Why should that change?
And don’t count out the American people. Only a handful of true believers are not disgusted by what happened on January 6, 2021 when the Trump hoard overtook the Capitol. You could bet your bottom dollar that those scenes will be run over and over again in political ads. For me, there is little doubt that most Americans blame Trump for that debacle and will remember it in the voting booths. Most Americans do not think that the crowd at the Capitol that day are, in current Trump speak, “hostages” who deserve to be pardoned.
Trump caught lightning in a bottle in 2016 and he may yet catch it again. There are some of you who will agree that Trump is a bad fellow but not agree with me that he is an instrument of the Devil. Well, the Devil is an attractive fellow and very good at persuading people that he doesn’t exist. After all, he led the fallen angels so we know he had considerable charisma although in the end he lost. But he hasn’t given up.
I remember Trump being interviewed by a religious broadcaster in 2016. He was asked what his favorite part of the Bible was. He deflected by saying “oh there are so many that he couldn’t pick just one.” But once pressed, he finally said: “an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth.” I don’t think it’s an accident that this quote was from the Old Testament and that this instruction was radically changed in the New Testament (rather than revenge the new rule is to “turn the other cheek” ). The Devil would never want to acknowledge the New Testament where Jesus refused his offer.
So why all this religious claptrap and stories of fallen angels? Someone says: “You must know that many of us are not religious and do not accept these ancient fables you reference.” I do know this but I think the theological story is a good one and explains a lot. I realize there are other explanations but they don’t seem to be as persuasive.
And Trump supporters? Are they also devils? Absolutely not, but Trump will never call forth the “better angels” in us to which Abraham Lincoln appealed; he only calls for our “worse angels” because, like the Devil, his purpose is to divide not unite, to create anger not love, to pit one against another and keep us from achieving the possibilities within ourselves.
To be sure, Trump has raised a number of significant issues such as uncontrolled immigration and the Democratic Party is hardly blameless. But ultimately Trump is not about solving the issues because that requires hard work, negotiation, compromise, and the willingness not to vilify the people you are negotiating with on Twitter (now X).
If the whole world is divided into either firefighters or arsonists, Trump will never be a firefighter. Nor will the Devil.