On August 21, while berating reporters in the middle of his yard, Donald Trump looked skyward and declared himself “the chosen one”.
Let’s be clear: He was kidding.
Although it’s entirely possible that Trump does, in fact, believe he has something akin to a divine mandate to govern, the remark was obviously a joke. He was referring to the notion that no president has ever taken on the task of trying to force China to change its economic model (probably because that’s a quixotic endeavor even God himself couldn’t succeed at).
Kidding or no, the clip became an instant sensation, for obvious reasons.
While Trump may have been joking, there’s no shortage of disciples who believe wholeheartedly in his messiah status. His rallies retain their cult-like atmosphere from the campaign (probably because Trump never stopped campaigning), and the president’s hardcore base is defined as much by their shared religious zeal as by their common socioeconomic status, which, suffice to say, isn’t on par with Trump’s.
Well, in a new interview with Fox, outgoing Energy secretary Rick Perry delivered a series of absurd remarks referencing Trump’s divine status.
“God’s used imperfect people all through history”, a completely serious Perry mused, adding that he once gave Trump a list of biblical figures who he imagines the president can relate to.
“I said ‘Mr. President, I know there are people that [sic] say… you know, you said you were ‘the chosen one’ uhh, and I said ‘You were'”, Perry explained. “If you’re a believing Christian you understand God’s plan for the people who rule and judge over us on this planet”.
There’s not much utility in trying to editorialize around that cringe-worthy claim.
Even if you’re a believer, the only way you can rationalize the idea that God decided to appoint a narcissistic, greedy, philandering, serial liar whose business career is a sordid tale of bankruptcies, defaults, scams, failures and frauds (with the latter including a “university” that was closed for not being a university and a charity that was shuttered because it wasn’t a charity), is if the Almighty is very, very angry at humanity.
If that’s the case, he (or she) might have just spared us all the suffering and sent an asteroid, unless the suffering is the point.
But thanks anyway, Rick.
Also, good luck with the Ukraine thing.
As part of your Thanksgiving ‘homework’, be sure to watch “The Family” on Netflix. I was skeptical early on, but the menace of those groups builds up until the danger becomes clearly obvious.
My hope is that this trump era will end with a great cleansing, a time when the narrow-minded & hate-filled evangelical trump cancer crashes down like The Berlin Wall, or the wonderful Reagan Era end, or the end of The Bush Dynasty. In all honesty the Obama era had it’s moments with corruption, overreach and expanded liberalist ideals, ideology that pushed the right wing into depression and despair — but, how is it that today, the right wing pendulum has swung so far right to be as bad as nazi fascism. We live in a time with evangelicals worshipping evil, taking pleasure in hating and hurting and embracing lawlessness — they are enraptured by the strengthening of their criminal leader, who they see as a connection to God, a their tool to hurt those who aren’t part of their tribal cult. Meanwhile, the mainstream media, the Fourth Estate, does all it can to ensure that the hate-filled echo chamber is able to amplify its message of hate. It’s as-if God does want evil to become powerful to a point of overwhelming truth, justice, logic and law — it’s as-iff God wants chaos and darkness to become a literal choice between good and evil and to thus clarify the truth of hypocrisy. Perhaps the will of God is to provide hypocrites with trump bait and to give them enough rope to hang themselves … one can only pray for a righteous ending that strikes down those that are evil! Amen.
From 2016 Politico (What Today’s Democrats Can Learn From Tip O’Neill’s Reagan Strategy): Throughout, O’Neill kept faith and aimed for the day when he could stand in front of the cameras and define the terms of the 1982 election. “From now on, it’s Reagan’s budget,” the speaker declared, when the president’s plan passed Congress, and the hour arrived in September. “From now on, it’s Reagan’s unemployment rate. From now on, it’s Reagan’s inflation rate. You can’t criticize the Democrats. It’s Reagan’s ball game.”
Reaganomics proved a failure. The “supply side” tax cuts were gimmicks. Stockman was compelled to target Social Security, infuriating seniors. The economy lurched into a serious and painful downturn and the American working class, hammered by layoffs and plant closings, deserted the Republicans in 1982.
While writing the sermon above, I forgot to add a concern I have about mainstream media trump Idolatry and the process to fuel a narrative that nobody cares about impeachment or law and that right from wrong is ca confusing grey area lost on Americans.
I can’t help but remember 4 weeks ago, when trump and family were spontaneously and mercilessly booed during the World Series — and it’s also somewhat memorable Louisiana election, which trump truthfully said was to be an impeachment referendum — and then Kentucky was to also be a impeachment referendum.
With that background in mind, at least during the last 4 weeks, it seems as-if Americans are not being truthfully represented in recent polling data, which is intended to suggest that Americans don’t care about impeachment and if anything, there’s a new startling swing by Independents and Democrats to dismiss impeachment as unimportant — and of course, the GOP base is as unified as ever in supporting trump, regardless of any criminal activities.
The mainstream media is sculpting a clay image to tell us all that we need to ignore the recent elections and the loud boos and to instead believe that corruption isn’t an important issue. Yet, somehow that mainstream portrayal of what polls say — fits more into a Russian-trump election tampering process than with a main-street boots-on-the-ground reality.
I find it dispiriting to read little headlines that tell me that polls show more and more people love trump — it just seems impossible and it doesn’t equate with recent elections and if anything, I find it frightening that the media is so willing to participate in propaganda and distortion and to play up falsehoods while rejecting truthfulness. Wasn’t that the intention of the Russians in their effort to cause chaos in the 2016 election — and isn’t that a reason as to why we have an impeachment process in place today? Why then, might it be a shock to learn that the forces of evil that have brought us to this point, want us t believe that nobody cares abut election fraud or impeachment???
Dude, your comments are long af
The Divine Right of Kings didn’t end well for a number of English monarchs who refused to accept the role of parliament and the rules of a constitutional monarchy. Trumps recent interference in the case of Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher and now unilaterally excluding Apple from tariffs to the exclusive of Apple’s competitors, just underlines the fact that he believes that he has the same rights as POTUS as he has as President of his family business.
If you are a believing Christian you should not be buying what Trump and the right are selling. You should have abandoned Trump and the republicans that support him, some time ago.
Don’t forget that the Trump success is a direct indictment of the failure of the American education system over the last 4 or 5 decades to educate the masses. Add to that a corrupt government and this mess has been building for some time now.
Tep (Laughing hysterically)
Lets not forget… Attila was the Scourge of GOD…not the Scourge of Satan…