Many people like to imagine how they would have reacted had they lived in cataclysmic times. They tell themselves that they would not have joined the Nazi party, they would not have owned slaves in the pre-Civil War South, they would have behaved like George Washington in the Revolutionary War, not like Benedict Arnold. Those things were evil and they would never partake in evil.
But evil does not suddenly leap from the shadows wearing a warning sign across its forehead. Evil generally arrives on a welcome mat, embraced as a popular choice, often venerated and lauded.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Republican Party has come face to face with evil and is joyfully licking its arse.[/pullquote]
Once again we have welcomed evil to our country, this time vested in Donald Trump, a pusillanimous oaf, easily the most ill informed, brutal, corrupt, thin-skinned and narcissistic individual ever elected to the US presidency. Make no mistake, he is evil, embodying the worst human impulses including racism, misogyny, cruelty and stupidity. History is going to judge us by what we do next.
First to be judged will be the people who support him. Evil, as usual, is popular. A large segment of the US population (though, notably NOT the majority) have embraced Trump as the solution to their problems in exactly the same way they embraced Hitler, slavery and racism as the solution to their problems. The media told us that Trump voters despise elitism and blame it for their declining fortunes. Duh, that’s standard operating procedure in justifying the embrace of evil. Moreover, Trump supporters eagerly support elitism in sports and entertainment. They just don’t support elitism in education and intelligence.
Religious fundamentalists will be judged especially harshly for an extraordinary display of hypocrisy unmatched in modern times. If Jesus has a grave, he’s spinning in it. Trump embodies everything that Jesus warned against. Trump personifies all that the religious right claims to deplore. He has five children by three different women. He’s a serial philanderer. He’s a bully and a bigot. He doesn’t even give lip service to Christianity. So why has he been embraced by people who claim to be “religious”? Because in their very un-Christian estimation, the ends justify the means. The religious right hasn’t got the courage of its own religious convictions. Sad, as Trump would say.
Our erstwhile political leaders also will come in for a hefty share of obloquy. Hitler and his cronies — Goebbels, Goring, Eichman, Mengele — are blamed for the spasm of violence known as WWII but the German people were equally culpable. Many eagerly embraced the destruction of civil rights, the pillage and murder of minorities, and a voracious appetite for the lands of other peoples. Trump and his toadies — Bannon, Conway, McConnell and Ryan — will shoulder the bulk of the blame for the developing American catastrophe. But Trump partisans are enthusiastic supporters of the destruction of civil rights, the racism and misogyny, and the bullying behavior that will inevitably lead us into war. They have welcomed evil into our country and they will ultimately bear the shame for it.
The Republican Party has come face to face with evil and is joyfully licking its arse. The Republican Party long ago abandoned patriotism for power. They may brandish the flag, but they don’t love America; they love themselves. It seems quaint that only 40 years ago principled Republicans opposed their own president, Nixon, over an attempt to subvert the Constitution. That could never happen now. They are cravens utterly lacking in honor.
The media will bear some responsibility for the arrival of evil on our doorstep. They didn’t recognize evil when Trump reared his ugly head; they thought it was entertaining. Indeed, they gifted Trump with billions of dollars in free publicity because they looked at evil and saw a ratings bonanza. Trump, like all authoritarians, despises a free press, but no one could blame him for his contempt of the press for how easily they were manipulated to fulfill his plans without recognizing what was going on until it was too late.
The media’s portion of the blame is mitigated by the fact that they have finally recognized Trump for the would-be dictator that he is and are fighting back vigorously. They may even reclaim real news from fake news as our appetite for facts ultimately outweighs our appetite for validation of our personal beliefs, at least for some of us.
The bottom line is this: Trump is evil and if you support him, you are evil, too. You’re like the Germans who lived near the concentration camps, breathing in the ash of millions of humans incinerated by government run by madmen and claiming that it isn’t your fault because you didn’t personally shove the bodies into the ovens. So far only civil rights are being incinerated, but you are nonetheless complicit.
Edmund Burke, a great conservative politician once said:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
How much worse is it when ostensibly good people vote for and support evil? It’s much worse and we will be judged accordingly.
