post is the appropriate word

Post- as in post-election, post-Christian, post-modern, post-apocalyptic- you get the idea. This is another rant that I hope is so buried on the internet that no-one sees it, or that those who do get bored before they can finish it. Not facebook friendly, and that's after I cleaned out (or at least unfollowed) a lot of my more conservative voices. To be clear though, I kept them on all through the election- no matter how unsavory their posts were, or unhinged or even just cruel. I thought it was important to have a array of opinions on my feed- not to insulate myself. But after Tuesday, I can't listen anymore.

I mean, here is the Republican party- calling itself the new populists, the party of values and the party of the people. So they nominate an millionaire elite, a draft dodger and a man whose values surely stop at the bottom line of everything- if it is not monetize-able it is not worthwhile. He openly identifies as only the nominee of certain people- white scared people. And lazy people- ones who think Jesus needs the Supreme Court to get the work done in the USA cause they are enjoying their tax-exempt status too much to get out of their segregated churches and do ANYTHING! Outreach to the poor, homeless, gay, muslim- any chance to bring the good news to the very groups Jesus commanded us to bring it to- this work is too hard! Just raise money and pay for it- get someone else's group to do it- I am too busy preparing a sermon for stewardship week to go actually take care of the poor, orphaned and widowed. Don't we have a committee that takes food to shut ins (but only the ones who used to give to the church or maybe still do)? We have no faith that the God of the Universe is calling us to WORK in this world, not just lay around in our middle class existence and enjoy the #BLESSED life. We aren't all rich and well off because we are being rewarded for our faith and good works (Don't you know your reward is in heaven?). We are blessed with those things so we can go out and bless others- Abraham (and by extension his descendants) was called to be a BLESSING to the nations- not the bringer of war, protector of one country and persecutor of innocent souls. No, the persecutor role was given to Satan- who seems to have gotten very good at outsourcing.

So yeah the GOP was falling apart on November 5. all poised to have some good meaningful discussions about who they were, how they needed to shake up the old guard, acknowledge their failings with minorities, to join most of the rest of the world in being the opposite of the radical Islamic jihadists, not just the exact same approach with a different guy's face on the front. (I mean let's see where they align- hate homosexuality- check, persecute those who don't follow your faith- check, use government to enforce your worldview on every citizen-check, want women to have lots of babies, give them good sex and keep their mouths shut- check, bomb civilians and militants alike to make a point-check; Jesus has no time for those who would wage war in his name- if you want to go blow up the middle east in the name of freedom, have at, but don't for a minute think it should be in the name of God).

They were just about there- losing the election would be the catalyst to their party doing an update, a reboot, a cleaning of house to get rid of the rotten eggs (like the altright white supremacists and wacka doodle conspiracy nazis). Trump represented what many of them disliked about their party- he was a chemotherapy dose for a cancer ridden patient. But NOOOO- he won! So now, its all legit. Not only did he win, but they have congress back too. The people have spoken (though they lost the popular vote)- racism and misogyny wins! There were looking for a new direction and boom, there it is! If Trump can win with all this negative immoral completely batshit crazy stuff then it must be the way to go! The AltRight didn't just get legitimized, it just won the GD white house! It is not just acceptable, it is now the path to the future! I can only hope that as this cancer is metastasizing, it will kill the patient- but how much suffering happens first? And will it only kill the GOP or will it spread to infect the whole country? Time will tell on that- but on election day- greed won. Lazy Christians won (I'm looking at you Franklin and Falwell). Pride and cruelty won. And ignorance- it won bigly.

Speaking of ignorance, let me ask this- how in the hell do people think Trump is going to "stick it to the establishment" or "Blow up the system" when it is the very establishment and system he has benefited from his entire life? He is going to drain the swamp of corruption in DC by appointing all his political cronies to cabinet positions just to pay them back for their support? That's not corrupt at all. He's going to rework the tax code so he and his ilk are taxed more? You know, weed isn't legal everywhere yet, and if you believe he'll raise his own taxes you must be smoking something! Do you think getting rid of Obamacare and health care insurance mandates will benefit the poor white diabetes patients of Kentucky? Nope. Maybe letting Paul Ryan have at it with the budget will mean an increase in your Social Security monthly check? Think again. And as to deporting illegals- no worries there, they've probably already left, so I guess you'll just have to settle for beating the shit out of any brown person who dares cross you (or black or asian or queer or whatever- I know how equal opportunity hate can be). He is going to build a wall across one of the largest land borders in the world to keep drugs out- too bad drone technology is so bad? And my SC friend who will send her 18 year old off to join the Marines to have a career and a head start in life, will she feel pride that he was killed because we sent troops in to defend the pride of a thin skinned president who is provoked by tweets? I will be praying for them. These ideas he has, they aren't necessarily bad promises, but they were made by a bad man. A man who has a horrible record of keeping his promises. He can't even pay his damn plumber what he promises him. (Hey Joe the Plumber- where you at bro?) He can't honor his contracts or pay his investors/banks (bankruptcy means you can't pay them) he can't keep promises he has made at the marriage altar- third times the charm, yo! He can't keep promises to his wife(+2) and children and you think he's going to keep a promise to a no-name coal miner from West Virginia?

And the whole "I am moving to Canada" thing- that's laziness too- easier to run away than stay and fight. And let me be clear- lying, manipulating and amassing shitloads of money to try and gain office as the Democrats have done is also sinful and worthy of scorn. And while God does not rank sin (all have sinned and fallen short- except evidently DJT who says he has no need to ask forgiveness) while God does not rank sin, I do- or at least I rank their outcomes. God promises those who confess and repent will be forgiven of their sins. However, there is not a promise that you will not have to deal with the consequences of that sin. Natural consequences happen from sins, and those have a tangible hierarchy to them. So in my view, lying about your emails does not hurt near the number of people or cause near the amount of suffering as cheating on your wife and committing sexual assault. Or to be fair, lying about something you said on tape (eg: support for the Iraq war) does not have the same consequences as lying about a nation having Weapons of Mass Destruction to justify killing American and Iraqi people. I am thankful God sees all sins the same and forgives them all the same as well. But in this life, I have to make judgement calls on something, and I am not allowed to equivocate a heaping pile of disgusting words and actions by Trump with an avarice for power by Clinton. The early church ranked the cardinal sins, and Pride was far worse than Gluttony or Greed. I can acknowledge that Clinton may be bad, but if I'm ranking them, Trump is worse by a wide margin.

I am at least heartened to know that a majority of Americans did NOT vote for Trump. If you combine all the votes for Clinton plus third party then it isn't even close. I know that doesn't matter with the way our system is set up. If we all did electoral votes as Maine does, Clinton would have won. (I haven't done the full math there- most likely Clinton wouldn't have reached 270 either but you get my point). But he did, and so he becomes our face to the world, the GOP loses any incentive to change its ways and in fact will likely become bigger racist assholes than ever. Demographics tell us that whites will actually be less than 50% of the American population in 2043. 27 years seems like a long time to wait, but those demographics are likely to provide change faster than that if the electoral college stays put. Republicans cannot expect to continue to win much longer with this route. And as for white evangelicals- why wouldn't you want immigrants and refugees lining up at your door so that you could show them what a truly Christian nation looks like and how Christ's love includes them? I just think you are scared, greedy and lazy. You have no interest in spreading the gospel to every tribe, tongue, language and race- you just want to live in your little red, white and blue bubble of middle class privilege and watch some trash TV (also known as nightly news since you just elected a reality game show host to be president).

I can't wait to see some headlines from the next few years-  "Trump admires Angela Merkel's 'giant hooters'" Judge finds President in contempt of court for not showing up in Fraud case" "President Trump tells Hollande and Trudeau to 'Get a Room, you Frenchies'" "Chinese battleships take over Kodiak Island" or "President accused of groping intern" (wait, that seems like a repeat). I do predict that when my WVA coal miner with diabetes can't get insulin for less than $150 a bottle due to unfettered insurance companies, and when my rust belt friends realize their jobs didn't go to the Chinese but instead to robots, and when Sec. of the Interior Palin makes it so no one but Todd can hunt on Federal lands because they might disturb oil well drilling, and when Sec. Guiliani decides churches need to pay their fair share in taxes because we can't expect the corporations to do it- Well, then they might just realize what stupid asses they were for thinking the king of con men was something more than a huckster and a steak salesman. You have been used my brethren- but hopefully you will wake up and turn the entertaining TV infomercial off.  May God have mercy on all of us til then. (and after but you know it sounded better if I ended it there)