Mr President, No Longer “The Donald”
Donald Trump is no more just Donald Trump. He is President Trump, our President, the President of the United States.
Will he disappoint us? Emphatically, yes. I disappoint me. Admit it, the person who looks back at you from your mirror at times disappoints you.
What are we to do when he does inevitably make decisions of which we do not approve? Don’t give up on him without giving him a chance to make many needed good decisions. Judge by the entire body of work, not just an individual action.
If at times you are prone to give up, remember what America was doing was not working. Something had to change. Change, even good change, is uncertain and unsettling.
I had a dear friend who was governor of Louisiana. He told me the faith community really supported his election. In the campaign he had taken a number of strong stands against some of the scrofulous characters in the state. He said the first time when in office he made a decision that disappointed members of the faith community they abandoned him. After that he rarely heard from leaders of that genera.
While in office he made a number of decisions that did not favor those who were morally tainted. Nevertheless, when he made decisions not favorable to them they did not abandon him. They kept in touch, kept coming back offering support, and befriending him.
If members of the faith community and other pro-Americans abandon President Trump when he disappoints them, and he will, they will be the losers.
We are a large diverse society and no one can please everyone all the time. There are elements in our nation no one can placate without fully capitulation to their demands. An example of this was the recent mob street protest in Atlanta. A member of the Justice Department who was in the room with Mayor Reed when he met with leaders of the group told me the demands of the group were reasonable, but the protesters were not. They swore at, cursed the mayor and shouted their demands. Even as he tried to calm them, they continued their remonstrance.
Michelle Obama recently said, “Now we know how it feels to have no hope.” If she and her minions have lost hope, her loss of hope has given a legion of others hope. The cadre of the hopeless needs to give the new administration time to prove itself.
Dealing with the different attitudes in America is going to be challenging. The money mongers who make a living by stirring up strife and create havoc are not going to give up their enterprise easily.
Benjamin Franklin noted “…God governs in the affairs of men….” In doing so historically He has used some most unlikely characters. Cyrus, King of Babylon, not the most principled of rulers, is spoken of as God’s “shepherd” (Isaiah 44: 28).
That does not imply God approved of all Cyrus did. That moniker was used of Cyrus regarding him being used of God to enable Israel to be freed from slavery.
Donald Trump is by no means a paragon of piety, a talisman of tact, a model of morality, a champion of courtesy, a guardian of grace, or the beau ideal of a statesman, but….
He can be used of God in His governance to achieve many things needed in America, i.e., the composition of the Supreme Court. That reality gives a lot of folks hope.