The Cultural Seams that Threaten America's Pluralistic Democracy

The Cultural Seams that Threaten America’s Pluralistic Democracy

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., September 13, 2025     

In 1860, slavery broke the cultural seams of race in American democracy with a civil war.  It was followed by cultural seams shaped by greed, materialism and hedonism.  In 1929 the Depression forced Americans to address endemic poverty, and that was followed by World War II, in which America’s revived economy saved America and the world from Hitler’s tyranny.

In 2016, Trump was elected as President and reelected in 2024.  Since then America’s democracy seems doomed by a President with 34 felony convictions who is determined to undermine America’s Constitution.  Voters and our churches have ignored the altruistic and universal moral teaching of Jesus in America’s polarized partisan politics.

Trump’s Republican regime has been reshaped into forms unfamiliar to those who aren’t Trump insiders and privy to his corrupt and narcissistic views.  Chaos has become the political and economic norm, represented by a wildly fluctuating stock market and the likelihood of increasing inflation caused by Trump’s tariffs. 

Today cultural redemption in the darkness of Trump’s oppressive politics make a return to normalcy unlikely without a major moral, cultural and political reawakening before America’s 2026 midterm elections.  America is a divided nation ruled by Trumpists with little hope of it returning to political normalcy anytime soon

Since the Moral Majority of the 1980s American politics have been controlled by a two-party duopoly that set the stage for the primacy of a radical right Republican majority that was exploited by Trump’s assumption of power in 2016 and reaffirmed in 2024.  During that time Trump made no secret of his megalomania.

The feeble moral altruism of Christianity has been defeated by the self-serving nationalism of Trump’s narcissistic politics, which have been more about voters rejecting a divided liberal Democratic Party than accepting Trump’s corrupt policies. Trump has demonstrated the power of partisan politics over reason and common sense.  

Polls indicate a majority of Americans now oppose Trump’s economic policies based on the inflation caused by his widespread tariffs.  With a massive and unsustainable national debt of over $36.7 trillion and a falling dollar, there’s no public support for Democratic spending policies, or for a third party.  American democracy is caught in a political trap of its own making.  

The illusion of democracy as a political panacea in America’s polarized partisan politics is history, but we’ll have to wait and see if the 2026 midterm elections can restore some hope for repairing the Constitution and a functioning Congress.  Meanwhile, we can only hope that the cultural seams in American democracy can withstand the internal pressure of self-destruction. 

Notes:

Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts after prosecutors alleged that he engaged in a "scheme" to boost his chances during the 2016 presidential election through a series of hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and then falsified New York business records to cover up that alleged criminal conduct.  "I did my job, and we did our job," Bragg said following Trump's conviction.   "There are many voices out there, but the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken."   https://abcnews.go.com/US/anniversary-hush-money-conviction-trump-continues-fght-criminal/story?id=122325361   "The alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump's state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal," the Supreme Court said in a brief unsigned opinion, though four justices said they would have granted Trump's application. For Trump's criminal defense, he relied on then-defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who now serve as the deputy attorney general and principal associate deputy attorney general. Earlier this week, Trump announced that he plans to nominate Bove -- who led a purge of career law enforcement officials before the Senate confirmed his nomination to help run the DOJ -- to the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.   "That President Trump's defense in fact takes the form of a new constitutional immunity announced by the Supreme Court after his trial ended, rather than a new statute enacted by Congress, should if anything cut in the President's favor," lawyers with the Department of Justice argued in a brief submitted on Tuesday.  The appeal -- as well as the ongoing appeal of Trump's $83 million judgment in the E. Jean Carroll civil case and half-billion-dollar civil fraud case -- is proceeding on uncharted legal grounds as Trump wields the power of the presidency in his defense. He has characterized the prosecutors who pursued the cases against him as politically motivated, and has touted his electoral victory last November as a political acquittal.  "The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people," Trump told reporters as he left court following his conviction last year. "And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here."

I’m an independent in my politics, and I’m still waiting on third-party candidates who have both altruistic morality and the potential to win a national office.  I have often referred to Trump as an evil man, and have reminded people who support him that they are supporting the power of evil in the cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil.

Musings on Our Broken Democracy and Corrupt Culture

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., September 6, 2025

America’s culture is corrupt and we have a  broken democracy.  Can they be restored?  Only if Americans can rediscover the altruistic values that gave birth to our nation, and both parties in our polarized two-party duopoly seek altruistic standards of political legitimacy that provide for the common good; and that will take a new birth of American libertarian democracy.

Donald Trump and his dominant Republican Party have undermined the Constitution, and the Democratic Party is unable to function as the loyal opposition.  The first step to restoring the checks and balances of the Constitution is to fix America’s broken 2-party duopoly. A one-party system cannot produce the political choices needed for freedom and democracy.

  

The Founding Fathers who drafted the Constitution were committed to religious freedom in the Bill of Rights, and did not promote any religion.  Until the 1960s many red states had one-party (Democratic) politics.  As an independent from South Carolina I can vouch for the need for political competition at all levels of government to provide political legitimacy.

Non-partisan politics can depolarize partisan politics; but both parties are opposed to doing that.  And since popularity is the measure of success in both politics and religion. partisan polarization has been exacerbated by nationalist forms of Christianity,   That has allowed popular forms of Christian nationalism to corrupt both politics and religion.

A one-party system cannot produce the choices needed for freedom and democracy.  While some churches have avoided politics altogether, others have supported demagogues like Trump, further polarizing partisan politics and preventing the church from being the moral steward of democracy.   

 In 1787 the Constitution was approved, and George Washington was elected America’s first President.  The Civil War divided politics in America, but afterward both parties promoted candidates committed to reconciling major political differences.  But In 2016, Donald Trump was elected President and re-elected in 2024; and that changed everything.

The challenge for the church is to acknowledge its role as the moral steward of God’s universal Word as taught by Jesus in the greatest commandment, but without promoting any political party or individual candidates.  That’s a challenge in all religions; even ancient Judaism provides examples of competition for belief between sects supporting secular idols and Yahweh.

Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian.  His teachings are universal and altruistic moral standards of legitimacy for all people.  While the church has taught that Jesus was divine and that belief in Jesus as God’s only Son is the only means of salvation, Jesus taught that we love God by loving others, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves.

Notes:  The church can be a moral steward of democracy by promoting the moral teachings of Jesus without promoting a specific party or candidate.  See Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Virtues and Vices of Christian Morality.  Of course, every voter can individually promote whoever he/she supports.

Human Rights and Providing for the Common Good as Priorities in Democracy

Human Rights and Providing for the Common Good as Priorities in Democracy

            By Rudy Barnes, Jr., August 30, 2025

Events in Gaza and Russia have challenged the priority of democracy in America’s foreign policy.  Trump, Netanyahu and Putin are demagogues in democracies who have demonstrated that democracies do not guarantee politics that provide for the common good and are not an adequate defense to violations of fundamental human rights.  

The violence in Ukraine and Gaza and Trump’s radical right American regime are unlike conventional aggression where outside forces oppress a population.  They are more like slavery and colonialism where corrupt politicians brutalize those in their own democracies.  They ignore International human rights that are not just for those in wartime, but for all victims of violence.

Trump, Putin and Netanyahu have used Hitler’s playbook to promote their illicit power using nationalism and radical religion to establish their oppressive regimes.  For all of Trump’s braggadocio, he and his Republicans have not opposed the war crimes of Putin or Netanyahu.  They are all complicit in making a mockery of democracy and the rule of law.  

Hitler set a precedent for distorting democracy and Christianity into a political tyranny.  Putin convinced Russian Orthodox Christians to support his restoration of a Russian Empire in his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, while Netanyahu mobilized fiercely loyal orthodox Jews into a Third Temple Movement to keep him in power and avoid charges of political corruption.

Trump has equivocated on opposing Putin’s unprovoked aggression in Ukraine and Netanyahu’s killing over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza.  Those war crimes are evidence that demagogues like Trump can exploit divisions in a democracy.  But most Americans have proven that they are oblivious to that danger, having elected Trump twice as their President.  They have not learned that democracy cannot protect people from political depravity.

America has put too much emphasis on democracy to protect it from tyranny.  Trump has demonstrated how the exploitation of America’s polarized politics have made it vulnerable to unprincipled politicians.  Even in America a popular demagogue can undermine liberty and freedom with a majority of weak-minded and greedy supporters who ignore the warning signs.

Emphasizing fundamental human rights in the Constitution and providing for the common good rather than favoring the rich and powerful are moral principles essential to protect a democracy from the corruptions of human depravity.  Americans should have learned by now that democracy can offer a false sense of security from unprincipled politicians like Trump.

Democracy makes us the masters of our political destiny--for good or bad.  Democracy is not a panacea.  Too often we choose leaders like Trump who are committed to promote their own power and ignore human rights and the common good.  For democracy to be good, we must choose leaders committed to protect human rights and provide for the common good.

Musings on Ukraine's Fight for Its Independence

Musings on Ukraine’s Fight for Its Independence 

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., August 23, 2025

The primary moral imperative in American democracy is providing for the common good, and Donald Trump’s election twice as America’s president is proof that in U.S. politics, power trumps altruistic morality.  Trump exemplifies political immorality with ample evidence that American Constitutional democracy now fails to provide the rights that it provides. 

The church has been the primary source of moral standards in America, but it has failed to be a moral steward of democracy.   Thomas Jefferson once observed that “the teachings of Jesus are the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” and they are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors, including those of other races and religions as we love ourselves.  Its  moral imperative is to provide for the common good.

Trump is not alone in giving his personal power precedence over the providing for the common good.  Putin in Russia and Netanyahu in Israel have both nationalized their religions to promote their political power.  Putin has used the Russian Orthodox Church to promote his unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, and Netanyahu has used a Zionist Third Temple Movement to promote the expansion of Israel through its oppressive occupation of Gaza.

In a democracy power resides in the voters, and demagogues like Trump, Putin and Netanyahu have thrived within democratic regimes shaped by the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  All religious cultures have affirmed the precedence of political power over promoting the common good, in spite of their many prophets of altruistic politics.

History shows that democracies are as corrupted by materialism, hedonism and greed as autocracies, with little precedence for justice over political corruption and oppression.  In the continuing cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil, democracies have been as corrupted by demagogues like Trump as those redeemed by more altruistic moral leaders.

The greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves, including those of other races and religions may provide the altruistic moral imperative to provide for the common good.  But in practice the church has ignored Trump's narcissistic emphasis on his personal power rather than providing for the common good.

What does American  exceptionalism mean today? In Trump’s America there is more emphasis on seeking power and glory than on providing for the common good.  With popularity now the measure of success in religion and politics, America’s values are more compatible with materialism, hedonism and greed than with altruistic moral standards.

Has America lost the universal and altruistic vision exemplified by Jesus?  Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian, but the church has made Jesus Christ into an exclusivist icon, limiting salvation to Christians who believe in church doctrines never taught by Jesus.  Can a diminishing church resurrect a universal Jesus committed to provide for the common good and save itself and America from themselves?

Notes:

Thomas Friedman has written on “how Ukraine diplomacy has revealed how-Un-American Trump is. The United States must provide the security guarantees that would deter Russia from ever trying this again and encourage our European allies to promise that Ukraine will one day be in the E.U. — forever anchored in the West. Trump is unlike any American president in the past 80 years. He feels no gut solidarity with the trans-Atlantic alliance and its shared commitment to democracy, free markets, human rights and the rule of law — an alliance that has produced the greatest period of prosperity and stability for the most people in the history of the world. I am convinced that Trump looks at NATO as if it’s a U.S.-owned shopping center whose tenants are never paying enough rent. And he looks at the European Union as a shopping center competing with the United States that he’d like to shut down by hammering it with tariffs. The notion that NATO is the spear that protects Western values and that the European Union is possibly the West’s best modern political creation — a vast center of free people and free markets, stabilizing a continent that was known for tribal and religious wars for millenniums — is alien to Trump.  “However much European leaders pile on their flattery of Trump, it’s clear the fundamental bond of trust that underlay the 80-year success of the trans-Atlantic economy, that served the U.S. so favorably for decades, is now ruptured.  There is only one conclusion: The only sustainable way to stop this war and prevent it from coming back is a massive, consistent Western commitment to give Ukraine the military resources that will persuade Putin that his army will be chewed apart. Putin’s punishment for this war should be that he and his people have to forever look to the West and see a Ukraine, even if it is a smaller Ukraine, that is a thriving Slavic, free-market democracy, compared with Putin’s declining Slavic, authoritarian kleptocracy. But how will Trump ever learn that truth when he basically gutted the National Security Council staff and shrank and neutered the State Department, when he fired the head of the National Security Agency and his deputy on the advice of a conspiracy buffoon, Laura Loomer, and when he appointed a Putin fan girl, Tulsi Gabbard, to be his director of national intelligence? Who will tell him the truth? No one. See Ukraine Diplomacy Reveals How Un-American Trump Is at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/opinion/trump-russia-ukraine-putin.html.

#559: Does an Israeli Third Temple Movement Justify Killing 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza?

    By Rudy Barnes, Jr., August 16, 2025

The short answer is No!  International law makes such carnage a war crime.  But that’s the cost so far for Netanyahu’s IDF to prepare the way for the Third Temple.  It would also require tearing down the Dome of the Rock Mosque currently on the Temple Mount before the Third Temple can be rebuilt in its place as God’s sacred home for Jews.

If and when the Third Temple is built, Mosaic Law will be restored as God’s law for Jews, including sacrificial rites.  The destruction of the Dome of the Rock Mosque will undoubtedly cause much religious controversy, if not violence but the restoration of the Third Temple represents the goal of many, but not all, orthodox Jews, including Prime Minister Netanyahu.

That has been the goal of most orthodox Jews since the destruction of the second temple by the Romans in 70 AD.  Many American Christians, including President Biden, have professed to be Zionists, and many Jews understand that replacing the Dome of the Rock Mosque with a Third Temple will likely generate religious violence.

 MIke Huckabee is a Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas who has been the 29th U.S. ambassador to Israel since April 21, 2025.  As a conservative diplomat and political commentator, Huckabee is sympathetic to the Third Temple movement, but over 60,000 Palestinian casualties and crowds of starving Palestinians in Gaza have made Israel a pariah nation, with support for Netanyahu’s messianic goals waning.

The mix of religion and political issues in the Third Temple movement is likely to generate serious political debate in America, and American support is essential for the success of Netanyahu’s Third Temple Movement.  The threat of a holy war will likely deter Israelis from going forward with any site work on the Temple Mount for now, 

The evidence is clear.  The Third Temple Movement in Israel does not justify Israel’s IDF turning Gaza into a wasteland awaiting Jewish occupation, while creating a hunger crisis among young Palestinians in Gaza.  It’s time for the world to see Netanyahu for what he is:  A Jewish demagogue corrupting the Holy Land. 

 “How did we get here, where a Jewish democratic state, descended in part from the Holocaust, is engaged in a policy of starvation in a war with Hamas that has become the longest and most deadly war between Israelis and Palestinians in Israel’s history, and shows no sign of ending?  Thomas L. Friedman has observed that it pits the worst, most fanatical and amoral government in Israel’s history against the worst, most fanatical, murderous organization in Palestinian history.”

      

Notes:

Netanyahu has said that “Israel wants to hand over control of Gaza to unnamed “Arab forces” after Hamas defeat,” but so far there are no takers to provide those forces.  The Israeli cabinet signed off on Netanyahu’s latest proposal for the Israeli military to take over Gaza City, but has stipulated that the Palestinian Authority not administer postwar Gaza. See Arab Forces Running Gaza? Netanyhu’s Goal leaves many questions.

On Israel facing growing condemnation over military expansion in Gaza, see https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-palestinians-war-hamas-hostages-ceasefire-85dd158efed9eeab482d434e36bf130a.

          

On Arab Forces’ Running Gaza? Netanyahu’s Goal Leaves Many Questions. See  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-arab-forces-postwar.html.

On How Netanyahu Played Trump for a Fool in Gaza, see https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/opinion/gaza-netanyahu-trump-israel-starvation.html.

  

For American Democracy, the End of the Trump Regime Can Be a New Beginning

Rudy Barnes, Jr., August 2, 2025

Hope that a Constitutional democracy can one day rise “phoenix like” as an altruistic democracy from the wreckage of the immoral Trump regime is possible, but not a certainty.  As a pastor, I frequently used The Hymn of Promise to promote the hope, though faith, that the death of loved ones is not the end but a new spiritual beginning.  The S.C. motto, While I breathe I hope, is a secular version of that hope.

In ancient folklore the majestic Phoenix symbolizes the hope that something good can rise out of its ashes: “Ancient legend paints a picture of a magical bird, radiant and shimmering, which lives for several hundred years before it dies by bursting into flames. It is then reborn from the ashes, to start a new, long life. So powerful is the symbolism that it is a motif and image that is still used commonly today in popular culture and folklore.”

Like European colonial regimes of the 18th and 19th centuries.  Religion is not necessary, but altruistic morality is essential to the political legitimacy needed for a viable democracy; and former colonial regimes in Europe have demonstrated that even morally corrupt democracies can be redeemed from slavery and immorality.

Over its corrupt 2,000 year history, the church has failed to be a good steward of altruistic morality in democracy.  In America white Christians elected Trump twice as their President.  Thomas Jefferson was a Deist and a Founding Father of America who considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man.”  Jesus was a universalist.  He was not even a Christian, but a maverick Jew.

The universal teachings of Jesus are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves.  It’s taken from the Hebrew Bible, was taught by Jesus, and has been accepted by many Muslims as a common word of faith.  Sadly most Jews, Christians and Muslims have ignored the moral imperative to provide for the common good.

Can people in the world’s democracies subordinate their greed, materialism and hedonism to provide for the common good?  History teaches that human depravity has trumped altruistic morality in all of the world’s democracies; but in America the sacrifice of health care and social security to provide tax relief for the wealthy by Trump and his Republican Party could change political priorities.

It’s highly unlikely that the Trump regime will support altruistic moral policies that can save America from itself.  Changes in America’s moral priorities to provide for the common good will require a dramatic change in America’s current politics, and that won’t happen unless and until voters elect new political leaders who reverse Trump’s current immoral politics in the national elections of 2026 and 2028.  Those elections are the only polls that will count.       

Notes:

The Hymn of Promise by Natalie Sleeth is at page 707 of the United Methodist Hymnal:

In the bulb there is a flower, in the seed an apple tree; In cocoons, a hidden promise; butterflies will soon be free! In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be, Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;  there’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me. From the past will come the future, what it holds a mystery, Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning , in our time infinity; In our doubt there is believing, in our life eternity. In our death, a resurrection, at the last a victory, Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see

On the folklore legend of the Phoenix rising from its ashes, see Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(mythology).

On the dismal state of American politics with a looming crisis on social security and health care, see Warren Buffett’s longtime Social Security warning is coming to fruition, with retirees facing drastic cuts based on Trump’s “big and beautiful bill” giving tax breaks to the wealthy, see https://fortune.com/2025/07/28/when-will-social-security-run-out-insolvent-warren-buffett-crfb.

Musings on the Limits of Power and the End of American Exceptionalism

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., July 26, 2025

Andrew Bacevich acknowledged the limits of national power and the end of American exceptionalism in his 2009 book, The Limits of Power.  Like Bacevich, I’m a retired Army officer who has recognized the limits of national power and the requirements of military legitimacy, and how they were ignored in the Viet Nam war and subsequent American military interventions.

Since WWII America has been considered the undisputed standard of libertarian democracy and its essential moral requirements.  But after Americans elected Donald Trump President in 2016 and 2024, Trump has corrupted America’s moral exceptionalism and political legitimacy as described by Margaret McMillan and David Brooks and cited below in the Notes.

Religion is considered the source of the moral standards of legitimacy, and Christianity is the dominant religion in America.  Thomas Jefferson considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever developed by man.”  While Trump’s narcissistic morality is the antithesis of the altruistic teachings of Jesus, most white Christians voted for Trump.

The church has proven that it cannot or will not be a moral steward of democracy.  That leaves the Constitution as the standard of legitimacy for American democracy, and voters in America have twice voted for a President committed to reshaping the Constitution to expand his executive powers and to reduce the checks and balances of Congress.

Until Trump was elected, promoting democracy seemed a worthy priority of U.S. foreign policy  But Russia and Israel are both putative democracies, and Putin’s unprovoked attacks in Ukraine and Netanyahu’s IDF killing of over 50,000 Palestinians in Israel and Gaza require shifting priorities to protecting human rights rather than supporting demagogues in democracies.

Trump has seriously compromised the effectiveness of American power both at home and overseas, but American voters can reset those priorities after Trump leaves office.  If Trump doesn’t comply with Constitutional term limits, then enforcing those term limits and opposing demagogues like Putin and Netanyahu should be America’s top foreign policy priority.

American exceptionalism is history, but American voters can and must make sure that its democracy remains consistent with the Constitution.  Americans should make preserving universal human rights and opposing the war crimes of oppressive demagogues like Putin and Netanyahu their top priorities, and relearn the essentials of diplomacy.  

After Trump leaves office, America should conform its foreign policy to the Constitutional standards that once made America a great nation.  In the process Americans may discover that promoting freedom and protecting universal human rights in democracy can be the most dangerous idea in human history.  But better late than never.        

Notes:

Margaret McMillan has described Trump’s handling of America’s international relations as  Making America Alone Again and as American Carnage: A history that offers few parallels for Trump’s repudiation of America’s own alliances.  She has  described it as American Carnage.“ In Trump’s world, mutual trust and respect, so hard to establish and so easy to destroy, do not matter. Yet nations, like individuals, have long memories of past wrongs or defeats, as Trump himself should know. Trust among individuals or nations is hard to measure, but lasting and productive relations cannot exist without it. During the Cold War, negotiations between the Soviet Union and the United States over arms control were tortuous and drawn out because neither side trusted the other. Incidents such as the American pilot Gary Powers’s intercepted U-2 flight over the Soviet Union in 1960 or the Soviet shooting down of the Korean airliner in 1983 were read by the other side as evidence of malign intent. By contrast, although there were certainly tensions between the United States and its allies, each generally assumed their counterparts were acting in good faith, and there was a willingness to discuss tricky matters and search for mutually acceptable solutions that no longer exists today and cannot be easily or quickly rebuilt. The Western alliance could be joining the list of ones that failed. Being the world’s greatest military power is a heavy burden, and partly as a result, the U.S. debt continues to grow to staggering levels.  Ambitious powers, China in particular, are pouring resources into an arms race that gets ever more expensive. And, as has happened many times before, other nations are tempted to abandon the old power for the new or group against it to take advantage of what they see as its decline. If Trump’s current hostility to alliances continues and the administration keeps insulting, belittling, and even economically harming its long-standing partners, the United States is going to find the world an increasingly unfriendly place. Former allies or uncommitted powers may decide that Putin’s Russia is a better bet; others may bypass the United States with new trade arrangements or, as is happening with European nations and Canada, sharing in their own military production, planning, and mutual deterrence, on the assumption that the United States is no longer a dependable ally. The British once called their position in the world “splendid isolation” until they realized the costs were too high. Trump’s United States may find that, in the dangerous twenty-first century, those splendors are overrated.” See Making Americans Alone Again at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/north-america/making-america-alone-again#

Using a similar idiom as that of McMillan, David Brooks has described Trump’s foreign Policy as Winning the Race to the Bottom. Comparing the U.S. positive responses to the USSR’s Sputnik in 1957 with  dramatic technological developments, to Trump’s negative response of building walls of punitive tariffs to current Chinese efforts to outpace U.S. technological dominance in space, See https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/opinion/trump-america-china.html.  

On The Moral Failure of the Church and Democracy in America, see https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2025/07/musings-on-moral-failure-of-church-and.html.

On Democracy as the Most Dangerous Idea in Human History, see  https://progressivechristianity.org/resource/the-most-dangerous-idea-in-human-history/.