Rudy Barnes, Jr., November 9, 2024
The election on November 5 affirmed that democracy is alive, but it’s not well. Democracy is not a political panacea. It’s only what a majority of voters make it to be in an election. Sadly, on November 5 most Americans rejected the traditional and altruistic ideals of libertarian democracy represented by Thomas Jefferson and Alexis deTocqueville.
As a non-partisan universalist I consider the teachings of Jesus as God’s standard of moral legitimacy, and that promoting the common good should be the moral imperative of our faith and our politics. But the election results indicate that I’m now part of a minority (or remnant) of Americans, and that there is little chance that a majority can restore our past ideals anytime soon.
In matters of faith, the church lost its moral compass in 2016 when a majority of white Christians first elected Donald Trump. Since then Trump and his minions have shaped the depraved moral standards of American culture; and having been restored to the Presidency, Trump now personifies American standards of political legitimacy for the rest of the world.
What about the future? Sadly, there is no precedent for the political redemption of America’s corrupted democracy. It took defeat in WWII to restore democracy to Nazi Germany; and Orthodox Christianity in Russia and Zionism in Israel demonstrate that a violent autocracy and religion can be compatible. America will have to learn to live with Trump’s immoral regime.
As a moral force in politics, the many variations of the American church have been in decline since the era of civil rights. Restoring the legitimacy of America’s church is even less likely than restoring its political legitimacy in a materialistic and hedonistic culture. The church can only survive as a neighborhood center, much like the Black church has done over the years.
Dramatic economic changes are likely with Trump’s GOP majorities in Congress. Trump will likely reward his supporters with tax reductions and more crony capitalism, and there won’t be any partisan brakes to slow him down for at least two years. Increased economic disparities and a massive national debt will likely require new remedies for social and economic justice.
In a nation where greed and human depravity have undermined its previous democratic virtues, America will forfeit its preeminence as a world hegemon and a democratic ideal; and the rich and powerful will feel secure with Trump as their political patron. Jim Carville once said, “politics is all about the economy, stupid.” And that applies to both the rich and the poor.
As part of America’s remnant I'll continue to share universalist and altruistic ideals that promote the common good. We’ll be a minority with no grandiose illusions about political reform or reinventing Christianity, only with reminding the rich and powerful that they destroyed altruism in American democracy. Who knows what could happen tomorrow?
Notes:
For commentary following the election from the New York Times, see David Brooks, on Voters to Elites: Do You See Me Now? at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/opinion/trump-elites-working-class.html; see also Bret Stephens on A Party of Prigs and Pontificators Suffer a Humiliating Defeat, at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/opinion/donald-trump-defeat-democrats.html.
Providing for the common good is the moral imperative of the Greatest Commandment to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves. It was taken from the Hebrew Bible, was taught by Jesus, and has been accepted by Muslims as a common word of faith. See
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html.
Thomas Jefferson considered “the teachings of Jesus as the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” and he detested exclusivist church doctrines. https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com.
In 1831 Alexis deTocqueville toured America and observed that its many Christian sects shared a “Christian morality” that produced common standards of political legitimacy that defined what is right, and imbued American politics with its moral authority. Unfortunately, the election on November 5, 2024, indicated that those moral standards of political legitimacy are no longer valid. On the views of Thomas Jefferson and Alexis deTocqueville on the moral values of religion in American politics, see Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-moral-authority-and.html.
On universalism and altruism in democracy, see Musings of a Maverick Methodist on a Universal and Altruistic Jesus, August 19, 2023, at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.
Universalists are a minority among Jews, Christians and Muslims today, but they could be a reconciling voice in those Abrahamic religions as a common word of faith. See Universalism: A theology for the 21st century, by Forrest Church, November 5, 2001, at Universalism: A theology for the 21st century | UU World Magazine.
On Exposing the Corruption of Crony Capitalism (May 9, 2020), see
https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2020/05/exposing-corruption-of-crony-capitalism.html.
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