This time is worse

Well friends, we’ve turned a page, but the next chapter isn’t what we’d hoped.

This win wasn’t as stunning as 2016, but it feels far more serious.

Last time there was chaos, incompetence, and occassionally staffers who obeyed laws and provided guardrails. This time around, Trump has plans for that.

He and his inner circle have already told us what they plan to do. Mass deportations. Purge the federal government and install Trump loyalists. Weaponize the Department of Justice and go after his enemies. Dissolve the Department of Education. And this time around, he has the assurance of broad criminal immunity.

But what makes this even worse is that the majority of Americans who voted for him know this. And they choose this.

In 2016, there was hope for regret. For walking things back. This time, I have no such hope. Not in the near term, at least.

Back in 2016, I saw who Trump was and I saw what he was tapping into. I saw his appeal within Christian spaces and because of my historical training, I knew how dangerous it could be. I felt compelled to set everything aside to warn people. I wanted to make sure Christians, especially, knew exactly what they were embracing. And, what history could teach us about where that could lead.

The last two weeks, I’ve felt increasingly superflous.* Who needs scholars to tell you what is happening when Trump himself was saying everything out in the open? The Madison Square Garden rally, the increasingly unhinged speeches, the shocking vulgarity on full display—it was all there for everyone to see.

And, more than 50% of Americans saw it and said that’s exactly what they wanted.

I don’t have numbers yet, but I anticipate the white evangelical vote will be over 80%, white Catholic and mainline over 60%.

If you’re struggling to understand how this is who we are, I recommend a book not yet out, but one that explains what has been happening right in front of us. Katherine Stewart’s Money Lies and God is hands-down the best explanation I’ve seen. I read the manuscript last month and fought the urge to break the rules and put the pdf online for everyone to read. I worried it would come to late. But now I know, it wouldn’t have mattered. Still, you should preorder it to understand what we’ve been up against.

If you don’t already have a copy, I’d also recommend picking up a copy of Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny.

I’ll have more to say on that one in the days ahead, but trust me, you’ll want a copy of this book.

This Thursday, the Convocation Unscripted will be doing a live Webinar at 5pm ET.

We have room for 500; click below, and you’ll get the link. Cameras and audio will only be on for the four of us, but we’ll have the chat open for interaction, encouragement, and questions. If you’re finding the need for companionship and a space to process in community, we’d love to have you join us.

Register for TCU+LIVE Webinar

On Facebook this morning, a friend asked what she should tell her kids this morning.

I’m about to wake mine up. I plan to tell them to be brave, to tell the truth, and to care for those around them, just like before.

*Note: I initially characterized my work as “irrelevant” in the closing weeks of the campaign, but what I really meant was superflous. There seemed little need to bring sophisticated historical expertise to warn people of the danger when Trump was shouting it from the rooftops. The evidence was right in front of them in plain English. If they couldn’t see it for themselves, a historian wasn’t going to help. I don’t think my work as a whole has been irrelevant. Truth is never irrelevant.