Loneliness, Politics and Christmas

Several years ago I was speaking with a friend on the phone. I was feeling quite blue and told my friend I was feeling kind of lonely. I fully expected her sympathy and encouragement as I went through these painful emotions. But she surprised me by saying: ‘Oh, I really like feeling lonely. Isn’t it interesting?’ She wasn’t being mean, but I was shocked—and kind of curious.

These feelings of separation and sadness that are so familiar and unwanted (especially around the holiday season)—might they be something other than the stories I tell about them? I suppose this possibility, that the most troublesome things in our lives are not what we think they are, is at the center of what I’ve been thinking about these past few days.

Speaking of unwanted things, yesterday Trump announced that, after months of negotiating, he now thinks the Congressional compromise passed for economic relief and for continuing the government is terrible. He is threatening to veto the whole bill and shut down the government unless the individual relief payments should be $2,000 instead of $600. This position, that surprised his aides and his Republican congressional colleagues alike, has kept him in all our minds and put the Republican Party in quite a fix. (see NYTimes Trump’s Attack on Coronavirus Relief Divides G.O.P. and Threatens Recovery)

While it seems irresponsible of Trump to threaten to scuttle this relief package to offer some support to those suffering with unemployment, missed rent payments and economic hardship, this could be the turning point in the Georgia Senate runoff elections. Both Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock have backed the President’s proposal for raising payments to individuals. Rev. Warnock: “As I’ve said from the start, the Senate should have acted on this months ago, and support for Georgians should have been far greater. Donald Trump is right, Congress should swiftly increase direct payments to $2,000.” The Republican candidates now have to decide whether to support the President or their party.

Hopefully, this will be enough to tip the scales in both races so that the Democrats can indeed regain control of the Senate. I am trying not to get too hopeful, but it seems increasingly apparent that if the Republicans control the Senate they will block most measures for government support to help us through this economic recession—preferring the austerity measures that increase suffering for those at the bottom of the economic ladder and keep things pleasant for those at the top.

All this comes along with the second wave of self-interested and politically motivated pardons. Robert Hubbell says: “Trump turned up the corruption factor to “11” by issuing twenty-six new pardons, which included Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Charles Kushner. Trump is intent on destroying the Republican Party on his way out the door so that he can appoint himself king of the tattered remnants of a party that will consist (in large part) of QAnon adherents, coronavirus deniers, and conspiracy theorists.” Trump is inflicting as much damage as possible to the country and even to the Republican Party that has so faithfully supported him unprincipled and unethical behavior.

Maybe he’s just lonely? Maybe he’s truly evil? Maybe he’s caught up in a frantic bubble of narcissistic rage? We should expect him to continue to pardon his political allies as a quid pro quo for their silence and support. We should expect him to fall deeper into patterns of erratic and malicious behavior. For four years, I have hoped that he would become so outrageous that more and more people would begin to see through his bluster and destructive acting-out. I’m not hopeful there will be a mass defection, but I do hope that even four or five percent of his core supporters will begin to re-think their position and begin to see a broader perspective.

All this goes on and still tomorrow is Christmas. The guardrails of democracy have held so far and the present I’m most looking forward to is Joe Bidden’s inauguration as our next President on January 20^th.

But what if these difficult times we find ourselves in are more than the painful stories we tell about them? Unprecedented indeed, but isn’t all of life unprecedented? Could our current struggles the birthing of the possibility of a more equitable and just country? Have we all been disturbed enough to re-examine the ways we have all been complicit in the economic and racial violence around us?

As we move into the Christian remembrance of a star brightly shining in the midst of dark and of a defenseless baby born to marginalized parents, let us take heart in the ancient story of an oppressive system that was transformed by the fierce power of love and vulnerability.