Monday, 1/18/21

Waiting for the next wild time

When the current president leaves office this week he’s expected to decamp to Mar-a-Lago and become Florida Man. But don’t expect him to hide for very long in his cozy 126-room mansion.

"He’ll do rallies," a reporter friend who has interviewed him predicts. "Only now he’ll charge admission."

Of course he will. The man won't pass up the chance to make money off his devotees. The merch tables will be epic.

But he’ll also do rallies because he can’t stand the silence. Basic man has basic needs, and he needs to be loved. He needs to feel special.

(In a classic case of projection that’s what he told his savage beasts as they ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. "We love you," he said in a videotaped statement meant to soothe the marauders. "You’re very special.")

He also needs vengeance. So do his followers. He has convinced them that they are living in desperate times, with criminals ready to destroy their beloved nation and indoctrinate their children.

He uses religion to fuel their desperation. The Bible is his favorite book. Christmas is under attack. Their enemies are evil people, using a pandemic to keep good people out of church. 

He told the faithful on Jan. 6 that all was lost if they didn't fight like hell.

It’s no surprise that Jesus was on the lips of many insurrectionists. So many of them are the God-and-country believers, the 12 percent of Americans who embrace Warrior Jesus and Christian Nationalism.

They jeered when their leader talked of "weak" Republicans who wouldn't do his bidding and overturn an election. 

They cheered when Franklin Graham compared wayward Republicans to Judas:

Shame, shame on the ten Republicans who joined with Speaker Pelosi & the House Democrats in impeaching President Trump yesterday. After all that he has done for our country, you would turn your back & betray him so quickly? What was done yesterday only further divides our nation.

They screamed about 1776 when they ransacked the Capitol but the roots of their revenge snake back almost 40 years earlier to the time of Jonathan Edwards and the First Great Awakening, when revivalists held huge rallies and spoke in plain language. They mocked the elite for their stale, educated ways and called on the faithful to see themselves as chosen people.

Now the ones who see themselves as the new chosen speak of another Great Awakening and wear T-shirts promoting their belief as they search for people to assassinate.

As they rioted they said they could not rest because they are rooting out the wicked for their leader, who promised them a "wild time."

Some of them wore patches on their clothing that said God will judge their enemies and they will arrange the meeting.

A few of them died for their cause. Others were jailed. Many others are waiting for the next wild time.

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