Is the Presidential Election Outcome Predestined?
Are Donald Trump and the GOP destined to continue to swing their wrecking ball unabated at the fragile institutions of American Democracy? And must Trump therefore win the election in November?
On Saturday, July 13, 2024, at a political rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, we watched as a bombastic, swaggering mud fighter was knocked off his pedestal and momentarily reduced to a very vulnerable, human scale, his yellow mane in disarray, his clothing rumpled and a shoe missing. The wind was sucked from his sail, and his two-yards-long red tie was missing as he hit the deck to try to save himself from extinction.
For me, for all of us, it was a very sobering moment. I took a deep breath. The moment passed. Tragedy was averted. Trump — and America — dodged the bullet.
Is that it, or this a sign? Is this about something much bigger than it seems? Is this a harbinger, a predictor of things to come?
A literal cascade of events led, thankfully, to an attempt rather than an assassination of the presumptive Republican presidential candidate. Was it a clear sign that Donald Trump is destined to be the next president? A newly empowered MAGA crowd seems to think so!
The most obvious indication that this was a sign is evident in what we know about Saturday’s events. Misstep after misstep allowed a young man with a lethal weapon to climb up on the unsecured roof of a nearby building while a significant number of people observed and many sought to alert security forces. And the shooter came within an inch or two of assassinating a Republican presidential candidate and former president.
So many things had to go “right” for the assailant to be successful. With all the missed opportunities to stop him, he was able to aim and fire his weapon. And he simply grazed Trump’s ear! Isn’t that a sign that an assassination was never supposed to happen?
Though Americans of different political and philosophical stripes might see some truth in that, our understanding of why that’s true could vary widely.
All of the conceivable security oversights, mistakes, blunders or failures — large and small — could logically have added up to an unspeakable outcome. And the fact that they didn’t looks like a clear sign that it was supposed to be just an attempt. I’m not talking about the intentions of human actors here, but about the incomprehensible workings of Life, itself. Everything happens for a reason, a reason that only Life may know.
To look at the “why” of it all, I think we have to reflect on the outcome that, I hope, most all of us would never have wished.
If the assassin had succeeded, would the political anger, antipathy, division, conflict and violence that we’re all too familiar with be quenched any time soon? Or would it escalate? Might we be facing Civil War II?
Many of our societal systems are showing signs of serious failure and potential collapse. Houses built of cards are unstable, and the winds, it seems, are a’coming.
With no Trump second term, how would the American political system change, other than gradually as it almost always does, or hastily reacting to a looming catastrophe? The self-interested corporations and wealthy of this country are deeply entrenched and seem unlikely to willingly and benevolently cease their efforts to control the economy and the governance of this country. In what investigative journalist Greg Palast called “the best democracy money can buy,” how many members of Congress and other federal officeholders would voluntarily cut off the substantial flow of financial support from corporations and the wealthy?
Based on a limited understanding of Donald Trump’s actual policies and objectives, I do not feel that a second term would strengthen and renew American democracy, but I do believe it would awaken a substantial portion of the population to what we want and what we don’t want our country to be. And perhaps influence many to replace magical thinking with a more mature sense of reality.
Without a possibly catastrophic shakeup, how would citizens and lawmakers gin up the courage and strength to undo corporate personhood and banish corporate money from politics? How could we possibly achieve liberty and justice for all if the current us-versus-them political climate and Congressional gridlock persisted? How could we reverse the ever-widening wealth gap in this country?
I see Destiny at work here. American democracy and our society are in many respects broken, but it’s not necessarily a mistake or the result of some evil faction’s doing. You could legitimately say that, as a nation, we’ve done the best we could up to this point. But we’re still a relatively young and immature country.
How prepared are we to deal with the challenges of the future?
This is not just an American problem. Look at what’s going on in the rest of the world! We humans are all in this thing together, and it is time for us to grow up!
Liberals, progressives, Democrats and many conservatives and Republicans may face the possibility of another Trump term with fear and disillusionment. But how do we learn, grow and mature but from having to face often extraordinary and threatening challenges, setbacks or losses. The Buddha’s First Noble Truth is that life is suffering. And there seems to be a pretty solid consensus among those who have a sense of the meaning of life that the primary objective of an individual life and life in general is growth, not happiness.
Just as individuals do, a nation can have wake-up calls. In an individual life, the wake-up call often comes as a huge loss: the loss of a partner, a parent, a child; a financial or business catastrophe; a near-death experience or a life-threatening disease. American had 9/11, and what did we do with it? How far did the self-reflection go and how powerful was the inclination to blame someone else?
We can’t live in the past, return to the 1950s, reinvigorate Jim Crow, restore American apartheid, cleanse America ethnically and survive as an important contributor to the wellbeing of the planet or fulfill our divine potential as a nation. We have to grow up, and growing up means evolving. It’s about the evolution of consciousness.
I don’t rule out the possibility that another four years of Trump presidency and MAGA swaggering could have some favorable outcomes for our democracy, but I’m not betting on it. I believe that Trump must do enough damage to the status quo, to our democracy, our institutions and our society to wake up enough of us to change the course of events and enable this country to live up to its extraordinary, positive destiny. To live up to the words of our spiritual anthem, “America the Beautiful,” and crown our good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. To form a more perfect Union.
How have we grown in the recent past, say since the 19th century? Hasn’t it always been through struggle, conflict and persistence? Isn’t that how American women won the vote? How African Americans became full, ostensibly free citizens and improved their lives? How gays and lesbians battled their way out of the closet and second-class citizenship?
And how much farther must we travel before we have a government of, by, and for the People; before we substitute Law and Justice for Law and Order; and before all Americans are treated as equals and can fully enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Don’t we have to demonstrate and live our faith and belief in this nation’s founding documents and in the extraordinary, gifted vision of the founders?
For individuals and for societies, human growth and maturation come at a cost and typically depend on incentive. With a second term of Donald Trump we will likely have plenty of incentive to grow and mature, we Republicans, Democrats, Unaffiliated voters, non-voters, disaffected, misled and mistaken.
Hallelujah!
© 2024 Paul Wesley Burke, All Rights Reserved
