Election Follow-Up

In yesterday’s DM I wrote of the one-month anniversary of Trump’s re-election.  One response went like this:

Excellent Matthew … hope, courage, faith, fierce revolutionary love, making good trouble, keeping the balance between contemplation and action (Richard Rohr), dancing, singing, hugs, tears, laughter, “this too shall pass”, trepidation, uncertainty, one step at a time, first things first, day by day by day … a messy mix, a simmering pot, bonding with this community of sojourners. 

Encourage everyone, be courageous, comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable, free prisoners, release the oppressed, bind the broken-hearted, love extravagantly, act justly, walk humbly, follow The Way … Namaste

Another said: This is so disturbing. I just can’t seem to get my head around the chaos and suffering that will be unleashed. So cold and methodical.  I feel like a hostage in my own country. 

She was referring to an article which she enclosed by Heather Cox about the cuts in veteran’s benefits that may be forthcoming in the Trump administration to pay for tax deductions for billionaires and corporations.  Currently nine states have trigger laws to end their expansion of Medicaid if federal funding is reduced.  As many as 3.7 million people in those states would lose health care coverage.  Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are on the table, says one Georgia congressperson.*

Trump promised to reject Biden’s economic vision and resurrect the system of the years before 2021 in which a few individuals could amass as much wealth as possible. Just ten days after the election, a Texas judge overturned the Biden administration’s overtime pay rule, permitting employers to cancel the raises they gave their employees to comply with that rule.

Bruce Boccardy in commondreams shares his thoughts about the recent election.  “The oligarchs were led by Mr. Trump, a charismatic, convicted criminal cult leader” under whom “projectile lying became the new norm” in political discourse.  The actual economic numbers help explain why working people were attracted to the bombastic style of Mr. Trump. The torrent of scabrous lies did not matter; It was Mr. Trump’s tone that resonated with many working people.

This is key: Tone. Feeling, anger, resentment, grievance: This is what elected Trump.  “Our economic model has not benefited them for decades.”

Says Boccardy: Political experts were still bewildered by the large demographic of working people who supported the toxicity of Mr. Trump against their economic interests.  Decades of crumbs and empty promises from the corporate Democratic Party created a political backlash that Mr. Trump appeared to remedy.** 

The Congressional Budget Office projected that to let the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs expire in 2025 would benefit the GDP “by about 6 basic points.” But Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, observed that“the looting has begun….The next Trump tax scam will make hardworking families worse off, shrink our economy, and blow a $4.6 trillion hole in the deficit.  All this to enrich billionaires while “robbing families of home heating or childcare.”

David Kass, executive director of American for Tax Fairness said, the incoming administration and congressional Republican must answer why they plan to make hardworking Americans worse off shrink, our economy and increase the deficit by $4.6 trillion.

And this positive news from a journalist who demonstrated both spine and conscience. Harry Litman quit his role as columnist with the Los Angeles Times because the billionaire owner kowtowed to Trump to preserve his billions.*** A lesson and example for all activists and resisters.

*Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, December 4, 2024 

** Bruce T. Boccardy, “The Democratic Party Reaped What It Sowed,” CommonDreams.org, December 1, 2024.

***Harry Litman, “Why I Just Resigned From The Los Angeles Times,” December 5, 2024.

See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.

And Fox, Trump & MAGA as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.

Adam Buck and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation.

Banner Image: “Poverty in the United States.” Image by Wasfi Akab on Flickr.

Queries for Contemplation

Do you sense conscience and spine and resistance and caring gathering steam after the election?  And contemplation and action and carrying grief while going to do good work?

Recommended Reading

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods