I went to bed Tuesday night around midnight wrapped in joy.
Just before retiring, I received an email from my sister-in-law who lives in Iceland: “First news here on the early morning radio is about the US BlueWave win. At 6 a.m. I teared up from joy and relief opening up the NEW YORK TIMES front page.”
The blue wave is a wave felt around the world, and we can be proud that American voters stepped up and did to Trump what Brazilian voters did to Bolsonaro a week ago and what Serbian voters did standing up to fascism in their country.
Might humanity be coming to its senses? Might democracy be making a comeback?
Waking up this Wednesday morning, I was reminded of what a wise older Dominican priest, Father Jerry O’Leary, said to me years ago when JFK was president. “You know, I just feel better every morning waking up and knowing that JFK is in the White House.” (Or a Congress with a conscience?)
The obverse of this is also true. How have millions of Americans felt waking up every morning knowing that Donald J. Trump was in the White House? Alongside such stellar co-workers as Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, Opus Dei-connected Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025 and head of OMB, J.D. Vance, etc.
And SCOTUS, who deliberately gutted the Civil Rights Act? And obligingly invented a law from scratch saying a president cannot be tried for crimes in office? And saw to it that none of his crimes from his previous presidency, including stealing classified documents and putting them in unprotected boxes at Mar-a-Lago, came to accountability?
Let us not forget every single Republican congressperson who surrendered their souls and broke their oaths of office to be a check on the presidency. And joined in the president’s attacks on women, trans people, immigrants, Muslims—even the Pope. Lessons in cowardice.
So appropriate that such sycophants, House leader Johnson among them, bit the dust in this historic election.
As I indicated in yesterday’s DM, this is a time for the new Congress to roll up its sleeves and get to work to remake a flailing democracy. It is not a time for business or politics as usual.
I am encouraged by the authenticity of so many new faces coming into Congress with diverse backgrounds and worthy accomplishments. The victories of Black governors, including the first Black woman governor, the first Indigenous woman governor, Indigenous senators, and quality people. Many young people, ready to move and lead and listen to the people and not the corporations, billionaires, and one very visible trillionaire.
Yes, the guy who offered Nazi salutes and posed with a chainsaw and has never apologized for murdering over 700,000 poor Africans by disbanding USAID and who poured $462,000 to defeat decent democrats in Texas. And who lost.
And who, with pals like Peter Thiel (who sees Greta Thunberg and anyone who wants to put limits on AI as “the antichrist”) and Mark Zuckerberg, wants global warming to kill off billions of people and create such chaos that they can buy up the world for cheap and run it themselves.
Tuesday’s election was not the end of all this. But it’s a damn good beginning.
Maybe now we can arm ourselves to combat evil by immersing ourselves in the Sacred and become the mystics (lovers) and prophets (warriors) we are all called to be. Just as Jesus taught us.
It was a special blessing to launch our two-year course on “Journeying with the Mystics,” the night of the election as well. What better way to usher in a new era of American politics than by bringing the Sacred alive more fully? And becoming the mystics and prophets we already are?
Banner Image: “We Voted / Votamos” Composite image by Rafael Jesús González; used with permission.
Queries for Contemplation
How did you feel waking up the day after the recent blowout election?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic Warrior for Our Time
Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century
A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
TRUMP AND THE MAGA MOVEMENT AS ANTICHRIST: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
