Last week at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) a six foot golden statue of the former white house occupant appeared front and center at the entrance. The statue was clad in pants looking like the American flag, a suit jacket (to remind everyone he is a businessman) and a red power tie. A magic wand (to needle President Obama who said he didn’t have a magic wand) completed the ensemble. The golden likeness of Trump defined the meeting.
This monstrosity was the gift of artist Tommy Zegan who apparently spent his entire life savings to construct the likeness. He is hoping to sell it for a million dollars. He would also like to see it displayed at the Trump presidential library, which precludes it being sold. Someone should tell Mr. Zegan he needs better financial advice.
Despite protestation to the contrary, the parallels to the story of the golden calf found in Exodus are unmistakable. You may remember the story. Moses left the Israelites for forty days and forty nights to go up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. The Israelites, fearing Moses would not return, demanded that Aaron make them a “god to go before them.” Aaron gathered up all the gold jewelry of the Israelites and constructed a molten calf which the Israelites declared to be their god. Aaron then built an altar and proclaimed the next day to be a feast day. The Israelites rose early the next morning and made burnt offerings and peace offerings to their new god. God clued Moses in to what the Israelites were up to. Moses headed down the mountain with the two stone tablets and smashed them in a fit of anger. Things went downhill for a while, but eventually the Exodus got back on track.
A few points are worth noting. First, when there was an absence of leadership people got nervous and talked Aaron into his ill-fated action. He was a little insecure about being number two to Moses and was vulnerable to the pressure of the crowd. It was the perfect storm–Aaron’s insecurity and the Israelite’s anxiety. In the absence of real leadership, the Republican Party is willing to settle for a talentless, dishonest, incompetent charlatan whose cult-like powers have persuaded some to check their brains at the door. In the absence of a true statesman and leader for the Republican Party, they have fallen for the glitz and glamor of a common con man whose narcissism and ability to blow smoke up the corporate butt of millions of Americans is second to none.
For over two hundred years our country has depended on a two party political system to function. Each party has a philosophy of government that is different and provides a creative tension that allows government to work. This system goes haywire when political parties are more concerned about staying power and feathering their own nests than serving the needs of the people who elected them. We are seeing this on full display in the cult-like following of the former occupant.
Let us not forget that Trump fulfilled none of his campaign promises, badly mismanaged a pandemic that has cost over 503,000 American lives and artificially inflated the stock market to a dangerous level. Under his mismanagement of American government and politics, the rich have become exponentially richer and the poor have become exponentially poorer. And all the while the former occupant lies through his teeth about just about everything.
Second, everyone in the biblical narrative participated. They willingly gave their gold earrings and rings to make the idol. There were surely those people who didn’t think it was a great idea, but with peer pressure followed along with the crowd. There’s a lot of that going on in the Republican Party these days, too. Many people, not all, are jumping on this hell-bound band wagon that if given another chance, may ruin America forever. There is a herd mentality that has little to do with facts and is willing to follow a cult leader no matter where he leads. It’s enough to make us all lose sleep.
This great American experiment was designed to be of the people, by the people and for the people. It is not a perfect system to be sure. There is much in our democracy that is broken and everyone has contributed to that. The entrenchment of political parties, the blatant self-interest of our elected servants and the place that big business has in running our government by the rich and for the rich are enough to make our forbearers spin in their graves.
It all amounts to bowing at the wrong altar. Seldom has the symbolism of going in the wrong direction been clearer. Sowing seeds of doubt in the integrity of the election, renewing voter suppression efforts with a vengeance, supporting anarchist and seditious rebels who have consumed massive amounts of the Trump Kool-Aid, and having millions of people follow blindly along are dangerous consequences of bowing at the wrong altar. It’s time for people to get up off their knees and act like Americans who care for their country and work for the good of all the people.
The humanity of any society is measured by how well it treats its poorest and most vulnerable members. We can do better than the failing grades that have come from bowing at the wrong altars.
The Irreverent Reverend 