Golden Trump

“And all the people took off their gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. This he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you from the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it . . .”  Exodus, Chapter 32.

The golden calf described in Exodus is back.  This week, at the CPAC conference, a new golden calf was rolled in.  This time it depicts Donald Trump in gold. He is wearing sandals, short pants in the colors of the American flag, and is carrying a magic wand.  

Can there be a better illustration of what we are in for as we muddle through the next few years? The Exodus had its Golden Calf.  The Republicans now have their Golden Gaffe. I have suggested before that Trumpism is in the nature of a religion, that those who support him do so as a matter of faith rather than reason, and that this is why no rational argument can dissuade them of their views. My suggestion had been more allegorical than real. Now, though, the allegory has come to life.

I have watched some of that very CPAC worship conference this weekend, only as much as I could stomach. The idolatry was manifest. It didn’t stop at the Golden Gaffe. I heard the speakers quoting Trump as if his words came, well, from the Burning Not-Bush. There was a guy named, Pete Hegseth(?) who apparently is from Fox and Friends. Maybe I should be more familiar with him, but, if I was, I would be drinking even more heavily than I am now. As if to make my point, Hegseth has a giant tattoo of a religious cross covering the length of his right arm. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cover his mouth. Citing to one of the patron saints of Trumpism, Hegseth looked out at the audience (nary a masked face among them) and said, “We all have degrees from the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies.”

But, the best of Hegseth’s sermon was yet to come. He likened the CPAC conservative faith to an experience he had in the military. Emphasizing, with a wink, that it was a metaphor only, he told of how he was trained that when his troops were surrounded and in the range of fire, the only way out was to throw grenades and charge at the enemy. Clearly, the audience saw themselves as the surrounded “Troops for Trump”. The “metaphor” drew a standing ovation. Hegseth also followed his deity’s teachings and asserted the utter falsehood, that “the last time they talked about the Bible in the Ivy League was in 1840.” Oh, the Divinity must have been very proud.

As I write this, the Great Orange One has yet to come down from Mt. Mar-A-Lago and address his following. I will not be surprised if his appearance is accompanied by thunder.

I am not saying that religion necessarily has to be a source of social disarray.  I believe in what the great Protestant theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr said, “Religion is good for good people and bad for bad people.” It gets especially bad when it is religion that worships one of those bad people.

And I am also not saying that this tendency toward idolatry is limited to one side.  Our side has to be careful as well.

During the early days of the pandemic, there was no bigger hero for us than Andrew Cuomo.  In contrast to the bleach drinking Orange Menace, we thought that it was Cuomo who could be trusted; that it was Cuomo who spoke the truth.  As it turns out, what the fuck did we know? Now, we learn that truth-telling was not exactly Mr. Cuomo’s strong suit. He was hiding facts about the total number of nursing home deaths in the state that he was running. It has also been reported that he was engaged in Trumpian bullying and threatening of legislators who opposed him. Not to mention as well (although I am about to mention it) that he is now accused of sexually harassing staffers.  We didn’t build any golden idols of Andrew, but there was a time when doing that would not have been out of the question.

Then there is the Lincoln Project, another of our recent heroes. Those of us who could not stand the liar-in-chief had our hearts and maybe even other body parts excited by the clever and effective anti-Trump ads they produced. These Lincoln Project guys were a bunch of Republicans whose morality would not allow them to link themselves to such a despicable President, even though he was of their Party. Well, now we know those Republicans aren’t exactly Simon Pure either.  We’ve learned of resignations at the top of their management because of policies and practices that can hardly be called, “moral.”

Finally, there is the Southern Poverty Law Center. I, for one, thought that its founder and leader, Morris Dees, was among the greatest moral leaders of my lifetime. His accomplishments in civil rights were extraordinary. Well, apparently, that wasn’t the whole story. Recent disclosures tell us that he and others in his group were also guilty of sexual misconduct and, maybe even worst of all given the organization’s purpose, guilty as well of racial discrimination.

We all have our idols. My first one was Mickey Mantle. When I was a little kid, I adored “The Mick” so much that I even fantasized that he and my father might actually be the same person. Then, again as it turned out, Mickey and my father had very different attitudes about marital fidelity and alcohol.

Exodus tells us that Golden Calves are a bad idea. This is a good time for all of us to remember that.