The path of best resistance: "Faith-rooted messaging would help build broader political support"

While on the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to be a dictator on “day one.” Trump has been president for only three weeks and he has followed through on that threat and promise with a zeal and enthusiasm that has shocked those Americans who thought he was kidding or being hyperbolic. These attacks through dozens of executive orders and edicts — many unconstitutional and illegal — were publicly previewed and detailed months ago by Project 2025 and Agenda 47. None of what has transpired during these last few weeks of Trump’s so-called shock and awe return to power should be a surprise. 

I do wonder if Trump and his MAGA agents and the other right-wing enemies of democracy are surprised at how smoothly their return to power has gone given the quick collapse of the so-called resistance, including the Democrats who appear to have no idea how to be an effective opposition party. In the most recent example of the opposition serving as de facto collaborators with Trumpism and the MAGA movement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he is prepared to work with Republicans in Congress to prevent a government shutdown in March.

Unfortunately, Trump’s disregard for the rule of law and the country’s democratic institutions and norms — behavior legitimated and encouraged by the right-wing extremist justices on the Supreme Court who declared Trump a de facto king or emperor — is one of the reasons that his MAGA followers and other Americans support him. Public opinion polls show that Trump is popular among his supporters because he is willing to break the law “to get things done for people like them” and to shake up the system. Trump, like other autocrats and demagogues, knows that he must always appear to be doing something, a man of action and destiny, to keep and expand his base of support.

A new poll from CBS News shows that this strategy is working:

With most describing him as "tough," "energetic," "focused" and "effective" — and as doing what he'd promised during his campaign — President Trump has started his term with net positive marks from Americans overall.

Many say he's doing more than they expected — and of those who say this, most like what they see. Very few think he's doing less.

His partisans and his voters, in particular, say he's got the right amount of focus on matters like ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs and deporting those who are in the country illegally. 

His deportation policy finds majority approval overall — just as most voters said they wanted during the campaign — and that extends to sending troops to the border, too.

To what ends is President Trump’s dynamo-like energy being directed? Terminating multiracial pluralistic democracy, returning the country to the Gilded Age (an era when rich White men like him ruled over the country’s “democracy” and larger society), destroying the social safety net and any remnants of a humane society, and most importantly enriching himself and those in his orbit and class at the literal expense of the American people. This is an immoral political and social project; America’s democracy crisis is much more than “just” a political crisis, it is a profound moral collapse and indictment of the country’s hollow civic life and a public that lacks civic virtue. Cheap gas, cheap eggs, and the allure of the spectacle and attention economy are deemed more important than protecting democracy, the rule of law and human and civil rights.

The democracy crisis and rise of American neofascist and authoritarianism is also an indictment of a broken political system and the elites who defended a status quo that was failing huge swaths of the public, as seen with growing income and wealth inequality, stagnant wages, globalization and an American Dream that has become increasingly out of reach. The resentment and shock of the elites at the authoritarian populist impulse in the United States and around the world is quite real because members of that class live in their own closed episteme and reality.

In a must-read new essay, “The Logic of Destruction,” leading historian Timothy Snyder continues to sound the alarm, undaunted, about the moral and political disaster that is the long Age of Trump and his return to power:

What is a country? The way its people govern themselves. America exists because its people elect those who make and execute laws. The assumption of a democracy is that individuals have dignity and rights that they realize and protect by acting together.

The people who now dominate the executive branch of the government deny all of this, and are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation. For them, only a few people, the very wealthy with a certain worldview, have rights, and the first among these is to dominate.

For them, there is no such thing as an America, or Americans, or democracy, or citizens, and they act accordingly. Now that the oligarchs and their clients are inside the federal government, they are moving, illegally and unconstitutionally, to take over its institutions….

All of this work was preparatory to the coup that is going on now. The federal government has immense capacity and control over trillions of dollars. That power was a cocreation of the American people. It belongs to them. The oligarchs around Trump are working now to take it for themselves.

Theirs is a logic of destruction. It is very hard to create a large, legitimate, functioning government. The oligarchs have no plan to govern. They will take what they can, and disable the rest. The destruction is the point. They don’t want to control the existing order. They want disorder in which their relative power will grow….

In general, the economic collapse they plan is more like a reverse flood from the Book of Genesis, in which the righteous will all be submerged while the very worst ride Satan’s ark. The self-chosen few will ride out the forty days and forty nights. When the waters subside, they will be alone to dominate.

This is the outcome and world, a new order, that tens of millions of Americans chose when they elected Donald Trump for a second time. They will reap what they sowed — and that harvest was and will even be more poisonous as the weeks and months grind on. As I have warned in previous essays here at Salon, these are the good times compared to what comes next.  

In an attempt to gain some clarity on Trump’s return to power and the connections between the country’s democracy crisis and moral crisis and civic collapse, I recently spoke with Rev. Adam Russell Taylor. He is president of Sojourners and author of “A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community.” Taylor previously led the Faith Initiative at the World Bank Group and served as the vice president in charge of Advocacy at World Vision U.S. and the senior political director at Sojourners. He has also served as the executive director of Global Justice, an organization that educates and mobilizes students around global human rights and economic justice. Taylor is ordained in the American Baptist Church and the Progressive National Baptist Convention and serves in ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va.

This is the second part of a two-part conversation. 

What does it mean for a political leader to exercise moral leadership?

We need a lot more courage and fortitude right now. Courage from all members of Congress, particularly Republican members, to defend the Constitution and speak out against the abuse of power by President Trump, despite the risks. We need more courage from corporate leaders to not surrender to the pressure to roll back commitments to DEI programs, which, despite being disparaged, misrepresented and misconstrued, are really a commitment to advance fairness and justice in the workplace. While Trump demands absolute loyalty and threatens to primary or punish those who defy them, every member of Congress needs to determine whether they will uphold their oath to protect the Constitution and the independent power of Congress to pass laws and control the purse. They must also consult their conscience about pushing back against the scapegoating and demonizing of immigrants, transgender people and many other vulnerable communities.

The Trump administration’s attempt to cut off federal grants, loans and other resources is both contrary to the Constitution and the rule of law and also injurious to the most vulnerable Americans. For the sick, disabled, the elderly and other vulnerable Americans, Trump’s cutting off funds and the larger budget cuts to seemingly give more money to the very richest Americans and corporations is a literal matter of dignity, life, and yes, even death. A government’s budget is a statement of moral priorities and values.

The Trump Administration’s attempt to freeze Federal grants and loans was reckless and an example of policy malpractice. Every new administration has the prerogative to review and even audit government programs for waste and fraud. However, freezing funding across the board is something altogether different. Sojourners is an active leader and founder of a broad Christian coalition called the Circle of Protection, which is working to defend and build bipartisan support for protecting and even expanding key Federal programs that support and protect low-income people and struggling families. These include Medicaid, WIC, food stamps and the Child Tax Credit.

We’ve been advocating for a long time that these and other programs are fundamentally pro-family and pro-human dignity, which is faith-rooted messaging that would help build broader political support and make them more compelling. We must be clear with our constituencies and the public that the Trump Administration is seeking to make severe cuts to effective programs that provide a lifeline to struggling families and help lift them out of poverty so they can extend the 2017 tax cuts that disproportionately benefit corporations and the super-wealthy.

Why do so many white Christians support Trump and the MAGA movement, given how that political project and vision for American society and the world is contrary to their supposed “Christian” values? Jesus Christ, be it the mythological or "historic" figure, was not a gangster capitalist, a political sadist, or a demagogue.

Sadly, many Christians who subscribe to the tenets of Christian nationalism believe that they need a strongman such as President Trump to defend their narrow version of Christianity and impose this distorted faith on the rest of the country, which would threaten religious freedom and weaken our democracy. It is frustrating that Christian values have become so hijacked by the right to focus only on an overly narrow set of issues, such as abortion and anti-LGBTQ rights and is often so highly associated with racism, xenophobia and patriarchy. Christians need to re-embrace the radical teaching and call of Jesus to serve as “good news to the poor” and to “set the captives free” (Luke 4) and to care for the immigrant, homeless, imprisoned, etc. (those he referred to as the Least of these in Matthew 25). The media can often reinforce the perception that the right speaks for all Christians when in reality, there are far more Christians who reject the right’s narrow and often toxic definition of the faith. Now is the time for a revival and re-assertion of Christians committed to justice and peace because of their faith, not in spite of our faith.

Trump’s plan to end America’s multiracial pluralistic democracy and replace it with a form of autocracy and a White Christian nationalist plutocracy is literally torn from the pages of Project 2025.

Put simply, Project 2025 is a policy blueprint that would push our nation down a road toward autocracy and Christian nationalism. The agenda is so politically toxic that Trump attempted to distance himself from the project during the campaign. However, its agenda is very aligned with the current administration’s priorities. In summary, the plan promises to eliminate the Department of Education, undermine Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work throughout the government and roll back progress around women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. The plan also calls for measures such as banning non-citizens from living in federally assisted housing, even if they live with a citizen; creating a new “border and immigration agency”; resurrecting Trump’s border wall; and deputizing the military to deport millions of people who are already in the country illegally. The plan seems more rooted in nativism, xenophobia and ethno- and Christian nationalism than in the core values and priorities of Jesus. We need to help the public better understand why this agenda is so dangerous and serves as the operating manual for the new Administration so that we can more effectively resist it and ultimately defeat this extreme political agenda. 

What does it mean to stand in solidarity with the communities and individuals targeted by Trump, the MAGA movement and the larger right-wing?

Standing in solidarity with communities and individuals being targeted by President Trump and the MAGA movement involves giving time and money to organizations that are working to block the administration’s most egregious and often illegal actions in the courts and to efforts to organize nonviolent and strategic resistance to these harmful policies (such as Democracy Forward, Sojourners, Public Citizen, and so many others). For many churches, it can mean providing sanctuary for immigrants who are unjustly facing deportation. It can mean reaching out to friends, family, or neighbors who are LGBTQ and offering your love, asking how you can best support them. While this is a time in which we can better regulate our media intake, it means refusing to tune out and remain well-informed and engaged. 

Continuing with that theme, what does it mean to be a member of the resistance in this moment of rapidly worsening crisis? To be a person of conscience during this crisis?

In this moment, we can find resilience and hope both by leaning into our faith traditions and remembering that we stand on the backs of those who came before us (an African proverb). In Christian terms, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses that we can draw strength and resilience from (Hebrews). We can’t let the real threats and harms that are being perpetrated by this new administration steal our daily sources of joy. We must find even more ways to care for ourselves and for each other, even as we tap into the courage that will be needed to both resist many of the most harmful and anti-democratic actions of the administration, and cast a vision for what effective and responsible government looks like that advances the common good and enables everyone to thrive. We must also resist the temptation to villainize those who currently support the president and where possible and safe to do so, instead seek to listen more deeply to their concerns and build relationships across our major divides. 

In the short term, it’s imperative to pressure Congress to protect its Constitutional powers of controlling the purse and passing laws and block some of Trump’s most unqualified and extreme nominees for key roles. The court injunctions that blocked the freeze on federal grants and the firing of USAID employees are a hopeful sign that the courts can still serve as an important, though far from perfect, guardrail. Now, we need to shift public opinion through local organizing, mutual aid and exposing Trump’s reckless and damaging abuse of power.

I find hope in the fact that successful social movements (including the Civil Rights movement) always start with a deeply committed minority. As Dr. King famously preached, “the saving of our world from pending doom will come not through the complacent adjustment of a conforming majority, but through the creative maladjusted minority." It is time to serve as that creatively maladjusted, transformed minority.  

If you were granted a 15-minute in-person conversation with Donald Trump, what would you say to him?

I’ve been reflecting a lot on the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” I would ask how helping to feed our world’s most hungry people or saving millions of lives through vaccination programs can be viewed as evil. In the same spirit as Bishop Budde’s pastoral and prophetic sermon at the National Cathedral, I would make a moral plea that the administration shows mercy and compassion for our nation’s and our world’s most vulnerable people. I would try to appeal to Trump’s stated desire to make peacemaking a cornerstone of his legacy and make the case that there can’t be real or sustainable peace in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world if there isn’t a concomitant commitment to justice and human dignity.