God and the Devil Made a Bet

I’ve managed to avoid talking about politics on this blog for a few days.

 

On one hand, that’s a good thing. I never intended for politics to be as dominant a topic as it has been.

 

But the dearth of political ramblings on this blog is not a sign that everything is hunky-dory. Indeed, the Cheeto In Chief, Li’l Donnie Trump is even more of a threat than ever in his complete disregard for democratic ideals, the rule of law, diplomacy, intelligence, empathy and facts.  But keeping track of every single stupid thing that Trump and his sniveling sycophantic cronies do can be a full time job. An exhausting full time job.  

 

Today, instead of addressing whatever dumbass bullshit fuckery Trump did in the last 5 minutes, I want to address a much broader question: Why is Donald Trump President?

 

You might answer “because we live in a universe where if God ever existed, God has given up on us and left us to fuck things up without him” and I understand your point of view. Or maybe it’s like the story of Job from the Bible where God and the Devil made a bet. Except this time, God lost.

 

But moving from the philosophical, let’s look at this answer: Donald Trump is President because of the Supreme Court. 

 

In 2016, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia died. As was his right as President of the United States, Barack Obama put forth a nominee to replace Scalia, Merrick Garland. As leader of the US Senate and because he is also a complete and total asshole, Mitch McConnell refused to let Garland’s nomination come up for hearings or a vote.

 

Evangelical voters took note of this.

 

One big bug up the backsides of evangelical voters for nearly a half century is the Supreme Court ruling on Roe Vs. Wade, the ruling that said women have the right to have an abortion if they so choose. Evangelical voters have been angling for every way possible to undermine or overturn Roe Vs. Wade ever since. With McConnell refusing to let President Obama’s nominee even have a hearing, the seat was open for the next President to fill. 

 

The question has come up repeatedly: how can so called God fearing people like evangelicals have ever gotten behind Donald Trump? Because filling a vacancy on the Supreme Court with a hard core conservative who would vote to overturn Roe Vs. Wade was not a hypothetical exercise but a very real thing. And Trump who was pushing hard to win over hard core conservatives would be the one to appoint such a judge to the Supreme Court.

 

Yes, Evangelical who profess to believe in God who so loved the world that he gave us his only son chose to elect a man with no demonstrable human empathy because they figured it would give them a shot at stacking the Supreme Court. 

 

In other words, God and the Devil made a bet. And God lost.

 

Right out of the gate, Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch for the empty Supreme Court seat and Mitch McConnell wasted no time in pushing this nomination through the Senate. So far, Gorsuch has been a reliable advocate for conservative causes. 

 

Which brings us to Trump’s 2^nd go round on this subject with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

 

This all came about when Justice Anthony Kennedy decided to step down from the court.  Although appointed by a Republican President, Kennedy has proved to be a source of frustration to conservatives by not always ruling in favor of conservatives.  A lot of 5-4 splits on the court are a result of Kennedy going one way or the other.

 

With Brett Kavanaugh, Trump has a chance to replace Kennedy with someone more committed to conservative causes. Like reversing course on gay marriage. Or gutting what’s left of Obamacare.

Or overturning Rove Vs. Wade.    

 

The evangelical voters who turned a blind eye to all that was wrong with Donald Trump are getting what they paid for.

 

And Trump’s appointment of solid conservatives to the Supreme Court is important to Trump because it keeps the base that put in power happy. I believe that Trump does not give a fuck about Rove Vs. Wade but his base does and if keeps them happy, they’ll keep supporting him. Trump is looking to undermine the rights of whole swaths of Americans to benefit Trump.

 

By the way, what is my view on the subject of Rove Vs. Wade?

 

That’s a topic for another post…. Coming up tomorrow.