We’ve all been doing quite a deal of waiting of late – whether it be for the lifting of lockdown restrictions at a time of pandemic, or for the outcome of this week’s US presidential election. And all the time, we believers are waiting for the coming of the Kingdom with signs of its breaking in here and now. What does it mean to be a sensible person in waiting? What are the signs of a foolish community in waiting?
The night after President Obama’s election 12 years ago, I happened to be in the Mall in Washington DC. I joined a throng of people who were waiting for this new president with great expectation. Activists had erected a wooden, prefabricated wall between the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. The wall carried a banner headline that echoed the refrain from Obama’s Grant Park Chicago declaration the previous night: ‘Yes we can’. The wall had been up for a few hours only. Thousands of people had already signed it, attaching photos and messages. The central message on the wall read:
As citizens across the world, we congratulate you on your election, and celebrate your campaign commitments to sign a strong new global treaty on climate change, close Guantanamo prison and end torture, withdraw carefully from Iraq, and double aid to fight poverty. No one country or leader can meet the world’s most pressing challenges alone, but working together as one world in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation, yes we can bring real and lasting change.
Twelve years on, we would have to admit that some of these key hopes were never realised or were later dashed. Were we wise or foolish to entertain such hopes, to proclaim ‘Yes we can’?
While awaiting this year’s US presidential election result, I attended yet another Zoom conference, this one hosted by Magdalene College Cambridge. The main speaker was Rowan Williams, one-time Archbishop of Canterbury, addressing the topic ‘Overcoming Political Tribalism’. We were welcomed by the Master of the College, Sir Christopher Greenwood, a charming and excessively polite Englishman. He looked familiar.
Back in March 2014, Sir Christopher had been a judge of the International Court of Justice ruling against Australia which had seized legal papers belonging to Timor Leste and its lawyers. In his judgment, Sir Christopher had offered this damning indictment of Australia’s behaviour: ‘In view of the seizure of papers which clearly related to legal advice and preparation for the forthcoming arbitration from Timor-Leste’s lawyer, it is entirely understandable that Timor-Leste is concerned that there might be future interference and it sought an assurance from Australia that there would be no such interference. To my surprise, the undertaking from the [Australian] Attorney-General makes no mention of this matter. In the absence of any undertaking not to interfere with Timor-Leste’s communications with its lawyers in the future, I accept that there is a real and imminent risk of such interference which requires action on the part of the Court.’[2]
The other night Sir Christopher told his largely Australian audience that lawyers can tend to be too narrow in their thinking, confining considerations of justice to procedural due process. Rowan Williams told us: ‘There is in humanity something to which justice must be done.’ In his paper for the conference, Williams wrote: ‘It is essential for an intelligent, compassionate, and sustainable political democracy to focus more on manageable solutions to specific unjust situations rather than being paralysed by maximalist general demands.’[3]
No matter how objectionable many of us may find the antics of President Trump, we need to acknowledge that more Americans turned out to vote for him than for any other candidate in history, other than his opponent Joe Biden who has outpolled him by more than 4 million votes. Despite Trump’s mishandling of the COVID pandemic resulting in 236,000 deaths, more than 70 million Americans who are not compelled to vote turned out to vote for him. Americans live in a very polarised society. We all live in a very polarised world.
Waiting for the bridegroom to arrive we know not when, and perhaps even as late as midnight, we have to ask what is it to wait and prepare sensibly for engagement in such a polarised world. Rowan Williams has identified the problem with those foolish bridesmaids who engage in what he calls political tribalism which shrinks the scope for mutual recognition in a polarised situation. The foolish bridesmaid is the one who says, ‘I resolve not to think of the other’s view as sharing any of the moral anxieties or emotional tensions I experience.’ He warns against that political tribalism that ‘inexorably moves towards de-legitimising the other in debate’ and which ‘is a fertile seedbed for totalitarianism’. The wise bridesmaid is the one who is looking for a shared language in uncertain times of waiting and conflict.
With his finest English equilibrium, Williams says ‘this is not a bland appeal for civility in political debate’ but rather an investment of the stranger. Williams is not wanting to ‘relativise or weaken commitments or to accept an indefinite standoff’. Rather he is trying ‘to discover what the “grammar” of another’s moral energy has in common with my own, as the condition for intelligent action’. Most of those who voted for President Trump do not engage in his objectionable antics, nor do they approve of them. Despite Trump’s antics and despite 10 million COVID cases, they think he acts ultimately in their interests, many of them feeling disempowered by the elites. The wise bridesmaid needs to be able to understand and engage with persons who think their interests are better protected by a Trump rather than by a Biden. This is not just about politics, and it’s not just about reducing ourselves to being citizens. We are also religious people. We are Christians. We are Catholics. While we wait, we have a mission from God. Williams reminded us this week that ‘the truly emancipated citizen is someone who is not just a citizen. Civic virtue is bound up with affiliations and convictions that have more than just civic roots and sanctions’.
While we await a concession speech by Mr Trump, whether grudging or gracious, let’s refill our lamps seeking to ‘salvage an intelligent, compassionate, and pluralist democracy from the wreckage of so much political habit.’ Let’s be sensible believers in waiting. Let’s maintain the hope that wisdom is near at hand. Let’s pray for wisdom in the hearts and minds both of Trump supporters and Biden supporters and also in the hearts and minds of the rest of us who look on, aware that the choice of an American president affects more than the affairs of those entitled to vote in the 50 states of the union.’
Extracts from Homily by Frank Brennan, Newman College, November 8, 2020
Frank Brennan AO is a Jesuit priest and Rector of Newman College at the University of Melbourne. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the PM Glynn Institute at Australian Catholic University and an Adjunct Professor at the Thomas More Law School at ACU.
Comments
6 responses to “Many of Trump’s supporters feel disempowered by the elites”
They don’t “feel” disempowered, they are.
Research says all rich democracies have (at least) two major parties for the elites, none for the unwashed.
“With his finest English equilibrium” , referencing a Williams quote. If Frank is saying that Williams is English I just point out that Williams is in fact Welsh and a Welsh speaker born in Swansea.
I am also patiently waiting for any Jesuit to say anything
about the Marilyn Warren report on Victor Higgs (20 Dec. 2019).
I call on Fr. Brennan to express his opinion on this.
Ms. Warren said:
“it is apparent there was a serious pattern of deviant criminal behaviour being perpetrated
across the Society..”
” part of a much larger and more
challenging problem of where to locate not merely one but up to 22 problematic priests or brothers.”
“It may be reasonably expected that the Society is or will be conducting further
investigations into these matters. In my view, it is highly desirable that it do so. ”
There is only a complete and profound silence from the Society of Jesus about this damning report.
As long as this failure to honestly address historical sex abuse goes on,
no Jesuit has any credibility to say anything about other matters.
Those who profess the highest moral ground cannot pick and choose what to be moral and ethical about.
Only through the courage of survivors have Theo Overberg SJ and Lawrence Leonard SJ
been recently charged with indecent assault of Riverview students.
Patience yes, its 18 months since Riverview principal Paul Hine was informed of Overberg’s abuse.
Mr. Hine was “too busy” to find out the actual years Overberg and Leonard worked at Riverview.
Patience yes, three years of listening to obfuscation and hollow satements.
The complete text of the Sunday homily is available at https://www.catholicoutlook.org/fr-franks-homily-8-november-2020/
A wide-ranging article and the remarks Frank Brennan shares from Christopher Greenwood about Australia’s appalling behaviour in Timor-Leste are of real interest. I’m less convinced by Fr Brennan’s appraisal of the situation in the US. Those 70 million people have not been abandoned by the “elites”: Democrats have fought hard for the extension of social services, including health, and the hysterical disparagement of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren could succeed only because the bogeyman of “socialism” has made more than the active Trump voters terrified of what would greatly benefit them, rather than worsening their situation. Similarly, they have been successfully persuaded to fear the jobs that could/will come with renewables. With his unmatched powers of cynicism as well as his horrifying narcissism, the corrupt current President has managed to exploit fears that are real, persuading voters in the US that cutting taxes for the wealthy and services for the poor is “in their interests”. Add to that, the racism that is endemic across the US has flourished under his leadership. A very well informed friend from Tennessee spoke for many Southern liberals when she said, “Whites in America know they are heading towards being a minority in this country. This confronts the last vestige of security that they were superior to someone… But it also reveals the contempt that right-wing politics cultivate to advantage the genuine ‘elites’, which is also displayed in much of traditional religion and newer evangelical movements where white supremacy has sat comfortably unquestioned for so many and for so long.”
Thank you for this more eternal perspective.