I must admit I was a little bummed regarding the outcome of the election. I really thought the Universe was finally going to set us on the path of peace (or at least respect for one another), and true justice via Kamala Harris. The signs were all there, or at least I thought they were. I guess one should never bet on the Universe.
Another Trump win is simply astounding, particularly through the vitriol his campaign provided. It goes, of course, without saying that 49.9% of the people really wanted a change. It really didn’t matter who the GOP candidate was. It could have been anyone, DeSantis, Haley, whoever. People just wanted a change. Even though the Biden Administration produced the best economy the country had ever seen, it wasn’t felt in the pocketbooks of the general voter.
Now Trump rides a presidency with both houses of Congress. Slim margins to be sure, but nonetheless, he still holds a majority. And the Supreme Court has given him absolute power with immunity. This raises an alarming issue concerning the notion of justice, not only for the Constitution, but the country as well. It is believed that the DOJ cannot convict a president of criminal activity. However, Trump has been formally convicted by his peers of 34 criminal counts prior to his election as President, and yet if you can believe it, it all goes away. The federal charges that have yet to be adjudicated are being ‘turned out to pasture’ without any kind of justification for Trump’s criminal activity. Civil charges in the state of Georgia and New York have yet to honor the privilege of immunity from criminal prosecution.
There is another side of the Trump justice. He has promised to go after the January 6 council and others who verbally attacked him over the last eight years. He is big on revenge with the Biden Administration and the far-left media his particular targets.
The issue at hand speaks directly to a two-tier justice system. That is not unusual in and of itself as this country has since inception treated the poor, women and minorities differently even though the Constitution guarantees justice for ALL. It is even more alarming now that if you have money to buy the best attorneys (that have no respect for the rule of law) you can power your way through the justice system. It really “chaps my hide” that he will most likely not have to be accountable for his criminal activity. What happens to the thirty-four indictments? Plus, he still owes over $400 million to the state of New York.
Hence, I am reminded of the prophet Amos and his call to justice.
Amos was a farmer in a small village called Tekoa about 10 miles south of Jerusalem, which was part of the southern Kingdom of Judea. Scripture tells us that he was a shepherd which means he was a caretaker of sheep. He also was a gifted botanist in that he was a dresser of sycamore trees. This means that when the young shoots of the tree break ground, he would go along the row of trees and pinch off the end of the new growth which helped the tree grow and mature.
Other than that, we don’t know much about Amos. For some reason, God saw in Amos a voice of prophesy and chose him to go to the Northern Kingdom to give them a ‘what for’. The Southern Kingdom at this time was experiencing a time of prosperity and peace. People were getting along, providing for their families, not concerned that their neighbors might try and intrude on their sense of peace.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel was now under the kingship of Jeroboam II around the year 760 BCE. The rich and wealthy were building prosperity on the backs of the poor. Actually, all the surrounding nations were likewise wealthy and rich on the backs of their poor. Women and children were marginalized, and the poverty and employment rate were overwhelmingly high.
And so, God was getting very impatient with Israel and sent Amos to call the people back to the law of Moses. Essentially, they had rejected the Lord God.
Amos 2:6,7 (The Message) says it like this:
They sell into slavery those who do what is right.
They trade needy people for a mere pair of sandals.
The grind the heads of the poor into the dust
Of the ground.
The refuse to be fair to those who are crushed…
They treat my name as if it were not holy.
Amos 5:10-13 (the Message) continues:
7-9 Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar
and stomp righteousness into the mud.
10-12 Raw truth is never popular.
But here it is, bluntly spoken:
Because you run roughshod over the poor
and take the bread right out of their mouths,
You’re never going to move into
the luxury homes you have built.
You’re never going to drink wine
from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.
I know precisely the extent of your violations,
the enormity of your sins. Appalling!
You bully right-living people,
taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.13 Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.
Decent people throw up their hands.
Protest and rebuke are useless,
a waste of breath.
And one of my favorite Amos passages comes from 4:1-3 (MSG)
“Listen to this, you cows of Bashan
grazing on the slopes of Samaria.
You women! Mean to the poor,
cruel to the down-and-out!
Indolent and pampered, you demand of your husbands,
‘Bring us a tall, cool drink!’2-3 “This is serious—I, God, have sworn by my holiness!
Be well warned: Judgment Day is coming!
They’re going to rope you up and haul you off,
keep the stragglers in line with cattle prods.
They’ll drag you through the ruined city walls,
forcing you out single file,
And kick you to kingdom come.”
God’s Decree.
The ‘Cows of Bashan’ are the wives and mistresses of the rich and wealthy who indulge themselves with unmerited privilege. It is an interesting footnote however that in the Aramaic translation of this scripture, the ‘cows of Bashan’ are men, not women, as translated from the Greek. The ‘kick to kingdom come’ was delivered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.
It wasn’t enough that the Israelites were dishonoring God by their actions mouthing rhetoric reinterpreting the laws that God had laid down to fit into their current reality.
They also were making a mockery of their religious faith:
In verses 5:21-24 (MSG), Amos takes on the priests:
“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.
In this last text do you hear strong words toward the likes of Christian Nationalists, the Religious Right and those who abominate the true teachings of Jesus? Also, in the above text, do you hear words that speak to corporate greed, the selfishness of the rich and wealthy, and the loss of truth and integrity in our words and actions?
Amos could well be speaking to the world order, but particularly to America now in the 21st century. Have we lost our way? Where are the Amos’s of our time, the Bob Dylan’s announcing these times are a changin’?
It is unfortunate that it takes a person like a Donald Trump, without his intention, to show us that you can’t solve problems using the same solutions and expect different outcomes. However, the solutions he suggests want to take us back to the 19th century! Change can be, and is, good, but it needs to move the country forward and not backward. There is a lot of anticipation regarding what is yet to come, and we are still a month away from the inauguration. Also, there is serious consternation regarding many of Trump’s choices for Cabinet leaders as many do not have government experience and/or qualifications to adequately do the jobs they would be assigned to. This is part of the change that is foreboding. Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, for example, scares the hell out me, as does Tulsi Gabbard, picked for Director of National Intelligence.
So, what does all of this mean? It means that there will need to be a major cleanup on aisle seven in congress in 2026. New ideas and approaches to democracy will be necessary to remake and reshape big D democracy for the remainder of the 21st century.
Blog friends, it means that the next 24 months could be a little rocky. But, during the midterms of 2026 I believe, as Amos said, we will begin to see “oceans of justice and rivers of fairness” start to take root, and America will begin a Great New Recovery.
I want to leave you with this parting thought: What might happen if Trump does not get inaugurated?
Christmas Blessings, All. See ya next year!
