The emotional breakdown of America after the Trump victory baffled me thousands of miles away in India. I live in a small hamlet in the outskirt of Guwahati in the state of Assam. Half of the time, we have no power to watch TV. Yet, CNN didn’t disappoint us by ceaselessly broadcasting the emotional debacle of America in the aftermath of the tragedy known as Trump victory.
Until I met Mark Twain, I wasn’t interested in America. But once he fooled me to join him in the world of Huckleberry Finn and the mighty Mississippi; no sooner, I was hooked in watching those western classics that transported me into the world of the Prairie and the Oregon Trail. Indeed, it was a brave new world back then. Teaching a course on Puritan settlement of America at a university in Korea had heightened my desire to actually visit the US. But thanks to a Nepali pastor friend, I was denied a visa few months before 911 in 2001 and had not applied since then.
So, my knowledge of America is purely academic and literary; only supplemented with a median visit to the North East a couple of years ago. Interestingly and to my delight, in 2014, I was granted a visa. During my two weeks of travel through New England, my interest was in the historical narratives of the brave new world and my hosts didn’t disappoint me. Like Chesterton in What I Saw in America, I wanted to feel the spirit of this great nation by visiting important places in the first colonies. Standing upon those shores, banks, gorges, plains and the mountain tops, it wasn’t difficult to enter into the world of the Puritan pilgrims, frontier settlers and the American independence. Unlike in the pages of the books and the screens of the movies, I could actually feel the formidable spirit of America all around me.
Coming to New York, however, was different. With its colossal concrete jungle touching the sky, the human spirit seemed to be unable to break free from its weight pressing it to the ground. Walking downtown Manhattan, there was this sense of fragility as if everyone was living on the emotional edges. Slightest miscalculation could send everyone crashing down.
Now, here I was in Assam, India, watching the emotional breakdown of so many Americans, including Hillary Clinton, who just could not accept the resounding defeat as if something unimaginable had happened. In a sensible world, it is natural for one to win and the other to lose; specially if you have a two party system, both can’t win. But this time, there was some strange sense of hopelessness in losing. People appeared to be disoriented which the critics call the “Trump Derangement”. I think it was more than Trump.
During Obama’s presidency, the spirit of Atheism reigned supreme. Young people grew into adulthood by mocking at truth, at morality and God. They felt in total control of the American spirit; they proudly declared themselves as Social Justice Warriors! Anyone who disagreed with them would have to be vanquished once and for all. Obama’s cult surely appeared undefeatable; one could feel the air of arrogance from Obama’s own mouth when he mocked Trump from the corridors of power in the White House.
Sadly, this Obama cult was made of air. Since Atheism believes in nothing, when power is taken away from its grip, there remains nothing for it to stand upon. When Trump victory punctured it, the bubble simply caved in. How much they mocked everything Trump voters represented, they could not be comforted.
A people who managed to forge the greatest nation on earth suddenly appeared so vulnerable; critics had to invent the phrase “snowflakes” to describe these SJWs. Without the moral fiber and the confidence in divine providence to care for us, defeat is painful. Even more painful when it happens against a person like Trump who holds no bars. During the days of slavery, the blacks could grind through their unimaginable suffering with their undying hope in God by humming “Someday, we shall be free”. But the people going through the emotional breakdown after the last American election seem to have no such place to put their hopes in.
Hope Church Ministries 