Everyone’s writing about this at the moment, and this is nothing to do with us or northern Uganda but I couldn’t resist marking this historic moment. The negatives are obvious and will be dwelled on ad nauseum, so I thought I’d put forward a few shaky positives 😉
1. He’ll scrap the TPPA! (small victories people, small victories). Forget wasting your time e-mailing Peter Dunne to change his deciding vote, the thing is goneburgers. Clinton would have passed it for sure, but that dodgy trade deal is now toast even if Obama manages to sneak it through (which seems less likely now).
2. Power to the marginalised people. Trump won partly because large numbers of blue collared workers and those without a college education came out to vote who never had before. He mobilised an often derided and marginalised demographic (especially by the educated) in a similar way that Obama mobilised black and Latino Voters.
3. Democracy is better than the alternatives. No matter how bad Trump might be, America’s system of democracy will (hopefully) prevent utterly ridiculous things from happening. True freedom of speech will remain. Half the moneys won’t be lost to corruption. His enemies won’t be killed in their sleep. Some decisions under Trump’s watch may may have terrible consequences, but they won’t be nearly as bad as the atrocities that happen in Dictatorships and Anarchic states like Half of Africa, Syria, Iraq etc. where democracy has never taken hold.
4. Anti establishment sentiment. With Brexit, the Arab Spring and now Trump, Anti-establishment sentiment around the world seems to be rising. People are sick of lobby groups, big buisiness and corrupt leaders running the show. I’m with that sentiment. Most politicians are money hungry, have weak principles and are happy to lie and change their position depending on the tide of public opinion. In England, politicians were rated the least likely profession to tell the truth. Ironically Trump firmly fits all those categories, but a big part of his campaign rhetoric was sticking it to the establishment. Unfortunately I don’t see a whole lot of good arising from this sentiment just yet, but I hope more good can come from it in future
5.When-bad-things-happen-songs-can-make-us-feel-better
This wonderful song by mumford and sons seems almost written for a time like this. “And after the storm, I run and run as the rains come And I look up, I look up…”
Ugandapanda 
Small crumbs I fear Nick. But your father interestingly enough has expressed similar sentiments. Nice song though 🙂
Unbelievably small indeed! If you like that song you should get the album sigh no more, its really really good!
Excellent reflections!
Thanks Pete :). I loved your comment that this was a “perfect expression of 21st century American culture”. Your post is the flipside of a comment I heard Rob Bell make once, something like “God Bless America? God has already blessed America – look at all we have. But what are we doing with it!”
Keith has asked me to thank you. And I’m thinking of the song “What the world needs now is Love, Sweet Love”. Sending some to you both, Faith
Thanks Faith, will have a listen to that song too :). Send the love back!
Thanks so much for this!!! The thing that excites me the most is the growing rise of Anabaptism – a stream of Christianity that basically says God’s Kingdom isn’t tied to any political perspective or party. Rather than stressing “taking the nation back for God” (meaning: vote for the right candidate and America/NZ/England will become a Christian nation again), they have always stressed discipleship and grass-roots movements of Christians making change in their own backyard. So if Trump means more Christians will stop seeing government as the answer for the world’s problems and will instead see themselves called to participate in God’s renewal of all things… well then, bring it on!
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2016/09/hey-white-evangelicals-welcome-to-anabaptism/
I hope you’re right Jon! I thought the intentional community movement was going to take off more in Christchurch and New Zealand as a whole but it hasn’t grown nearly as much as I hoped. We’ll see 🙂
After the rhetoric,and bragging, Trump has touched the suffering classes. He’s pro-life, and can help turn things round in the USA.. Like Brexit, the people have spoken. Our part is to pray that he will surround himself with wise and Godly advisors.. “Thy kingdon come, Thy will be done”
Nicely said.