What is going to break this fever?

The title of this post comes from a question raised by Amy Walter, of the Cook Political Report, on CNN yesterday. I think it's a good, and for me a frightening, question.

I am not a fan of the current president. I am also clear, however, that he didn't invent polarization and demonization and scapegoating. To paraphrase Billy Joel, Donald Trump didn't start the fire. It's been burning since the world's been turning. Even so, leadership is supposed to be about bringing people together: about hope and the dream of a better tomorrow. Ronald Reagan understood that when he said that it was morning in America. Morning invites us to look to what lies ahead. Barack Obama understood this when he spoke of hope and change. Both leaders called on us to look toward a better tomorrow. Even when I disagreed at times (with each of them) about policy matters, I saw the traits of leadership. The current president wants to make us great, again - and it is that last word that reveals the root of the problem: he wants to go back in time. Toward that end, he stokes fear, and division, rather than hope.

I live in the real world most days. I tend to be a pragmatist and an incrementalist, not an idealist. But I also inhabit the world of the Bible. As a preacher it is my task to invite faithful people to explore that world in order to cultivate a prophetic imagination. What does God dream for us?

Contrary to what some of us learned from those pastel colored posters in Sunday School, the Bible is also often about polarization and demonization and scapegoating.The background is empire: Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Rome. And empires bring out the worst in people. Empires conspire to hurt and destroy the people of God. Imperial power focuses on holding onto what is, rather than imagining what might yet be. In the vision at the end of the Bible, however, the old gives way to the new, to new heavens and a new earth that is multicultural and diverse: many tribes, many tongues, many nations. There is nothing there about America first. Nothing.

In our own American history, there have been dangerous, polarizing and demonizing times before. But leaders like Lincoln and Roosevelt encouraged people to bind up the wounds of the nation and to face their fears. I have no way of knowing what goes through the mind of the current president. But words matter and his words are consistently divisive. Occasionally he stands behind a teleprompter and delivers a message that his aides insist upon. But watch him. You can tell he can't stand that. The real Trump will be tweeting hours later, in the late hours of the night, sowing more seeds of division and fear that bring out the worst in all of us.

Yes, there is blame on all sides. Yes, people on all sides say stupid things and can be myopic and ignorant and partisan. But it's not the same. The press is not "the enemy of the people." Democrats are not "evil." Pocahantas, Lying Ted, Crooked Hillary: this name-calling is not acceptable on school yards. Surely it should not be acceptable in the oval office. 

What is going to break this fever? I like that question because it reminds us that we are not well, as a nation. But hopefully this is not a sickness unto death. Hopefully the fever will break, and soon. What will help us to get there? Chicken soup for the soul? Maybe. But also, I think, we need to rediscover together the soul of America. It seems to me that love can break this fever. Not sentimentality. But real, across the boundaries and divisions, love. Real commitment to dialogue that builds bridges (not walls) toward mutual understanding and communal repentance. Courageous leadership that calls forth our better angels.

I don't see our President ever rising to that challenge. He has unleashed our worst demons with his rhetoric and while his words are not the only cause of mentally ill people doing violence, it is naive to think that his rhetoric does not contribute to the social fever we are all in. We need to look to other leaders who will do what he is either incapable or unwilling to do.

I wish I could say that I see those leaders. I'd take them on either side of the aisle right now. I yearn to get back to policy disagreements, and fair(er) fights. I hope the midterm elections send some new voices to Washington. But in the meantime, and beyond next Tuesday, I pray that the fever breaks before we have completely destroyed the fabric of this great nation.