Letter sent to the editor of the Defiance Crescent-News.
Dear Editor:
Our republic was saved from Donald Trump’s worst tendencies during his first administration by Republicans who understood what unchecked power could do in the hands of megalomaniac. Over the course of four years, they were replaced by feckless true-blue believers willing to bow to Trump’s delusional demands.
Today, the three branches of government are dominated by devotees to Trump and Project 2025. Loyal to the man, instead of the people, these servants tirelessly work to advance the whims of their leader. No regard is given to the U.S. Constitution or the rule of law. All that matters is obeisance to their savior Donald Trump. He alone, they say, can deliver us from communism, socialism, atheism, liberalism, and anything that paints White American Christians in a bad light.
In their minds, the United States is a Christian nation governed by the teachings of the Protestant Bible. Well, some teachings anyway. Trump-loving Christians ignore the verses that talk about how they should treat strangers and enemies; they ignore verses that explicitly condemn the Trump administration’s immoral treatment of undocumented workers and LGBTQ people. They worship what I call a Jesus of convenience; a Jesus that is used to advance political and social agendas instead of saving souls and transforming society.
It remains to be seen if our country will survive Donald Trump. Democrats fiddle while Rome burns, offering muted responses to Trump, if any at all, waiting until the time is “right.” If they can’t see the flames erupting through the roof, they aren’t paying attention. Protests and letters to the editor have their place — I’ve been writing letters for almost 50 years — but they alone cannot bring political and social change. The solution remains what it has always been: voting. As long as we are a democratic republic, voting remains the only means to effect change. If most Americans don’t vote, we can’t expect lasting change.
Trump plans to roll back progress to the Gilded Age of robber barons. The rich now control the reins of government more than ever before. One of their own now sits at the head of the table, acting like he’s a mob boss. All that matters to Trump is power and money; things Jesus expressly condemned. And if you stand in Trump’s way or dare to challenge his actions, he will bring the full force of the government down upon your head.
Bruce Gerencser
Ney, Ohio
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Bruce, this was an awesome summary of the threat Dear Leader Trump and his cult represent to our Republic. I am a political independent left of center (my wife is full on left so we have some interesting discussion sometimes 😄👍), so I judge things based on the effect policies have on the everyday person. I don’t care whether there is a “D” or an “R” attached to good or bad legislation. You hit the nail on the head at the beginning of your letter. The principled Republicans for the most part are either out of office, or they have yielded to the cult of Dear Leader Trump.
I hope we can get back to the day when folks of different political beliefs can still work for respectful consensus instead of dominance. Until that time, people like Trump will carry the day, and we will descend towards totalitarianism.
You sum it up well Bruce.
I also applaud your courage to make these posts. Sadly, there may be retribution coming your way from the Trump thought police in the near future.
Considering we are almost the same age it is shocking to me that the American Experience, the Constitution, and the individual rights of American Citizens is on the verge of collapse.
I hold two demographic sets responsible.
1) The primary set – The 1/3 of eligible Americans that failed to bother casting a vote. This is apathy beyond my comprehension.
2) The Christian Nationalists / Evangelical cultists. While I abhor everything they represent, I will acknowledge they are motivated to vote for their insane cult agenda’s.
I think the readers on this site should acquaint themselves with the nice, pat, supportive nature of the Catholic and Protestant church and their respective “flocks” in Germany, and in Italy, post WW1 to 1945. Direct evidence that the sayings of “Jesus” had little to do with political reality or “real world” behavior by the majority of the cultist in that era.
I just have such a hard time understanding how Americans would destroy democracy for such a worthless, disgusting fraud as Donald Trump. It’s tantamount to pulling a con-man, sexual predator, liar, cheater and thief out of the worst prison in the country and putting that person in charge.
Trump is dismantling every protection supplied by the founding fathers regarding the limits of power.
Concentration camps are opening in Florida, masked and unidentifiable Gov’t thugs are yanking people off the streets and throwing them into vans, (aka ICE), Trump is ordering the military into BLUE states. Just today he is trying to illegally remove a fed official and putting the bank’s independence at risk.
By the time the mid-terms roll around I have no doubt the elections will be a Banana Republic showcase of GOP corruption that will be the envy of Nicolas Maduro and Vladimir Putin.
I suppose it was just a matter of time, human beings have been seduced by a series of populist liars and thieves since the beginning of time. When American Democracy completely crumbles away the best we can hope for is a “Benevolent Dictator”, and one thing is for sure, DJT is neither “kind” or benevolent”.
Bruce, you have shown more courage than most other people.
In “The Second Coming,” William Butler Yeats wrote, “ The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity.”
Jeff—Perhaps you have heard of Franz Jagerstatter. This “simple” Austrian farmer with a grade-school education was a voracious reader. When the SS came knocking at his door, he refused, saying that everything Hitler represented went against the best of what he’d read and believed—including the Bible, which he knew better than most priests and theologians, and his Catholic faith.
Well, when he was in prison, some of those priests, including the bishop of his diocese, tried to convince him that his conscience was advising him wrongly and gave him the “render unto Caesar” argument. But he did not waver and was executed.
I fear that the US is going to be a dictatorship, or at least controlled by GOP goons, for the next 30 years. Rarely do dictatorships end without some sort of violence. The Trump administration is already setting up ways to monitor and control us, and they have a willing cadre of masked goons willing to round up noncompliant people. It’s interesting that the 2nd Amendment adherents who are adamant that citizens must arm themselves to protect themselves from government overreach are nowhere to be found opposing this bullshit.