When I read something like 68 percent of Mormons approve of President Donald Trump, I was “shut-my-mouth stumped.” You mean a religion that reveres personal integrity, honesty and unassailable character, avoiding not just evil but the mere appearance of evil, likes Trump? Huh?
In Trump’s State of the Union speech, he insisted we unify and stop our public grousing. Reading commentary on the speech was at first disheartening. “He delivered,” they said, “He was so presidential,” they said. Huh?
And then it hit me! The Mormons are right.
Trump will probably go down in history as the most unifying president in modern times. And that unifying “major event” Trump wants? It’s already happened! Back in November 2016, remember?
Look, let’s be honest. President Barack Obama was great. He did a ton of good things in challenging times. We let the Republicans bring the world to the brink of a financial collapse that took most of Obama’s two terms to fix. Obama left a legacy of positive reform in nearly all areas of government and public life. And what did we do? Nothing.
We ran him into office and then we left him to his work. We didn’t rally. We didn’t work. Hell, we sauntered off to coffee houses to discuss the latest episode of “Game of Thrones.” We got lazy and thought nothing bad could ever happen to us again.
And then along came Trump. While we were sipping lattes, rural America got sadder and angry. White women got bored. Coal miners and factory workers got cheated. Minorities, who had made marginal but hopeful strides toward equality, got blindsided by ignorant and fearful white folks who imagine civil rights is like a pie — if you get more, then I get less. Evangelicals betrayed the country and Jesus when their racism trumped virtue. Trump rode into office on a tidal wave of white vulnerability and the real fact of economic disparities among white working-class voters.
Now, we can pretend we are not responsible for Trump. But we are. And we can pretend he is an aberration, a weird black-hole kind of spooky unexplainable space thing, but he isn’t. He is real and his populism is real.
But so is his uncanny ability to foment a Resistance Movement unlike anything I have ever seen. I was at the march in Washington, D.C., the day after the inauguration and it was alive; a breathing testimony to our resolve. Together, these demonstrations were the largest single day of protest in U.S. history. And joining us were millions of others in cities across the world and on every continent on Earth.
Less dramatic, yet more impressive are the daily actions of a persistent population fighting for the life of our democracy and the integrity of our nation. Donations to charities, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood are at record highs. The #timesup movement born as a defense against the p---y-grabber-in-chief is taking names. More women are running for office. Rural groups are rallying to protect our land. Native people have found new allies. Undocumented Americans have sanctuary cities. Activists calling for unity and equal protections for immigrants, people of color and the LGBTQ community are everywhere. African Americans gave us all a victory in Alabama. More Americans know their elected officials; heck, some have them on speed dial. Activism is alive.
Trump has sparked an unprecedented grassroots response to his administration, and the possibilities of a truly representative government addressing the concerns of all Americans seems possible.
So thank you, President Trump, for reinvigorating our democracy, and thank you, Mormon brothers and sisters, for realizing what Trump can do for our great nation before the rest of us had a clue.
Terri Holland
Terri Holland is a local business owner, activist and mother of two kids and one grandbaby.