The modern humanist tradition, both secular and religious, appears to have escaped a serious threat to its progress, perhaps even its survival with the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 election for President. Trump’s incompetence as a leader and lack of inspiration as a visionary, coupled with his keen but bungling aptitude for authoritarian, anti-democratic, and demagogic persuasion and control, and his divisive rhetoric, mendacity, and self-dealing corruption  would have given him, had he won, free reign to further erode or completely destroy  the progress we as a nation had  made prior to  2016 toward the goals of  social, economic, legal, and environmental justice—and the example we set as a world leader (Right now our chief actor is his own protagonist in his playworld whose speciality is bully diplomacy and strongman camaraderie .) To be sure, none of these progressive aspirations was anywhere near fulfilled before his ascension  to power—and all remain worthy works in progress—but he managed to set them back decades under the the “America First” principle, which turned out in real-time translation to mean make rich, white, and faux Christian America first. But wait,

 does it really matter who won

If:  Old crazy-hair blossom special is very sour about the election, I mean that he had to go through with it in the first place, and then, when it’s over, looking, belly-up on the canvass  at Scranton Joe like a K.O.ed sad sack punching bag the champs get to match up with sometime.  IT’S NOT OVER says the deposed one in all caps Twitter-speak a thousand times over, the election was rigged from the start! That story of course is certainly a  rationalization for his second (out of two) place finish.He had been prepping that particular con for months. So now he has an amount of support for that and other outlandishnesses, so instead of settling for runners’-up  silver, he feels enabled and is making quite a theatrical show to redirect the outcome of the voters’ choice and maintain his top spot. There isn’t a psychologist that would risk a certified opinion about the capability of his personality to do something extra-constitutional or even tyrannical. Except maybe his niece, Mary.  And she probably knows best.

So, anyway:   Exhale with bated breath and anxious preparedness. Secular humanists are mentioned frequently in right wing media, and in diatribes from Congress on down. Wanna talk about persecution, Christians? Things could go haywire if the stars all align to some devil’s triangulation surrounding a black hole. Stay tuned and stick together, save contacts. A show of hands, are you here?….meanwhile,

The COVID:   And this added in for good measure. Covered from every angle daily, but something new, always. Prognosis for pre-pan days to return? Four months? Six months? One or two years? Bear with us, please…we are here only if you are.

Easin’ on Out, 2020

For the Humanist Advocate

Marty Bankson