Collin Willis

It truly is morning again in America. The last four years of idolatry, vitriol, and unwarranted aggression finally coming to a close. His campaign in tatters, his strongest supporters haven turned from him with upturned noses, and his “revolution” having been squashed after its violent insurrection a couple weeks ago; Donald Trump departed the capital without fanfare, free to celebrate by himself against the backdrop of a 1970’s disco song about having sex in the bathroom of a public gymnasium. He ended his term as he began it, serving himself above all others.

Donald Trump will be a President not sorely missed. He doesn’t seem set to retire like Jimmy Carter, returning to his farm and spending the remainder of his days building houses for the poor. I doubt he’ll tour the world writing books and raising funds for his party like Bill Clinton. Nor do I think he’ll return to his quiet Texas home and pick-up a new artistic hobby like George Bush. And I can almost guarantee that he won’t continue to chase his political causes through lucrative publishing and media production deals like the Obamas. No, I think Donald Trump will continue his month long temper tantrum for a little longer before retiring to the links he spent the majority of his Presidency on. With indictments circling him and his staff like sharks in chummed waters, I don’t think he’ll ever make it to that 18th hole. And after his actions lead to the deaths of five Americans on US soil just two weeks ago, I don’t believe he deserves even to make it to the first.

A Great Rift

However, while Trump seems likely to fade, the damage he has done will not be so easily mended. The Americans he’s duped into mistrusting the sanctity of our elections, those he’s convinced that only in the propaganda of Q, Newsmax, and OAN can they find truth, and those who’ve died on his watch will likely never be brought back to reality. The damage he’s done in four years will likely reek havoc on the nation for the next four times forty years to come.

It’s unfortunate because Donald Trump didn’t have to be the worst President ever. His prison reforms and efforts towards decriminalization could have been commended, had they not been overshadowed so greatly by his own need to be worshipped and the hammer like strike of his legislative pen against the poor, the foreigner, and those not sided precisely with him. I’m not saying he’d be up there with the likes of Washington, Lincoln, or either Roosevelt, but he could have at least done better than Andrew Johnson or Richard Nixon.

Instead Trump leaves behind a nation that favors fiction over fact, one that is so cognitively dissonant that it will believe any lie that doesn’t cause them to reflect inward upon themselves. He leaves behind an education system that’s been gutted, with newer and greater attempts to water down and whitewash American history being laid out on his final week in office. He leaves behind a healthcare system that he attempted to gut just for the sake of being right. He leaves behind a nation ravaged both economically and physically by a pandemic, while the rest of the world rebuilds and moves on. He leaves behind a nation where there is no more debate, only argument and vehement disagreement. I see little greatness in the America that he leaves in his wake. Death and destruction are his legacy.

Joe Biden

I do not adore Joe Biden, he’s a politician doing a job that he was elected to do. I’d wager he’s even a politician doing a job that he would not have undertaken but because he deemed it absolutely necessary for him to rise to the occasion. He’ll make mistakes, he’ll pursue policies I don’t agree with, he won’t pursue policies I do agree with. He will by no means be a perfect President. However, I believe that he is the perfect President for this time. His inaugural address is every indication of the President that he hopes to be. It wasn’t focused inward about how great he was or how awful “they” are. It was a message of healing and an optimistic belief that we can be better than we have very recently proven ourselves to be.

I saw a man lay his hand firmly upon a Bible that has been in his family for nearly 130 years. He prayed with and lent his platform to close friends and religious co-leaders, not televangelists and Christian Nationalists hoping to put forth a twisted view of the Gospel. I saw a family man take the stage with his spouse of 40+ years, surrounded by his children and gaggles of grandchildren. I saw a man who displays Christian values take the stage while the man who preaches them departed in shame a few hours before.

So I type this with optimism overflowing, that this man will be the healer that the nation needs him to be. That he will seek to put his actions behind his words and to be a President to even those men and women who sought to kill him and his government even a few short weeks ago. Joe Biden will not be the President to hold his bible closed on the street corner, but to hold it open and to truly hold it in high-regard.

I hope that through the Biden Presidency, America will be a land where the name of Q is laughable, and where fact is considered in higher regard than fiction. I hope that the Biden Presidency oversees a time where citizens learn to trust the sanctity of their institutions and, more importantly, each other. I hope that the Biden Presidency is one where the church can repent and the Gospel can remove itself from the taint of politics. I hope the Biden Presidency is one where every citizen learns to love their neighbor. I hope that the Biden Presidency is a time where these states can truly call themselves United.

It is a new day in America and while clouds may still gather upon the horizon, I believe the sunlight will once again grace the spacious skies, the purple mountains, fruited plains, and amber waves of grain.

An Update

I was recently asked about the book I began promoting in my last personal post, What Comes Next?, so I decided to offer a formal update. My original goal was to have it done by the New Year, and the second goal was later to have it done by inauguration day. I’m pleased to announce that I met neither of those goals. While I did indeed hit my page and word targets, I realized that I had not set them high enough. The book currently sits around 30,000 words, but I’m of the mind that it’ll end up being closer to 60,000 or 70,000 when completely finished. So, it’s not here but it will be before too long! Further details, including a full synopsis, will come when I get closer to finishing the first draft. For now, I’ll offer this working title: The America Discourse. The book is actually a collection of two books, one fictional and one non-fiction, that act as companion pieces to one another. Together they provide personal commentary on the current state of the American Political Sphere and my rising concerns over Christian Nationalism.