fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

The Other America Celebrates

Actors, witches, brunchers and other Biden-voting New Yorkers party in the streets
Screen Shot 2020-11-07 at 7.43.58 PM

The New Yorker‘s Sarah Larson reports from the ebullient streets of Manhattan’s East Village today:

People waved whatever they had in the air—a skateboard, a gardening rake, a foam middle finger, a puppy with a cone on its head. When a Postal Service van drove through the intersection, the driver raising a fist and honking, a loud cheer went up. On the west side of the street, Trinity Posey, a young actor in a mask and a black hoodie, stood alone, holding a small speaker, which played Nipsey Hussle’s “FDT” (“Fuck Donald Trump”). When she heard the news, Posey said, “I was on my roof meditating, and I heard people shouting. I grabbed this and ran down.” She was eager to see people remain engaged. “We’ve got one old guy leaving the White House and another one going in,” she said. “I’m hoping that people can stay active when it comes to advocating for the rights of everyone.” She voted absentee in her home state of Michigan, where she organized a protest over the summer.

More:

Under the all-seeing eye of a painted mural at the Horus Café, the horn-blaring was near constant, and a spontaneous group performance of “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” had begun. “This is wild,” a young Broadway-theatre staffer said, smiling at the scene. When I asked if she’d done any political volunteering, she said, “I’m actually a professional psychic. There’s a lot of witches around the area, and people would come into my store all the time, like, ‘What do I do to help?’ So I gave them binding spells against Trump.” Nearby, Julian Ribeiro, a skater and retail worker in flowered pants, a butterfly-print baseball cap, and a tattered Bauhaus T-shirt—“Most of these shirts are my mom’s”—had come from Brooklyn to experience the “revelry” in the East Village. “I watched a whole table at brunch in Williamsburg get up with full mimosas and go down the street like a parade,” he said. “Somebody was playing ‘Party in the U.S.A.,’ by Miley Cyrus.” What did he hope to see in the coming year? He’d like to get out of a mask, he said. Otherwise, “I’m hoping for unbounded sweetness.”

Something is unbound, but I’m not confident that it’s sweetness. We’ll see.

UPDATE: President-elect Biden quoted from the execrable Marty Haugen Michael Joncas hymn “On Eagle’s Wings” tonight:

Somewhere in Manhattan, Father George Rutler spontaneously combusted.

UPDATE.2: If you play this clip, make sure no small children are in the room. This is positively Lincolnian in its republican dignity:

UPDATE.3:

UPDATE.4: Here, Irish television. This is embarrassing. Remember how slavering the initial coverage of Obama was, in part because he wasn’t George W. Bush? This is going to be ten thousand times worse:

UPDATE.5:

UPDATE.6: One of the most important books I ever read was Resident Aliens, co-authored by theologian Stanley Hauerwas and the United Methodist theologian (later bishop) Will Willimon. So much of what they said about “life in the Christian colony” in that 1989 book prefigured my Benedict Option book. It’s a superb little volume.

Well, Will Willimon has just published this sarcastic rite of confession for Evangelicals who supported Trump. It’s snide and unfunny. An excerpt:

Dear Fellow Evangelical Pastors:

As increasing numbers of Trump’s buddies jump his sinking ship, I’m sure that his evangelical allies are afflicted with buyer’s remorse.  Even though many of you are in churches that don’t have prayers of corporate confession, we all know that confession is good for the soul, that you are all busy people with mega congregations, and that it may be as hard for you as it is for Trump to admit to wrongdoing. I offer this efficient means of making your belated–but I’m sure still graciously welcomed by our Lord–admission of sin.

Dear Lord:

Even though, as you well know, The Donald has rarely attended a church, knows little of the Christian faith, and brags that he will never, ever confess or even apologize for his sin, I

(check one or more)

  •  confess
  •  bewail
  •  decry
  •  regret
  •  am embarrassed by
  •  sort of feel guilty
  •  wish I hadn’t got caught

I disregarded minimal standards of Christian belief and behavior and, in a four-year lapse of good judgment, and in reckless disregard for the spiritual health of my flock, supported and defended Donald Trump.  

There, I’ve said it.  Please don’t make me say it twice.

And Lord, though I’m sure you know there’s no excuse for me–a Bible-believing Evangelical — to consort with a lying, misogynistic, racist clown like Trump, I humbly submit for your gracious consideration my trumped-up excuses:  

(check any that apply)

    •  have a bad drinking problem.

    • was intimidated by all the Trumpers in my congregation

    •  did not attend a seminary where the Ten Commandments were stressed

    •  feel some of the same things Trump feels for Putin and Kim Jong Un

    •  possess an AK-47 (but only use it as self-defense from my congregation)

    •  believe that our Lord made too big a deal out of serial adultery

    •  feel the same way as Trump about tax collectors

    •  like Trump, made a few mistakes, assaulted a few women, and stiffed some creditors in my twenties ( ), thirties ( ), forties ( ), fifties  ( ), sixties ( ), seventies ( )

    •  Would, like Franklyn Graham, say or do anything, and sacrifice any principle for an invite to a fancy dinner at the White House

    •  am on my third marriage too

Willimon goes on like that. Like I said, snide, self-righteous, and unfunny.

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now