by John Ellis
One of the least surprising things about an overall unsurprising morning was the news headline greeting me while I was drinking my a.m. coffee that the US had invaded Iran. Over the last few days, Trump had ramped up his unique style of saber rattling. Just yesterday, the American embassy in Israel had encouraged US citizens to leave posthaste. So, 2+2=4. It didn’t take a great geopolitical prognosticator to expect to wake up this morning to the U.S. engaged in another war in the Middle East, with “regime change” as the reason bolstered by the imminent existential threat of WMDs dangled frighteningly over our heads. I mean, I learned that 2+2=4 way back in early 2003.
This morning, after reading the headline, I hopped over to Facebook and posted the wry “joke,” “I must say, my respect for the nuclear scientists in Iran has increased exponentially. I mean, to go from Iran’s nuclear program being ‘totally obliterated’ (Trump’s words, not mine, and he should know, right?) to being an imminent threat justifying invasion just a few months after being ‘totally obliterated’ is impressive.”
The rest of my day was then consumed, thankfully, with my three-year-old daughter’s birthday party.
After the party was over, the mess cleaned up, and a nap had by me, I perused Facebook, taking note of the “discussions” about Iran. While just as messy as the spilled lemonade combined with playdoh that had coated my dining room floor earlier today, the arguments from MAGA in defense of their supreme leader make far less sense than the stickiness of my floor. Unfortunately, Trump, MAGA, and Trump’s War in Iran are not a mess that I believe will be easily cleaned up, at least not anytime soon. So, here’s my question to my anti-MAGA friends: Why are you even trying to have a conversation with MAGA?
Look, we all know that multiple things can be true at the same time. It can be true that there are legitimate geopolitical reasons for the removal of Iran’s current (or recent as of 24 hours ago) regime. But it can also be true that what’s currently happening is only tangentially connected to those legitimate reasons. And it can also be true that Trump and Hegseth don’t really know what they’re doing and are going to botch this in ways that are going to cause real human suffering (more on this in the next paragraph). One thing that history agrees on is that regime changes from afar are an incredibly sticky wicket, to the point of being foolhardy (at best).[1] Another important truth is that Trump and MAGA will never see, much less acknowledge, their laughable hypocrisy. They’ll parrot the same arguments (and they have been) that the “RINO’s” used in defense of their wars; the same arguments that Trump and MAGA derided and swore would never happen under a Trump kingship presidency. If nothing else, Trump and MAGA owe Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush II apologies.
Before concluding, I want to point out that it’s highly likely that Trump and Hegseth’s childish egos are inseparable from Trump’s War. For Trump, I’m guessing that his perception of his presidential legacy includes the need to have and win a war. As far as his theobro Secretary of War is concerned, his concept of “biblical” masculinity is wrapped up in this. Theobros love fighting, it’s an integral part of their understanding of what it means to be a man. Furthermore, what’s the point of having a newly masculinated, anti-woke military if you don’t get to use it? It’s hard for a masculine Secretary of War to be a historically legitimate Secretary of War without a war.
Here’s my point: over the last two years, I’ve adopted two Bible verses as the template for my interactions with MAGA. I offer them here for you, anti-MAGA friend/reader, to consider adopting, too. Using the KJV translation because it’s punchier, Proverbs 26:4 instructs us to, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.” And Proverbs 26:5 offers, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”
For me, leaning on Proverbs 26:4, I usually ignore MAGA people because attempting to answer them seriously will likely only conclude with me being swamped by their epistemological absurdities and shifting truths. If I do respond, I do so in the manner of Proverbs 26:5. While not in response to a specific MAGA person, my Facebook “joke” this morning is in the vein of 26:5.
Anyway, do what you want (not that you need my permission). If you choose to continue to dialogue with MAGA people as if they’re not fools, you have far more faith in people and way more patience than I do; seriously, I think, kudos to you. If like me, though, you’ve come to the point I reached a couple of years ago in which attempting legitimate conversations with MAGA people felt like arguing with my toddler, I hold out Proverbs 26:4-5 as helpful, wise dialectical approaches.
[1] I am aware of the celebrating from Iranian expats who fled the dictatorial, brutal violence of the Supreme Leadership Authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I get it. For their sake, and for the sakes of their friends and family still trapped in Iran, and for all the Iranian people, I hope and pray the transition goes smoothly and culminates in a country that will allow human flourishing and deny/reject oppression. But the hopeful happiness of Iranian expats does not make a good argument for justifying Trump’s war.
Practically Known Theology 