In Paradise Lost (Relax, honest—there’s no test after nor will you be forced to write a paper.)
Let me begin again.
In Paradise Lost—in Milton’s vision of creation— God allows Adam and Eve to sin and thus transmute the lovely Eden into a world of struggle and pain. (New Orleans Saints fans will attest to that, as will people who live in Mississippi.)
But this is not about the Super Bowl. This is about the Huckleberry who speaks for the president, one Sarah Hucklebee Sanders. We'll come back to her in a second.
Milton had a myriad of reasons why his God allowed evil to enter the world. One of course was to make certain that his creatures had free will (If you're still reading, there's your proof), but another reason often set forth is this: by allowing Satan to become the ultimate evil, God’s ability to overcome him proves that God is stronger. Kind of like a bar bet, but instead of arm wrestling, they were contesting, well, you and me.
I bring this up today because yesterday the aforementioned Sanders said this: “I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times, and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president.”
Two things:
1. God doesn't speak to Sarah Hucklebee Sanders
2. To paraphrase Depeche Mode back in 1984, that God—he sure knows how to play a joke.
But let’s say Sanders is inadvertently right, not about the God part so much, but about invoking strength in the opponent. Aren’t we all a little more knowledgable about the government today? Aren’t we more aware of the role of the judiciary, of the Senate, of gerrymandering, of collusion? Bet you didn’t talk much about Obama’s Interior Secretary very much, but we sure knew Ryan Zinke, just as we know the other miscreants; Kavanaugh, Pruitt, Flynn, so many more. And did “emoluments clause” and “25th Amendment” roll off your tongues quite so easily before November 2016? And doesn't knowledge engender strength?
If Trump is our chance to prove we’re better (not than he is—that’s a low bar—but just better) then this is our chance. If we work at it, use the powers the Constitution has given us, can't we send this guy packing and reclaim the country we want to live in while he, beaten and vanquished, meanders about the depths of...um...New York?
And by the way, Obama's were Ken Salazar and Sally Jewell—in case you weren't woke back then. See?
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