The Republican War on Christmas

Christmas comes early to the White House. The minority President, who won his election last year in no small part with his promise that we would say merry Christmas again (as though we had not done that before), has been looking forward to doing this all year long (or, as he tweets, ALL YEAR LONG ). Yesterday was the day: the tree was lit (or, as he called it, the 'incredible national Christmas tree'), and Merry Christmas was said, awkward hand movements for emphasis included.His wife stood by his side, her face looking less like that of angels besides the manger and more like that of Mary Magdalene besides the Cross. Trumps supporters must have been surprised about Christmas in November; they left a large number of seats empty . (Lest we compare to Obama, Fox News , ever loyal to its most famous viewer, reminds us that there were lots of empty seats in 2015 , too. We know that crowd size matters to this President.)

This means many people missed the White House version of the Christmas Story, which, in Trumps words , begins 2,000 years ago with a mother, a father, their baby son and the most extraordinary gift of allthe gift of Gods love for all of humanity. There was a time when you would have been burnt at the stake for suggesting that Joseph was Jesus father. In my version of the bible, it was somewhat important to emphasize that Jesus, not Josephs was Gods son. But of course, Trump did not invent this Republican version of the bible: it was Alabamas state auditor who suggested, in defense of Roy Moore, that Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter, and they became parents of Jesus. Joseph presumably hit up Mary while he was hanging out at the mall looking for chicks.

Oh, Mary. Two days before speaking about love for Christmas, Trump retweeted a number of anti-Muslim videos from a British right-wing group, one of them allegedly showing how a Muslim destroys a statue of the Virgin Mary. Never mind that Mary is venerated in Islam . (Hey, Muslims even believe in the virgin birth part!) It is Jews who, according to an old tradition, get blamed for not respecting Mary, not Muslims.

The same is true for Jesus. Indeed, the Republican relation to Jesus is also somewhat complicated. Roy Moore is not only like Joseph but also like Jesus: according to his brother he is being persecuted like Jesus Christ was. If Jesus bore the sins of the world for us, maybe it is fair game for the sinners of the world to bear the Jesus title in return. And one can understand quite easily why Trump would find the Christian message of love and forgiveness so attractive: love is what his narcissism craves , and forgiveness may well be what he needs when Muellers investigation has run its course.

But the news from Muellers investigation making progress came today. Yesterday, Trump could still suggest, enigmatically, that the real spirit of Christmas is not what we have, its about who we are, and add That is what makes every Christmas merry. What does that mean? The real spirit of Christmas is about who we are? This must have seemed profound to whoever wrote it in the White House when they wrote it; those people were not hired as theologians.

Easier to understand was Trumps reference to gratitude and goodwill, peace and renewal. Translated from back to front, renewal is newspeak for tax reform, peace signifies the way in which all those principled Republican senators are falling in line, goodwill is the vote in favor of tax reform, and gratitude is what Trump and his children must surely feel in return for abolition of the estate tax. Not everyone has so much reason to be grateful for the reform. Maybe Trumps emphasis that Christmas is not what we have is his way of preparing Americans for what they will no longer have, namely affordable healthcare. He thanked those who are serving the needy during the season and throughout the year; those will indeed be required.

And that sums up what Trumps much-touted Merry Christmas is, from Melanias neo-Pagan decoration of the White House to the petty way in which critical journalists are not invited to the Holiday Party. (Yes, Holiday . Trump does not always say Merry Christmas either.) A cheap spectacle. A way to curry favor with Christians. Which is remarkable given how little effort is put into it. Republicans have long given up on trying to match their politics with Christian ethics. Now they seem to think it is not even necessary to get the basics of Christianity right in order to please evangelical supporters. If so, then these supporters do not deserve better. The country, however, does.

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