We have a new de facto Congress. It has not been voted in by various constituencies across the country, but it has been elected. By one person — the President. The qualifications for this rump Congress are becoming increasingly clear: loyalty and wealth.The combination of the two is exercising enormous influence over the direction of the country. Even if the current Congress were in session, which of course it is not, the official deliberative body is deadlocked by vicious polarization. And even if the official Congress were able to make decisions and pass legislation, which by historical standards is becoming increasingly rare, the President wouldn’t pay much, if any, attention.The current currency of getting things done, is, in fact, currency. A lot of currency. And in the age of crypto, there are new forms of currency which seek to replace the normal operation of the financial system. And the worth of a group or individual is being solely determined by how much money one has, provided they are aligned with the President’s transactional agenda.
The primary value – perhaps the only value, is money. And the American oligarchs are weighing in to the President with their money. Argentina may end up being bankrolled by the US government for the purpose of stabilizing that economy enough so that the wealthy Americans can get their invested money out without taking too much of a financial hit. The CEO of Sales Force has encouraged the President to deploy troops to San Francisco, a loyalty commitment which just so happens to bring in more revenue for the company he leads, given that Sales Force has some lucrative contracts to outfit and provide equipment to ICE agents.The President backed off on the idea after some wealthy company leaders from Silicon Valley called him to say that the deployment would mess with their business model and income stream. And the “big beautiful tax bill” is heavily skewed to favoring wealthy taxpayers at the expense of those who will soon lose their SNAP subsidies, not to mention the fact that funding for several other domestic social safety net programs could be shredded. (The international assistance that the US has provided, notably USAID, has been scuttled for months now, causing the loss of millions of lives),
We are being governed by this new Congress. It is a cabal. They don’t meet and the only accountability is to the President and their bottom line.The rest of us are no match for their financial and what is now unreachable political power.This cycle of wealth, corruption, vengeance and greed is both debilitating and infuriating. In this maelstrom of malevolence and self-dealing, how can we respond?
Surrender. Not to the President and his financial confederates, but surrender the resentment that they are endlessly generating. Resentment can be toxic; it is said that resentment is drinking poison and then expecting someone else to get sick. Imbibing resentment ends up giving even more power to those who are unjustly wielding it. And resentment seems to be rocket fuel for the President.
I have learned that it is not possible to fully surrender resentment, but we can effectively contain it. When I served as bishop, I would meet weekly with my chief of staff and the chief financial officer. We spent a lot of time dealing with an endless list of intractable problems that were plaguing many of the 100 congregations in the diocese: conflict, financial challenges, overwhelming building issues. We discovered that we spent all of our time going over the list. We found that we kept cycling through the same agenda, getting more discouraged and resentful as we did so, and leaving no time for anything else. It was a perverse process.
I came up with what seemed to be a gimmick, which my colleagues bought into. I put a jar on the middle of the table. We called it the “shit jar”. We agreed that we would take the lid off the jar, talk about these challenges for a prescribed period of time, and then put the lid back on.
The results were surprising, unexpected and welcomed. Several things happened. Engaging in the discipline of circumscribing our time spent on problems enabled us to contain our discouragement and resentment. We became more strategic in responding to all the problems that kept coming at us. The discipline of containing our resentment gave space and time for our creativity, empowered us to be more effective,and rendered us more open to expressing and sharing agape love which centers on the well-being of others.
The power of this new Congress can seem overwhelming. As can the resentment that its power generates.The President is malevolently effective in stoking resentment by making statements, issuing orders and freely promoting lies which, taken together, seem unbelievable coming from the leader of the free world. But resentment is not power. Power is exposing the unethical and illegal uses of money which threatens our democracy. Power was demonstrated in the thousands of gatherings of patriotism and cretivity on display across the country on No Kings Day. We need to create even more space for new expressions and demonstrations of creativity, which has a power all its own. We have that ability. We can claim that space. We can call even more upon that creative power. Let us risk something big– or small– for something good. dThe world needs our witness.
