The pagan brawler goes down

And, good Lord, what a year it's been.

He came in by way of shock and awe. No one really believed things would turn out the way they did. The man Stephen Mansfield calls "the pagan brawler" sang from the hymnal just well enough to sway the hearts and minds of evangelicals who, like no other voting block, gave the guy their nod. What happened a year ago is still shocking to just about everyone, including his followers. People like Stephen Mansfield are writing all kinds of books to explain why so many Christians took a knee to a man who is himself far more Harvey Weinstein than Jesus Christ.

Last night, a year later, the man Mansfield calls "a pagan brawler," took a beating, his first loss since he scratched and slapped his way up to what he thinks is a throne. Four special elections had gone his way in the last year, not decisively but substantially. Who knows?--last night's losses may be a fluke. Donald J. Trump has been underestimated since that morning he and his love floated down butterfly-like in his New York castle, then stung like a bee--or worse with that line about "Mexican rapists."

He's not taken the pivot he claimed he would ("I can be more 'presidential' than any one but Lincoln"). Last night, characteristically, he turned around and bushwhacked his fellow Republican, Ed Gillespie, who took a beating in Virginia because, Trump said, the sorry loser wasn't enough like him. Typical fat-mouth Trump. Gillespie's political playbook will now be tossed: the theory that trumpeting "Trumpism" without bringing in the lord-and-master himself to campaign for you didn't gather the votes. What most considered a tight race turned into a thumping, in Virginia and elsewhere.

The imponderable facts his own brawlers have to acknowledge is that no American President in modern times is as greatly hated as President Donald J. Trump. His evangelical Christian base was totally there behind him--last night, 80 percent of them voted Gillespie; but no one else. Trump keeps the gun crowd in ammo by claiming mass murder is simply mental illness. More church goers ought to be packing heat these days, ushers with AK-47s.

Those of us on the left who hoped he would be gone by now, like to invest in Robert Mueller; but so what if Mueller proves, beyond reasonable doubt, that there was Russian collusion? What if Mueller finds really despicable financial dealings? Will the Christians care? No. Paul Ryan will still genuflect. You know how this goes--the man could shoot the Katy Tur dead on Wall Street, and his disciples will trumpet his marksmanship.

The man is ours now, and will be, even he chooses to be loved only by those who voted him in. The stock market has risen to another stratosphere, everywhere you look there are "help wanted" signs, and a conservative is on the court, poised to rescind Roe v Wade. Isn't it amazing?--the pagan brawler will make America Christian again, so say the true believers. The Lord moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.

When my grandson was in kindergarten, he crawled into my lap and told me in no uncertain terms that Obama was a baby killer. He's a ninth grader today--I've got no idea what he thinks. But in '08, when he was five, from sources unknown, he'd already picked up the hate that ultimately brought the Donald to the throne.

But--get this!--last night 40 percent of voters indicated the most important issue in their playbook was health care--not guns, not immigration, or the national anthem. Health care. 

There's hope.