Shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, I wrote the following:
For those of us who are freethinkers seeking to transcend destructive tribalism, confronting this new reality is going to mean figuring out how best to support Trump's good ideas and policies while figuring out how best to oppose Trump's bad ideas and policies.Since then, it has been much harder to find good ideas and policies to support than I ever imagined it would be. Aside from some of what he initially said about increased infrastructure spending (something about which he appears to have changed his mind), I haven't encountered many ideas or policies with which I could agree. He's turned out to be a far worse president than I thought he'd be in almost every way.
One notable exception is Trump's apparent desire to see the Church of Scientology stripped of its tax-exempt status. I think this is a great idea and one which I'd have an easy time supporting. I don't expect him to follow through on it, but I wish he would. It is hard to think of any organization more deserving of losing its tax-exempt status.
As we near the end of November, I suppose I must begrudgingly give Trump credit for something else: winning the "war on Christmas." Never mind that this "war" is entirely fictional. Focus instead on the fact that Trump won it bigly and deserves credit for doing so. Long-time readers may be puzzled as to why I would even care since I am one of a very small number of atheists living in the United States who does not celebrate Christmas.
I do not want anything to do with Christmas, but that does not mean that I want to see people legally prohibited from saying "Merry Christmas." According to Jim Bakker, this is exactly what has been happening for the last few years. I hope none of you served jail time for wishing anyone a "Merry Christmas" because that sounds awful.
Fortunately, we can set all this behind us now. Thanks to Trump and hard-working Christian extremists like Bakker, the persecuted Christians throughout the U.S. can finally return to saying "Merry Christmas" without fear of arrest. America is officially great...again.
