When a football team finishes a game, they have a film review time.  They look at the tapes from the game to analyze what they did well, and what they did wrong.  It is not a time for excuses, or even for hand wringing.  It is a time to plan for how they can do better next time.  Liberals took a beating in the last political game.  We got thumped everywhere.  So what did we do right?  What did we do wrong?  How can we do better next time?  I think we need to ask these questions and think seriously about the answers.  Hiding or migrating is not a positive solution.

I will start with the man at a gas station I saw on our travels.  I don’t even remember where, but I won’t soon forget what he said.  He was leaning on a broom that he clearly was supposed to be using, talking to a friend.  “They call us uneducated,” he said, “but I say we are unindoctrinated.”   This is a man on the bottom of the economic heap who has felt the pinch of contempt.  Thing one we have done wrong is hold in contempt those who disagree with us.  And we haven’t made a secret of the fact.  We want to “help them”, and we do want to help them.  But in our “help” we have conveyed our feelings of superiority.

I have been a part of this.  As a teacher I had “Mr. Stool” who was a snob and wanted only people with college degrees to sit on him.   As a result of this single minded effort to get “everyone ready for college,” we have graduated students without wood shop and industrial arts.  Now we can’t find people to fix our roof and repair our cars.  Contempt for those who are “uneducated.”  Contempt for those who support the very basic in life, water, electricity, sewage disposal.  

Psalm 123:3 says “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.”  

So they have turned to someone who told them they counted and they could take control of their lives. They turned to someone who echoed their anger and confusion.  They turned to someone who told them what they wanted to hear.  They turned to Donald Trump.  

As we watch the tapes, let us consider our role in electing Donald Trump president of the United States.