This question of America's greatness

Donald Trump campaigns in a hat that proclaims he wants to “Make America great again.” He’s not alone in his desire to restore America to its recent and glorious greatness. But for the most part he’s vague about what he means. But it is almost certainly not what the Psalmist meant when he wrote, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.”

There is a diplomatic dimension to Trump’s claim. He sees America despised in the world, taken for chumps militarily and commercially. He wants to negotiate shrewd deals, correct our trade imbalances, stop footing the bill for everyone else’s security, and see our borders honored. All very well.

But behind all of this is the New York real estate magnate extending to the nation what he has always sought for himself: the aggressive pursuit of wealth and personal celebrity, greatness as he understands it.

In his acceptance speech after the Nevada caucuses (at the 3:48 mark), he explained quite clearly what he means by the American greatness his administration will bring us.

In the context of telling the crowd how he refused an offer of $10 million from a fellow gambling casino mogul, Trump candidly explained:

“It’s hard for me to turn down money, because that’s not what I’ve done in my whole life. I grab and grab and grab. You know I get greedy. I want money, money. Now I’m gonna … I’ll tell you what we’re going to do, right? We get greedy, right? Now we’re gonna get greedy for the United States. We’re gonna grab and grab and grab. We’re gonna bring in so much money and so much everything. We’re going to make America great again folks, I’m telling you. We’re going to make American great again.”

He appears to believe that what made America great in the first place was a greedy ability to “grab, grab, grab,” not our commitment to the rule of law under a constitution of liberty. Even in his political speeches, he cannot resist promoting his golf courses and casinos, and in one instance parading QVC-style his wines, steaks, and glossy magazine.

How does he propose that we will rake in the dough, as a great nation supposedly should? Aside from negotiating better trade deals with China and Mexico and no longer subsidizing the national security of wealthy nations like Germany and Saudi Arabia, he has also spoken of seizing overseas oilfields. On one level it makes sense to exact compensation or reparations. But we have declined the opportunities so as to avoid the appearance of pillaging, of having gone to war for the sake of the spoils. Going down that road would also tempt us to seek opportunities for war that have the promise of pillage. History is full of that sort of thing, but it is the very opposite of the Christian “just war theory.”

The people of God know that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34) and that “riches and honor and life” are the “reward for humility and fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 22:4). Our nation is sunk in a thousand forms of iniquity, including our belief that avarice is a virtue. But we will add sin upon national sin if we make it official.