Civil Religion and the Deification of Donald Trump

 

Clay, Jones. 2020. “The Republican God.” From Claytoonz.com. Retrieved March 26, 2024 (https://claytoonz.com/2020/02/09/the-republican-god/). 

        In this political cartoon, a portrayal of Mitt Romney states on the side of the frame, “I took an oath before God.” In the larger part of the frame, a group of enthusiastic, smiling cartoon people stand in front of a portrayal of Donald Trump, or possibly a statue of Trump. They reply to Romney, “We did too…” Mitt Romney is solemn, shrouded in gray, and hopelessly trying to take up as much space as this crowd of Trump supporters, who are energetically “taking an oath” before Trump, who is standing on a podium with a plaque that says “God” written on it. Their hands are raised, communicating both the taking of an oath and a prayer to their God.

A key argument from Bellah’s piece from this week is centered around American presidential speeches, and the promises to God that presidents make in these speeches. Bellah reflects that perhaps the reason that so many presidents speak to God when addressing a crowd is because they want to establish not only a commitment to the American people, but to a higher power, and to the binary of right and wrong that supposedly only a higher power can truly distinguish. Bellah claims that American political figures have used a higher power as a means for claiming a kind of manifest destiny, and for claiming validity in certain political maneuvers that an American higher power is apparently concerned with. Additionally, he argues that civil religion in America has come to represent sets of beliefs, rituals, and symbols that give politics the chance to be made religious.

The connection between this photo and Bellah’s argument first stood out to me because Romney is claiming responsibility to a higher power. The enthusiastic crowd of Trump supporters adds another level to this, seeming to support Bellah's idea that the American civil religion is not Christianity, but is one based on the political climate. The God that Romney is claiming responsibility to seems to represent a more traditional Christian God, while the crowd of Trump supporters are more beholden to their "Republican God," who seems to be a totem that, to them, represents shared beliefs. Bellah states that "the separation of Church and State has not denied the political realm a religious dimension" (3). Is the deification of Trump not a perfect example of this fact? These zealous Trump supporters are certainly depicted in a way that almost seems to show that, to them, Trump is the ultimate higher power, and that he alone knows right from wrong, just as Bellah suggests politicians claim to expect of a higher power. Bellah may have just predicted this phenomenon 50 years early.