The Third Term

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sat, 07/12/2024 - 00:00

We are now less than a month away from Donald Trump’s second term as American President, and most powerful man in the world. Although his first term was relatively uneventful, especially when compared to some of the apocalyptic predictions made by liberal commentators, the second may be rather more frenetic. A US President is always conscious of his need to win those extra four years; those who fail to do so, like Jimmy Carter, are generally written off by posterity. That second term is always dangling before him, and he will modify his language and reach out to the centre ground in order to appeal to as many voters as possible, with a view to cashing them in on polling day. Once the second term is won, however, and the constitution’s prohibition of a third term is realised, an incumbent has less to restrain him. There are no more elections for him to win, and he is more likely to play to his ‘home crowd’. In other words, he has little to lose, while wishing to avoid becoming the ‘lame duck president’, which a second-termer is often considered to be after that third (i.e. seventh) year. His influence and authority wains as people start looking for the rising star, the heir to the throne. President Trump’s proud nature will likely do all it can to avoid the ‘lame duck’ charge, and he is already good at keeping sweet his core vote, which apparently idolises him. I think it is therefore likely that Trump Mark 2 will be less stable and less conciliatory even than the first. This is somewhat concerning for a nervous world in which Russian, Iranian, Chinese and North Korean sabres rattle with increasing regularity.

Those who reject God and the possibility of an afterlife share a similar world view. Believing that there is no accountability, except to our stretched police forces and bungling judiciary in criminal matters, and only to their own consciences in moral ones, they live their lives with a casual and conceited hauteur. If there is no judgement, no reckoning, no heaven or hell, no righteous God before whom all are summoned, or no third term to go back to US politics, then we may do as we please. Yet there will be serious, global consequences if America's next head of state proves militaristic, aggressive and bellicose, much as his policies of imposing tariffs will likely world trade. What we do will always have repercussions and aftermaths, not just in this life, but in the life to come. There is a judgement, there is an accounting, there is a log of our thoughts, words and deeds.

Charles Wesley, the great Georgian Methodist hymnwriter, wrote Terrible Thought! Shall I Alone, some of the verses of which I quote below. It certainly cannot be dismissed as sentimental, and it ill chimes with today’s softer religious culture. Yet eighteenth-century folk may have had a smarter understanding of eternal consequences that people of our own day, who expect to break God’s laws and simply get away with it. It is not the bar of history before which Trump must fear standing, but the righteous God before whom no secrets are hidden:

Shall I, amidst a ghastly band,

Dragg'd to the judgment-seat,

Far on the left with horror stand,

My fearful doom to meet?

While they enjoy their Saviour's love,

Must I in torments dwell?

And howl, (while they sing hymns above,)

And blow the flames of hell!

Ah! no; I still may turn and live,

For still his wrath delays;

He now vouchsafes a kind reprieve,

And offers me his grace.