TRUMP entered centre stage as President of the United States in 2016 to show the house to the house.

Four years of Trumpism, FAKE NEWS and the MAGA brand ensued, blowing like a whirlwind around the western world and beyond.

Trump has stirred up the best and the worst in us.

From Alternative Facts on one side of the spectrum to the mainstream Cancel Culture on the other side.

The former chooses to ignore the reality in front of it by creating an alternative and illusionary story. The later is quick to vilify and suppress any voice, idea or viewpoint that doesn’t agree with its own or runs contrary to the prevailing mainstream.

We have all flirted with either or both sides of this spectrum at one point or the other in our internal or expressed lives. He that is without sin, cast the first stone ….

Trump gifted us a cautionary and humbling glimpse into how quickly our so-called western civilisations and structures can easily be taken captive by so called ‘fringe ideas’ and ‘isms’, and liberties revoked. In the twinkling of an eye, the world as we know it can be flipped on its back (COVID-19?).

Dysfunctional government, civil disorder, chaos and even civil war are no longer just events we hear of on cable news from far flung ‘third world’ countries and ‘banana republics’. Suddenly, it’s no longer far fetched to believe that these things could happen ‘here’. If these insights can shake us out of our collective complacency, then surely 4 years of Trump has been a gift indeed.

A healthy dose of watchfulness and humility is called for. Let’s not be quick to judge and look down the nose at those ‘other parts’ of the world that can’t seem to get their act together. Take the log out of your own eye first.

Regardless of our individual views, politics, persuasions etc, surely there is always more room for humility, temperance and compromise. Otherwise, what is the alternative, I wonder?