Trump and Proverbs 17:29

​“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
 
This apothegm is credited to US President Abraham Lincoln. An older version appears in Proverbs 17:28. The King James Version reads, “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
 
We know, or should know, that Trump is not a “man of the Book.” His façade as a religious person had broken. It lies in the detritus of his past. We should not expect him to know, much less understand, anything from the Bible.
 
Trump’s arrogance includes noting of the press that he is president and they are not. It sets the example for other politicians. For example, Christy of New Jersey, spotted on a beach closed to the public because of the state’s budget crisis (let us hope he wasn’t wearing a Speedo) suggested that if people wanted to visit a beach, they run for governor.
 
Trump’s putative hatred of Muslims, refugees, immigrants, and others who are not “white, straight, Christian, and Republican” was well expressed in his campaign speeches. His subsequent “tweets” set the example for others who are insecure in their own heritage and who, therefore, hate those unlike themselves. It encourages hatred and violence.
 
Trump—the default president of the US because our forefathers had to travel by horse and coach in order to certify votes and therefore created an electoral college—is in simple terms, a fool. He speaks out too often and in ways that create divisiveness in this country and bring shame upon this country throughout the world. He speaks in ways that weaken the position and standing of the US in the world.
 
Soon, Trump will visit the president of Russia. Putin is a KGB thug, a criminal leading a kleptocracy. Trump likely wants to have that kind of power and it is not unlikely that his vision for the United States is a similar form of government—a government by thieves.
 
We have lost our way. Trump is destroying the USA. On the other hand, impeaching him is not the best option. Pence, a fundamentalist preacher, would simply be another, different frightening and destructive force.
 
In the words of the Wiffenpoof Song: “We are poor little lambs who have lost our way.” While those words are familiar, how many of us know the penultimate line: “God have mercy on such as we.” Can we find the right direction when our putative leaders are fools and idiots?
 
(For the record, I am an atheist and do not need a creator god to explain the universe or life as we know it. On the other hand, I am not averse to quoting those portions of the Jewish Bible that make sense, nor appealing to the noosphere which includes the god of that bible.)