Opinion: Trump so hates being a loser he's persuaded followers down dark path of violence

I grew up singing the words, often at conferences at Montreat, of the poet James Russell Lowell, written in 1845:

“Once to every man and nation, Comes the moment to decide,

In the strife of truth and falsehood, For the good or evil side;

Some great cause, some new decision, Offering each the bloom or blight,

And the choice goes by forever, ‘Twixt that darkness and that light.”

We are very thankful that the nation made the right decision in 1860 by electing President Lincoln. It led to the Civil War, but we remained united and slavery was rejected.

We face the challenge today “in the strife of truth and falsehood” to “decide for the good side” that will enable our country to advance as a democracy. We are nearing 250 years of living under the Constitution that formed our nation. Two of the greatest tests that our nation has already faced were the Civil War that divided the nation in 1861 and then racial segregation that divided our population in supposedly “separate but equal parts.” This was accompanied by acts of violence by the majority white people against the minority African Americans and other minorities. Although racial segregation was officially eliminated in the 1960s, the continuing influence of these two testing times is still with us and causing division at all levels, even to family levels.

Our country is deeply divided today based on a single figure, Donald Trump, who was able to build his power on various levels of division to win the presidency. Although he lost the attempt at reelection to the presidency, he has denied the truth of that loss and persuaded a following of people to join him in denying the truth of his loss. The former president so hates being “a loser” that this obsession has led him and his followers on a dark path that has caused violence and threats of violence.

No one likes to lose. I remember my great disappointment in the loss of the candidate I supported in the previous election. I can remember various contests throughout my life, some of which I won and some of which I lost. My greatest contest, of course, like the contest of everyone, is to win the inner victory of light over darkness.

Within every person there is a dark streak that sometimes comes out in anger and violence. We all must face a struggle with the human inner dark streak. The sooner we recognize it and begin the struggle against it, the better off we will be. There seems to be something within all humans that would like to control others, beginning when we are children. This stimulates the authoritarian tendency that is part of the dark streak in human nature. This authoritarian tendency is combined with the impulse to win at all costs, using falsehoods and violence, as we have seen. This dark streak extends to groups of people who are led to feel disadvantaged.

Democracy cannot solve our inner dark streak but it can do a lot to prevent the triumph of darkness on the social and civic level. Democracy is really a social discipline for a people that enables them to govern themselves and continually improve their social life. Democracy is built upon the best instincts of human beings that begin with recognizing the equality of all people and the importance of truth. We have an equality of humanness in which there is a certain dignity in each person that cannot be put into words. Many, if not most of us, believe our equality is of divine origin found in our very existence as human beings.

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We need to come together and work so that our nation “in the strife of truth and falsehood” will decide in 2024 what is good for all people in our nation. In this way we will succeed in the current testing time to move further toward “liberty and justice for all” and in creating a “more perfect union.” In this way, our national dark streak can be reduced. In the meantime, let us help one another through our present crisis of divisions in our nation. This crisis of division is a testing time for our democracy to see if we can choose truth over falsehood and escape further words and deeds of violence by either groups or by individuals. In this way, we can be a model of democracy that we want to be.

Rev. Robert L. Montgomery, Ph.D, lives in Black Mountain.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Donald Trump obsessed with winning led down dark path