I have seen parallels or points of commonality between today and various points in neighbor history as well as analogues between figures in the Book of Mormon and prominent people today. It would not be the first time that I have compared Trump to a Book of Mormon villain or even to Amlici specifically but today I noticed more specific parallels between Trump and Amlici, between the MAGA movement and the people of Amlici, and between the people of the church under Alma and the people of the modern church—it is NOT encouraging.
Amlici convinced many people to try to make him king according to Nephite law. Trump succeeded in getting elected for one term so far and his tactic, then and now, is to find a path to power by even the narrowest margin (not even requiring an actual majority of individual voters), thus he aligned himself with the GOP which has structural advantages within the electoral college according to our laws.
When Amlici lost the vote the people of Amlici anointed him their king anyway just like MAGA took effective control of the GOP (even as less than a majority of the party) and anointed Trump to be their candidate again in 2024. Amlici inspired his followers to anger against the rest of the Nephites and MAGA has become progressively more violent and aggressive in their rhetoric against the rest of America and even against the rest of the GOP ever since 2016. The Amlicites went to eat against the rest of the Nephites and MAGA attempted a direct assault against the peaceful transfer of power. When their first attack failed the Amlicites joined forces with the Lamanites. What will MAGA do, especially if they lose again this November? Will they try to align more directly with some fringe parties or even with some foreign powers?
The people of the church under Alma during this time went from being humble to being rich and proud to the point that they were collectively setting a bad example for people outside the church even as some of them were humbly living the gospel. Today, often in a desire to create or preserve personal wealth and power, many church members are aligning themselves with angry and fringe political movements, willing to support and uphold people like Trump who are obviously acting contrary to what the church has taught (comparing Trump to Captain Moroni???). Many other church members are afraid to support politicians and parties with whom they disagree on more mundane issues of political policy, falling to recognize the fundamental difference between the dangers of Trump and MAGA and the dangers of higher taxes or legal tolerance of behaviors they see as immoral (many of which are, in fact, immoral). They don’t see that actively raising to power a man who is blatantly and unapologetically immoral—and worse yet, often holding him as a moral example despite his glaring moral bankruptcy—is orders of magnitude more destructive and dangerous than legally tolerating individual immorality in society. Declaring black to be a shining light is much worse than accepting dark gray as a less than alarming shade of light gray.
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