Quick: Name two men famous for wild blonde hairdos and even wilder off-the-cuff remarks.

Hint: Each served in the highest office of his respective homeland and achieved several standout legacy accomplishments before being forcibly retired in ignominy.

If you haven’t landed on The Boris and The Donald yet, well, perhaps you’ve been wiser than I in your consumption of news these past few years… 

Seriously, though, last week’s events in England have me cogitating on the bizarre coincidences of cross-Atlantic political twins – not identical, certainly, but weirdly alike enough to be fraternal. 

So much has been written on The Donald that I cannot possibly add an original thought to the vast melee – so I’ll focus mostly on his British counterpart as I explore three questions.

Three Questions

First, what makes easily-parodied, caricature-strength personalities attractive to such huge cross-sections of voters in Western democracies?

Second, why were their meteoric rises so quickly followed by spectacular falls? 

And finally (since this is a “why Jesus” blog, after all), what does any of this have to do with followers of Jesus Christ?

Disrupter

It seems to me that the answer to question number one begins with a single word: disrupter. British voters singled out Boris Johnson because he disrupted the status quo simply by being himself. His silver-spoon upbringing wasn’t an obstacle to his connecting with blue collar folks because he spoke the language and copped the attitude of Outsider. (Any of this sound familiar, American readers?)

Johnson’s reputation as party-boy and flippant fibber began in his school days and never flagged. Somehow that didn’t matter, until recently. His posh Eton accent gave his rumpled, Muppet-wig demeanor a deranged gravitas. After every public scandal and failure (and there were many), he got up and came back for more. People like that in a leader – a public record of persistence in the school of hard knocks, a come-back kid energy. Pugnacity compensated for smarminess and casual lies. (Again, the American corollary should be obvious.)

But Britain was ripe for disruption in the form of Boris Johnson (for very similar reasons that America was ripe for disruption in the form of Donald Trump): the economic and political status quo had ceased to serve much of the population. And the ruling elite who had created the status quo in the first place insisted that this was actually the fault of said under-served population. 

Indeed, that elite sometimes dismissed outright (in scathing, contemptuous tones) any perspective that did not conform to their defined ideology. An American called such non-conformers, “deplorables.” This treatment had people furious enough to do something spectacular and rebellious at the polls.

I doubt there could have been a Prime Minister Boris (or a President Donald) in less enraged, desperate times. But in times like ours, electing a disrupter is a potent form of revenge – one of the few shreds of agency still in the hands of the mostly disenfranchised deplorables. 

Success was briefly sweet for supporters of the wacky champions. Elites who had ignored, dismissed, and mocked whole sections of the populations they were purportedly elected to serve got to eat some humble (enraged) pie of their own. 

All this suggests to me that neither Johnson nor Trump were elected on their own merits. Rather, they were elected on the demerits of predecessors who had treated political power as some kind of club for Civilization’s Smarty-Pants.

So, my working answer to our first question:

Disparities in access to the benefits of a global “information economy” and the long-festering resentments those disparities created + a ruling class who assumed the people who elected them were morons = perfect conditions for elevating a disrupter. 

More than the men, it was the mien of combativeness – being ready-and-willing to bust things up – that was attractive to the voting blocks in their Western democracies.

On to Question 2

But then… the disrupters plunge from their respective pinnacles of power!?!

Despite having delivered exactly what they promised to deliver – originalist Supreme Court justices, a thriving economy, Brexit, etc. – the eccentricities and outsider status that elevated Ole Boris and Donald in the first place suddenly became stumbling blocks. 

What happened? 

My hunch is several things:

First, the disrupters forgot that they had a mandate to disrupt – not to destroy. Forgetting the distinction between bravery and bullying, between shockingly entertaining and overtly obnoxious, between the best interests of the nation and supreme self-interest – that is costly amnesia.

Those deplorables who had elected the disrupters are NOT morons. 

Destructiveness in whatever form (middle of the night tweets or middle of lockdown parties) prompted serious re-evaluations.

But also – the disruption for which the voting electorate took risks was accomplished. (Example: Britain is NOT in the EU anymore.) 

Disrupters are essential for accomplishing audacious things. Disrupters are distracting when it’s time to get back to nuts-and-bolts governance. 

And, finally – people get weary of being wary. Unpredictability is essential to a disrupter, but exhausting to their public constituency. 

Hence my working answer to the second question:

Having served their purpose as disrupters of the status quo, these men flamed out. Their potent personalities went from political launch pads to self-immolating traps.

The Big Picture and Long View

A small digression: I think voters on both sides of the Pond have been motivated / remain hungry for a new thing that is also a return to the best of something that used to be… 

Disrupting a stagnant, suffocating status quo – displacing the egomaniacs in charge – these are steps of reclamation more than they are mandates for revolution.

At this point, the millions of people who are not “global citizens” sold on progressive ideas still have to find public servants who represent them. Leaders who understand that the future cannot just ignore ideas and values and institutions cherished by those millions. Visionaries who see the future in terms of conserving the best of the past in order to create something better. 

So, disruption was never the ultimate answer – it was a first step. Anything positive that comes next will have to be stewarded by people who understand the value of retaining what was good even while striving toward what will be better.

In the midst of all this, why Jesus?

Contemporary politics have nothing to do with Christianity. 

Wait…

What?!

According to Christ, contemporary politics actually have everything to do with Christianity, because contemporary politics encapsulate both the fallenness of humankind and the fierce hope of the human spirit.

And here’s the thing: Jesus was the greatest disrupter in history. 

Jesus inverted every power structure: 

But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

Mark 10:28

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” 

John 13:12 – 15

Jesus erased every false silo, every toxic partition between people:

There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28

 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us…

Ephesians 2:13 – 14

Jesus shrugged off every value system that did not directly correlate with His template for human flourishing:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Matthew 6:19 – 21; 24

Jesus acknowledged the hopelessness of our human mess – the mess within each of us, and the mess that makes of all of us collectively – and then He purchased HOPE for each and all of us, at the cost of His own life:

To them God chose to make known how great among the gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

Colossians 1:27

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16 – 18

Jesus conquered death:

Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.

Hebrews 2:14 – 15

Jesus revealed the secret to Life:

What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

John 1:4

Jesus was the greatest disrupter in history!

But unlike the Boris or the Donald or any of the thousands of other disrupters down the ages of political history, Jesus has exclusive claims on absolute truth and eternal relevance.

So… Christians have the incredible luxury of living in the chaos of this world while knowing ourselves secure in the peace and order of Heaven. 

Christians may blush on behalf of their national leadership, but they know that their Sovereign is perfect in holiness, justice, and love.

Christians may participate in political conversations – may take political action – but Christianity keeps politics in its place. Always second to devotion. Always second to humble service. Always second to freedom in Jesus.

God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah

 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar; the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice; the earth melts. 

The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Psalm 46:1 – 7