‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’ 2.0

THE FXBG ADVANCE WEDNESDAY 8/5/26 MIDDAY READ

By Donnie Johnston, ADVANCE COLUMNIST

Last Sunday I was preparing for church when I turned on the television and began flipping through channels to find something to bring background noise to a quiet house when I happened upon the movie The Devil and Daniel Webster, that 1941 classic taken from the story by Stephen Vincent Benet.

I picked up during the final half hour of the movie, and I had not been watching for two minutes before it hit me. This is a story we are living today. The names of the characters may have changed, but the tale is the same, as is the moral.

In case you are not familiar with Benet’s short story, the famed lawyer and orator Daniel Webster

defends New Hampshire farmer Jabez Stone, who has sold his soul to the devil—in the persona of a “Mr. Scratch”), but now wants to get out of that contract.

I immediately thought of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, and all the other high-ranking Republicans who saw Donald Trump for what he was before his election, and publicly stated their fear of what he might do as president.

Then, Trump got re-elected and suddenly all these men and women who had condemned him came enthusiastically to do his bidding and worship at his feet. Why? Because he promised them power.

The Marco Rubios and the Ted Cruzes and all the others willingly sold their souls to the devil, not so much in exchange for wealth as was the case with Jabez Stone, but for power.

Is Donald Trump the modern-day version of Mr. Scratch? Has he, like Mr. Scratch, succeeded in convincing his followers to sell their eternal souls for a short-lived taste of power?

Look at the face of defiance in the picture Trump has chosen to express his persona, and the orange hair whose color is reminiscent of the fires of hell.

Trump’s MAGA followers have likened him to the right hand of God, while his detractors have insisted that he is the antichrist, the sinister one who leads the world to Armageddon.

If we are going to attempt to explain Donald Trump in biblical terms, as both his loyal following and his opponents would like, then let’s go all the way and question whether the man is really Mr. Scratch—or Satan himself.

In The Devil and Daniel Webster, Webster tells the jury, composed of those who long ago sold their souls to Mr. Scratch, that their verdict could be an opportunity to save America “from going to the devil” and in the end they side with the 19^th century lawyer.

Maybe that’s where we are right now. Stone’s trial was at midnight in a darkened barn. Maybe our trial against the devil will be the first Tuesday in this coming November.

The jury will not be a dozen murderers and derelicts hand-picked by Mr. Scratch, but rather the voters of the United States who will decide the fate of those among us who have sold their soul to the devil in exchange for four years of unbridled power.

As Webster told his jury, we the people have a chance to break the Republican contract, to take back our country from the devil and his disciples.

If MAGA followers are determined to put the Trump era into a biblical context, remember that scripture says that the multitudes will bow down to the antichrist, aka Satan.

On the other hand, Daniel Webster argued that it is possible to break any contract with the devil and save our country from falling under his rule.

The first Tuesday in November is the trial date and you are the jury. This time you have been saddled with perhaps the greatest responsibility in the history of this great nation.

I think Daniel Webster would agree: the fate of American democracy may well be in your hands come November.

If we make the wrong choice, the psychic Edgar Cayce’s—and the Catholic Church’s—“three days of darkness” may be upon us.

But as of now, the door is still open.

If MAGA is determined to speak of the Trump Administration in biblical terms, his apostles need only to turn to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 8, verse 36.