I understand why people will vote for Donald Trump on Tuesday. Some think Trump will protect their religious liberty and fight for their views in a way that Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush did not. Some working people still believe that Trump will bring back American jobs. Those who fear newcomers and immigrants believe Trump will protect them against an “invasion.” Others believe that Kamala Harris will precipitate a moral freefall that will destroy the republic.
But do we really want to go through another four years with this guy in office?
Those who worry about the morality of public discourse need to remember they are electing a guy who fat-shames his enemies, calls journalists “low I.Q. crazy,” seems obsessed with Hannibal Lecter, calls women “flat slobs, dogs, and disgusting animals,” mocks journalists with disabilities, says that the deceased husband of a sitting member of Congress is “looking up” at her from hell, and talks about guns “trained on” Liz Cheney’s face. He has called Kamala Harris “stupid” and “lazy.”
Trump regularly threatens violence. Remember in 2016 when he said that “Second Amendment people” should do something about Hillary Clinton’s potential federal justice picks? He once asked his followers to consider “roughing-up” a rally protester. He told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” He used the Bible to justify his “law and order” presidency. And, of course, he was behind the January 6, 2021 insurrection. He has defended the insurrectionists at rallies and in public statements.
The other day I was on a plane seated in front of three military veterans. They were singing the praises of Donald Trump. I was reminded that these guys, who were talking loudly, even after the flight attendants asked passengers to stop talking so people could hear the safety announcements, were supporting a guy who disparages war heroes, called for the death of the Joints Chief of Staff, used a military cemetery for a campaign stunt, and used the word “losers” to describe dead soldiers. He mocked Gold Star families who criticized him. His chief of staff, a general, says he is a fascist.
If Trump wins, we will need to put up with all the distractions. Remember, this is the guy who spent more than thirty minutes dancing at a campaign rally, wanted to buy Greenland, was obsessed with toilet flushing, described a hurricane as the “wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water,” draws Sharpie maps, and suggested people should inject themselves with bleach. No wonder why “infrastructure week” never got off the ground.
Donald Trump is a convicted felon and a criminal. He has a mug shot (which he used to win Black votes). He owes $454 million for inflating the value of his business. He took classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. He sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. He committed adultery with a porn star and tried to cover it up. He tried to steal the 2020 election.
Only two presidents in American history have been impeached once. Trump has been impeached twice.
Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women. Several woman have accused him of sexual misconduct. They include a candidate in the Miss USA pageant and a contestant on the “Apprentice.” Here is a list.
His immigration policies are immoral. He separated immigrant families at the border. He blocked Muslim immigration. He will deport undocumented immigrants in what he promises to be a Gestapo-like roundup. He says immigrants are “bringing crime” and “rape” into the country. He claimed Haitian refugees who were in the United States legally were eating pets. He said that Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries were “shithole countries.” He told Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, both members of Congress, to “go back” to the countries in which they came. He suggested that a federal judge could not do his job because he had Mexican ancestry. He wants to deport DREAMers.
Trump is a chronic liar. He lies so much that it is getting nearly impossible to fact check him. But it has gone beyond just lies. Trumpian politics, which is propagated by social media and cable and streaming MAGA programs, has undermined evidence-based truth claims. Remember Trump’s inauguration when adviser Kelly Anne Conway said there were “alternative facts“? As Jeremy Sabella has noted: “The irony is palpable: those who railed most loudly against postmodernism have manifested the ugliest impulses of a postmodern age.” In Trumpworld, truth is what Trump says it is. Or, to put it differently, the truth belongs to whoever has power.
And I could go on.
Trump is a clown and a buffoon. His political success was made possible by the GOP members of Congress who refused and continue to refuse to stand up to him.
Evangelical leaders with influence and platforms–people who claim to be doing Christian politics–say NOTHING about any of the things noted in this post. They look the other way as Trump undermines the moral fabric of the country. Who are these evangelicals? Let’s name some names: Lance Wallnau, those associated with Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center, those affiliated with the Faith & Freedom Coalition, Charlie Kirk, David Brody, Samuel Rodriguez, David Barton, Tim Barton, Jack Hibbs, Jim Garlow, Eric Metaxas, Robert Jeffress, Ralph Reed, Johnnie Moore, Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, John Hagee, Greg Laurie, Paula White-Cain, Jack Graham, Jentezen Franklin, James Dobson, Franklin Graham, Albert Mohler, Mike Huckabee, Sean Feucht, and many, many others.
I agree with The Atlantic‘s endorsement of Kamala Harris. A taste:
This endorsement will not be controversial to Trump’s antagonists. Nor will it matter to his supporters. But to the voters who don’t much care for either candidate, and who will decide the country’s fate, it is not enough to list Harris’s strengths or write a bill of obvious particulars against Trump. The main reason for those ambivalent Americans to vote for Harris has little to do with policy or partisanship. It’s this: Electing her and defeating him is the only way to release us from the political nightmare in which we’re trapped and bring us to the next phase of the American experiment.
Evangelical support for Donald Trump also reveals something far darker. In rallying around and going all in with an adjudicated rapist, it shows that the sex abuse crisis in the Southern Baptists will never be resolved. Evangelicals are indifferent to rape. They really don’t care. As a blogger myself it stuns how corrupt much of evangelicalism really is. It’s why l am secular. When l think of all the Men’s retreats l did, talks in Campus Crusade about sexual purity, etc… what l ultimately learned is that it is all a lie. Evangelicalism is nothing but a lie.
I have a cousin who is a pastor in an Anna Baptist denomination. His wife is openly vocal and her support of Donald Trump. Is very certain to cut and paste and post things on social media defending her support. I thought of her as I read this article which is spot on. She is the mother of three daughters. I am the father of two daughters, and unlike her there is no way I can defend a convicted felon and rapist.
Many sane Christians I know closely would respond that in spite of all this, focusing on *policies* will keep them voting for Trump. I don’t disagree with all their policy preferences, but my own views about the tragic nature of all policy decisions (due to competing goods) as well as the significance of the kind of political culture we are creating keeps me from siding with them.
One of the things that has baffled and discouraged me this year is the readiness of Christians to decry political (ie, policy) opponents as “demonic,” and the like. How does the volume on policy disagreement get cranked up that high? (high enough for all the things listed in this piece to be swept aside…)
Matthew Taylor’s meticulous new book–The Violent Take It By Force–has helped me begin to understand this better. Taylor details how the influence of charismatic Christians claiming apostolic and, especially, prophetic authority has entangled evangelical Christians in the dominionist movement that seems so plainly at odds with the gospel of Jesus…or even everyday decency. Ideas about “territorial spirits” and proclamations about the “saving” of nations seem to be given authority as weighty as scripture (without, in my view, viable arguments that these notions are biblical), and this has played a significant role in what we are seeing. (Wallnau, White-Cain, Feucht are part of this, but there are more.)
I myself came up in the charismatic wing of the Jesus movement, and I don’t reject those gifts or even the five-fold ministry that the apostles and prophets rest their claims upon. But it all has to be subject to scripture, and we have been led astray by the lure of earthly power. I grieve for this, but I feel at least that I understand a bit better how this has happened–to friends and fellow Christians. Our call for the future–especially if we think we see through the deception: to restore our understanding, and then our proclamation, of the gospel of a crucified Lord. God help us.
When I was much younger and strongly evangelical there was a regular naming of the anti-Chrtist. Along with whoever the current anti-Christ was supposed to be there was the notion that many Christians would be sucked into the vortex of the anti-Christ. Of course, these “Christians” were the liberal, mainliners who weren’t true believers anyway. However, we do see a man who is anti Jesus in almost every way except that he says he will protect and give power to evangelicals. Pretty interesting.