We are living history. Years, decades and centuries from now, as kids across the country open their history books, they will read the story of the 2016 United States presidential election. They will read the story of how the two most divisive and anti-American candidates in the history of our great democracy exploited the anger of the downtrodden, and pitted people against each other with false promises, in order to fulfill their own lusts for power. They will read about the insurgent candidacy of Donald J. Trump, a brash New York businessman, and a con artist.
Before I go any further, let me say that the fact that I am writing this article about the Republican nominee for president a month less than a month before the election comes as a shock to me, and will likely come as a shock to anybody who knows me. I am a devout Catholic, and like most devoutly religious people who participate in our politics, I am a registered Republican. I am a registered Republican, because I still believe in the party that was founded by Christian abolitionists dead-set on ending slavery, in the small town of Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854, and also because not only do I not believe that the Democratic party shares my values, I know they look down on them, and therefore their policies represent a threat to the church and a threat to religious freedom. But, I firmly believe that in this unique year, the Republican nominee presents an even bigger threat to what both of those things stand for than the Democratic nominee.
This is not to say that Trump’s proposed policies would be worse for the church or the country than Hillary Clinton’s would. In fact, on paper Clinton’s are much worse, but Trump represents a unique threat that we haven’t been faced with before. A threat to destroy the conservative movement and the Christian right from within. In a page straight out of Saul Alinsky’s playbook, after decades as a public figure, where Trump repeatedly boasted about his promiscuity and decadence, Trump now claims to be a conservative Christian, even though he does say he’s never asked for God’s forgiveness. One of Trump’s most notable apologists is the biblically illiterate Sean Hannity, who on his Fox News’ program compared Trump to King David after a tape leaked of a recently married Trump bragging to a buddy about grabbing women in their private area without their permission. Jerry Falwell Jr. also defended Trump, claiming a conspiracy to destroy his candidacy coming from the establishment of the Republican Party. In addition, many Trump supporters say that his causal bragging about what is definitely sexual assault is no big deal, because Clinton enabled her husband to do much worse.
This type of moral relativism is dangerous, and the way many Christians are negotiating their values in order to make this man president runs contrary to the first commandment, and only serves to expedite the moral decay of our society.
This is why in an election that features much evil, the candidacy of Donald Trump represents the greatest one.
