Value-less Political Support

While I am thoroughly disgusted at the lewd, salacious, filthy remarks made by Donald Trump 11 years ago and now revealed in a damning video, I am not surprised. I doubt anyone else is, either. Some might be surprised that he was ever caught on tape actually saying these things, but it’s not hard to draw a line from the crude comments he has made publicly about specific women to the pornographic remarks he made privately about all women.

Nor am I surprised that most of Trump’s core supporters are unfazed by this revelation. Nothing he has said over the last sixteen months of his campaign – whether sexist, racist, xenophobic, or just downright rude – has made any difference, so why would these remarks? This video probably lessens the likelihood of undecided voters to come his way. It may also convince some folks who were planning to vote third-party that they need to hold their noses and vote for the only candidate who can beat Trump. But for his most ardent supporters, this controversy is nothing more than a media fabrication, further proof that the election is rigged against Trump.

I’m not surprised by Trump’s midnight apology, either. Maybe I’m a tad surprised that he apparently listened to his panicked advisors for once, but Trump will do anything – even apologize – if it will advance his ambitions. Of course, an apology delivered under duress, only after realizing his candidacy was in trouble, hardly equals true contrition. His earlier quasi-apology which dismissed the remarks as private “locker-room banter” is far more revealing. (If you watch his “apology” with the sound off, you might think he was threatening his viewers.)

But I am surprised – and appalled – at the response of certain prominent fellow Christians. Leaders of the conservative evangelical movement have only tepidly disapproved of Trump’s language justifying sexual assault, while doubling down

on their support of the party nominee. The Mormons are looking a lot better than the evangelical Christians. In Utah, Mormon politicians are calling for Trump to step down and let someone else take his place. But evangelical Christians seem to be pushing to get to the front of the line of his defenders.

Ralph Reed, leader of the “Faith and Freedom Coalition,” had this to say in response to the video. “People of faith are voting on issues like who will protect unborn life, defund Planned Parenthood, defend religious liberty, and opposes the Iran nuclear deal. A ten-year-old tape of a private conversation with a talk show host ranks low on their hierarchy of concerns.”

First of all, Mr. Reed, I am a person of faith and I think you are wrong on many – if not most – of the issues important in this election. I know lots of people of faith who do not share your particular views about foreign policy, the economy, and social issues. So stop speaking for me. Second, you are saying that as long as a candidate agrees with your politics, nothing else matters. He doesn’t even have to pass the threshold of basic human decency, so long as he tows the partisan line.

Here’s what Tony Perkins, leader of the Family Research Council, said: “My personal support for Donald Trump has never been based on shared values. It is based upon my shared concerns about issues such as justices on the Supreme Court that ignore the Constitution, America’s continued vulnerability to Islamic terrorists, and the systematic attack on religious liberty that we’ve seen in the last 7 ½ years.”

Did you get that? “My personal support of Donald Trump has never been based on shared values.” Can you imagine any Christian evangelical leader since the beginning of the Religious Right in the 1970s pledging support to any candidate for any level of office who did not share their values? Wasn’t that the whole point? Remember the “family values” movement?

I’m not part of your fundamentalist cabal, Mr. Perkins, but I absolutely will not support candidates who do not share the values that I believe are essential for any leader of a free society. I do not require them to share my theology or my faith tradition, but there are certain basic values that we cannot compromise if we are going to maintain an open society. They are, in fact, values rooted in the Judeo-Christian scriptures, but which are also affirmed in other sacred texts. Among them is justice, freedom of thought and expression, and dignity and respect for every human being. I would vote for a candidate I believed shared these values but with whom I disagreed on policy before I ever considered voting for someone with whom I agreed politically but who cavalierly and regularly trashed the values that are at the root of a democratic society’s ability to sustain itself.

Now we know the truth. Despite the mask they have worn for 40 years, these so-called “evangelical Christian” leaders are not “values voters” at all. They are demagogues in search of political power. And, depending on the circumstances, they will either exploit their followers’ religious convictions or discard them like yesterday’s garbage in order to achieve their aims.

To Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell, Jr., James Dobson and the rest of your crowd: For your shameless defense of a narcissistic sexual predator who believes that power gives him the right to degrade and violate women, you have lost all spiritual, religious, and moral credibility.

Comments

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You are absolutely right, Mark. As has been said before, this "Moral Majority" crowd is neither moral or the majority! They hide behind God to support their political motives. Thanks for your truthfulness

Posted by: Michael Salamone | 10/13/2016 at 09:01 PM