The idolatry of politics

In August of last year, nearly no credible pundit would have predicted that Donald Trump would claim the Republican nomination. Yet here we are, in the beginning of September 2016, with the boundaries of a seeming impossibility shattered and in the rear view mirror. We gape in disbelief at a Republican nominee whose lumbering campaign, to quote a conservative radio host in Wisconsin, is a “dumpster fire inside a nuclear meltdown.” The insistence that Trump’s impropriety during the primary was “fourth-dimensional chess” and that he would mature and pivot to the general election has so far proven to be a gross miscalculation.

For those who hold to the Judeo-Christian worldview, which includes principles such as the sanctity of human life and the created order while emphasizing the importance of character and integrity, this is truly grieving. The current Republican nominee is neither principled, honest nor morally upright. Nonetheless, the 2016 Election season is fully upon us, and Donald J. Trump is the Republican nominee for President of the United States. How can we make sense of this and the path forward?

The truth is that Trump's supporters do not comprise a homogeneous voting bloc; rather, it appears that they form a conglomerate of three fuzzy factions. On the one hand, there is the “alt-right,” which champions white tribalism and ethno-nationalism. Although proponents within this faction have been active for many years, the “alt-right” movement has escalated in prominence to national attention only in the past several months. For instance, the Wikipedia page composed to document its existence was created in March 2016, while Hillary Clinton has formally addressed the movement only as of the past two weeks. The reason for the alt-right’s support of Trump can be attributed to his racist comments concerning Judge Curiel, his refusal to denounce David Duke and the KKK, his hiring of Steve Bannon of Breitbart.com and an alliance of nativist policy interests.

On the other hand, there are the “Trumpkins”—those who have sworn virtually complete allegiance to Donald Trump, his words and his actions. For these, Trump can do almost no wrong, and he must be defended to the ends of the earth. In an article by Ben Shapiro of DailyWire.com, titled “7 Steps To Defending Donald Trump: A Guide”, Shapiro lists the levels to which Trump’s supporters are willing to stoop in order to defend him. If Trump were to hypothetically shoot somebody on 5th Avenue, he probably wouldn’t lose any of these voters. “After all,” the Trumpkins would rationalize, “Trump was probably right to shoot that girl. It was her fault for yelling at him. She was a bad girl anyway. The evil media set Trump up to do this and misconstrued his actions. Or, wait—this was actually somehow a genius move by Trump! The shooting distracted the media from Hillary Clinton’s rally! But if you do criticize Trump, then you’re actually helping Hillary. And hey, at least he’s better than Hillary.” The reality distortion bubble continues on and on. The Trumpkins earnestly believe that a President Trump would act as an executive strongman who will use big government policies to alleviate their victimhood and “make America great again.”

And then there are the reluctant Trump supporters. These people don’t think Trump is a good candidate or a good person, but are compelled by the idea that this election involves a binary choice between the lesser of two evils. “A vote not for Trump,” they insist, “is a vote for Hillary Clinton.” And since a Hillary Clinton presidency would be antithetical to many conservative principles and policies, they reason that they must hold their noses and vote for Trump. They simply can’t stomach the possibility of a Clinton presidency, and feel compelled to do almost everything in their power—even voting for a person whom they acknowledge is an unprecedentedly terrible candidate—to stop her.

There is something that binds these three factions together, besides the fact that they will all vote for Donald Trump in November. They have all become, in at least a small sense, leftist. America’s fate, in their eyes, rests in fixing all the problems or at least preventing America’s demise through the means of political power. The alt-right sees the identity politics and tribalism of groups on the left such as The Movement for Black Lives and counters with its own brand of racialized identity politics, which they seek government power to implement. The Trumpkins have embraced Donald J. Trump as their “Orange Godking” or “Cheetoh Messiah,” since in their minds he is the only one who can bring balance to America. And the reluctant Trump supporters are bound by the need for a “lesser evil” in the position of President of the United States. They all, to some degree, depend on political power to be their civil messiah.

In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln urged his audience to continue fighting so that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” One of the central truths on which Lincoln touches in his speech is that in a free and democratic society such as America, the government that exists will be of, by and for the people. In other words, the U.S. government will be and do what we as a people permit and support. Our government’s virtue or lack thereof reflects the state of our nation’s soul.

Continuing to offer up principle and righteousness on the altar of political power is no solution. Neither is excusing and covering for Trump’s vile actions/words or Clinton’s heinous corruption. These strategies instead continue to debase the American populace by compelling people that such behavior ought to be accepted for the “good of the country.” Politics do matter. But if we truly wish to “make America great again,” we must remember Whom we are under. We must remember from whom our inalienable rights come and seek His Truth, rebuilding our civil society according to those principles.