Trump and the Christian Conservatives

 

As the saying goes, some of my best friends are Christian conservatives. Many Christians are frustrated by present trends and conditions in the country. While fully politically free to express, promote, and follow their beliefs, they reasonably resent the intense social and sometimes economic pressure to keep quiet and conform to customs and notions dictated by others. They oppose mores that call harsh criticism of other religions unacceptable while declaring open season on theirs. They do not like government schools attempting to indoctrinate their children in beliefs they reject. They see a society that to them has gone from requiring their toleration of practices and beliefs they oppose to demanding their approval of them. Many of them are worried that their children or grandchildren will have to grow up and live in an environment hostile to the things they believe in. They have wanted someone to take them seriously and stand up for them, and many of them supported Trump in 2016 and 2020 as a person who at least said he did and would.

Well I have some unsolicited advice for them about Donald Trump: don’t get fooled again. In the weeks after the election in 2020, Trump showed what he was in ways too clear to miss easily. Christian conservatives should realize that Trump is neither a protector nor an ideological ally and move on from the scoundrel to others more nearly deserving of their trust and support. He played them and is still playing them. I know next to nothing about the Faith and Freedom Coalition, but if its members are serious about the freedom part of their name, they have no business promoting someone such as Donald Trump. Conservatives usually believe fidelity to the constitution is crucial to preserving freedom in this country. From at least December 14^th of 2020 on through January 6^th, Trump made an unconstitutional attempt to remain in power by a coup d’etat. In doing so he disqualified himself from consideration for any political office and from being taken seriously as a spokesman for the values of conservative Christians or anyone else who believes in the republic. The faith and freedom folks should act accordingly.

Trump and the Committee

 

The subject of the house’s January 6^th committee is serious. Whether the committee is also serious is a matter of controversy. Many Democrats say the committee’s hearings are necessary to create an official record of all the wrong and/or criminal things Donald Trump did in trying to remain in power. Many Republicans say they are a partisan effort by Democrats to smear Republicans in a probably futile attempt to make the beating facing them in the coming mid-term elections less severe. Few people have noticed that these are not mutually exclusive opinions. Both can be right.

It is clear that the Democrats and their public relations people in the traditional media have exaggerated some things to the point of silliness. The riot at the capitol was not an armed insurrection. The rioters were not armed. The seemingly goofy Proud Boys were nothing like Ernst Rohm’s sturmabteilung. The rioters violent crimes were fewer and far less serious than the actions of leftist rioters in any of several cities. There was no chance the poor, disturbed, misled guy in the buffalo horns and his buddies were going to overthrow the government.

However all of this is completely irrelevant to the main issue. From at least December 14^th on, Donald Trump was an enemy of the republic. He and some of his associates plotted to cancel the results of a national election and illegally and unconstitutionally remain in power. The evidence is plain and easy to understand. Liz Cheney summarized some of it very well. The fact that he called his supporters to Washington on January 6^th and said what he said to them makes it obvious that he had not given up and was still trying to stay in power. He sent the rioters to the capitol. He ordered Mike Pence to overthrow the government of the United States and place him in power through a coup d’etat.

What he did was criminal. The members of the committee, the US attorney general, and legal authorities in places such as Georgia need to decide if some of it was also illegal. If so he should be indicted and convicted. That would keep him from seeking elected office again. He should have been impeached and convicted for the orders he gave Pence alone. That would have stopped him too, but it did not happen. I don’t think the Republicans will be foolish enough to nominate him for president in 2024. That would turn what is looking like a probable walk over win into a likely loss. But it would not hurt to make it impossible for him to run, just in case. Besides, apart from any pragmatic reasons, justice should be served for a man who turned against the republic as surely as did Jefferson Davis.

A Salute

 Eighty years ago this weekend at Midway the United States navy fought and won the most historically decisive naval battle since Trafalgar against superior Japanese forces. The victory was the turning point in the Pacific and perhaps in the entire war – ending the Japanese strategic offensive and allowing the United States to follow its Germany first strategy. Seventy eight years ago tomorrow American, British, and Canadian forces successfully landed in Nazi-occupied France, beginning a series of battles that in less than a year led to the defeat and destruction of Nazi Germany. Almost all the men who did those things are dead now. We owe them a salute, now and every year in the first week of June.