Yesterday, I linked to a Tyler Cowen post about the “neoreaction” movement—a group whose new hero is Donald Trump.
As Cowen described it, “Neo-reaction is not in love with Christianity in the abstract, and in fact it fears its radical, redistributive, and egalitarian elements. Neo-reaction is often Darwinian at heart.”
Come to think of it, “Darwinian” seems to be a pretty good way of describing Donald Trump, too. He believes the strong survive and thrive because they are superior. He has little compassion for the “weak,” “pathetic,” or “disgusting” “losers” who are short, bald, get captured in war, are born with a disability, etc.
Strength is what matters.
This, of course, runs completely counter to the servant leadership teachings of Christ, which explains why—as Cowen observes—some of Trump’s biggest fans are “not in love with Christianity.”
Along those lines, although some top evangelical leaders have been seduced by The Donald, his worldview (as evidenced by his past statements and conduct) seems diametrically opposed to that of the pro-life movement—which teaches we are all children of God, that all life is precious, and that charity and compassion are virtues (not evils which propagate the persistence of parasites in our society).
Perhaps seizing on this cleavage, liberal groups have clearly decided to use Trump’s behavior as a wedge issue to make it very difficult for principled social conservatives to vote for him.
They have a lot of material to work with. Take, for example, this latest ad from Priorities USA—which is probably better than any ad Republicans have used against Trump. As “Dave” on Twitter put it, “The first 24 secs of this ad could be a plea to the 60%+ of parents that abort for same diagnosis.”
Granted, this ad would appeal to almost any decent and compassionate person. But make no mistake, this is a dog whistle. This is an attempt to suppress the votes of compassionate conservatives—to keep them from rallying behind Trump.
It’s a bit rich for a group supporting Hillary Clinton—who is certainly no champion of the cause of Life—to push these buttons. On the other hand, Donald Trump has opened himself up to this. And if Republicans could use pollution against Michael Dukakis, then I suppose Democrats can hit hit Trump on this. Frankly, the ads are merely making the same point that conservatives should have been making—albeit, in a more emotionally compelling manner.
The pro-life argument for backing Trump rests almost solely on stopping Hillary Clinton from making lifelong appointments of pro-choice Supreme Court Justices. The trouble here is that a) this is asking people to vote strategically, and b) there’s no guarantee Trump would make good appointments.
If Clinton’s allies continue to run ads like the one above—forcing people of faith to confront Donald Trump’s indefensible behavior—it’s going to be nearly impossible for any compassionate, pro-life person of faith to support Donald Trump in good conscience. And that’s just the point.