Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
A few notes on where I currently stand with regard to President Trump

A few notes on where I currently stand with regard to President Trump

Last updated on: March 5, 2018 at 2:46 pm by Dan Peterson

A few notes on where I currently stand with regard to President Trump 2018-03-05T14:46:41-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The party of Lincoln and Reagan has taken a somewhat different direction. ((Wikimedia CC)

Some who read this blog may not be aware that I was vocally opposed to the nomination and election of Mr. Donald J. Trump. Not because I’m a liberal pinko who supported Hillary — the distaff partner in the Bonnie and Clyde duo of American politics — or because I felt the socialist Bern. Not at all. Precisely because I’m a serious, life-long conservative with strong economic-libertarian leanings. I voted for neither Clinton nor Trump in 2016; for the first time in my life, I felt entirely disenfranchised during that presidential election.

As I see it, the American presidency contains two distinct roles that, in other polities, are divided into two separate offices: The president is both ceremonial head of state (comparable to the monarch in Great Britain or to the president in Israel) and practical head of government (comparable to the prime minister in both Great Britain and Israel). In the former role, he lays the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and leads the country in mourning a space shuttle disaster. In the latter role, he proposes policy, issues administrative edicts, and conducts foreign relations.

One reason for my opposition to Mr. Trump was my conviction that he was and is entirely unsuited to the role of head of state. His crudity, his lengthy record of open and boastful sexual immorality, his admitted and well-chronicled abuse of women, his lack of thoughtfulness, his ignorance and disinterest in learning, his strange combination of vanity and manifest insecurity, his very questionable remarks about Muslims and other American minorities, his mendacity, his disdain for genuine heroes like John McCain, his zest for public personal quarrels — the list goes on and on and on. And on. And on. And still further on. He simply is not a good symbol for our country. Or, if he really is appropriate as such a symbol now, we’re in even worse shape than I had thought.

Another reason, though, was my concern about his politics — in other words, my worry about what he would be like as a head of government. His record of donations to both Republicans and Democrats, his still-recent registration as a Democrat, his unseemly zeal for government overreach in cases of eminent domain, and a host of other issues (including his casual endorsement of what would have amounted to war crimes and atrocities in the battle against Islamist terrorism, and is openly vocal admiration for various authoritarian strongmen) were on my mind. He was, in his latest incarnation, running as something resembling a conservative — or, at least, as what he imagined a conservative to be — but I wondered whether, if he finally gained power, he would govern as a conservative.

I’m relieved to say that, in many ways, he has. He is, I suspect, still playing the hand that won him the presidency. When he essentially outsourced the selection of judges to the Heritage Foundation, that was a good move. It was the best reason of which I was aware for voting for him — heck, it tempted even me for a few minutes, until I realized that I still just couldn’t do that — and Justice Gorsuch is merely the greatest and most obvious result of it. Likewise, I’m pleased that he may be building up our military again, after years of neglect, and I’m pretty happy with our more serious stance against ISIS/Daesh and with several other things. I’m happy, too, and not merely for reasons of personal interest and pension, that the stock market has been going up and that the economy seems to be humming.

I worry, though, about his massive plan for rebuilding our infrastructure. If there’s anything that’s liable to out-of-control pork barrel spending, it’s such large construction projects. Isn’t there a more efficient, federalized, way of doing the needed work? And I remain concerned by the attitudes reflected in the run-up to and the rollout of what is popularly if somewhat inaccurately referred to as his “travel ban” — and have spoken out on the issue.

But my fears of his lack of conservative principle have recently been revived — and acutely so — by his cavalier comments about ignoring legal due process:

“‘As Un-American as Imaginable’: Shepard Smith Blasts Trump’s Remarks on Due Process”

And then there’s the matter of tariffs. I saw a tweet yesterday from my friend, the libertarian economist, investment analyst, and entrepreneur Mark Skousen:

“Trump’s huge tariffs on steel and aluminum imports could be the end of the bull market on Wall Street. This is an incredibly dumb decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs.”

And here are some other items (chosen almost at random from a very large number of good pieces):

“Steel Yourselves”

“Tariffs Are Taxes”

“On the Wisdom of Tariffs”

“This Threat of a Trade War Is the Opposite of ‘Drain the Swamp'”

“The Swamp Is Alive! It Is Alive!”

“With His Intentions to Impose Tariffs on Steel, Trump Lights the Protectionist Fuse”

“Trump trade tariffs are a wanton act of economic self-destruction”

“How Tariffs Cause Chaos in the Real World”

Senator Jeff Flake predicted, the other day, that there will be a challenge to Mr. Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination. That may be, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the challenger turned out to be Senator Flake himself. (I would support him, enthusiastically.) I expect, though, that any challenge that might materialize will be quixotic and that it will fail. The Republican Party has been seriously compromised by Trumpism, and I’m not sure that it can be salvaged until Mr. Trump departs from the White House. (I myself resigned from the Republican Party on the night that he accepted the Republican nomination.)

Worse, Trumpism seems to me to have corrupted the American conservative movement. Or, perhaps more accurately, it has revealed that movement to be considerably smaller and weaker than many of us had imagined.

And then there’s what Trumpism has done to American Evangelical Christianity, as prominent pastors like Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress and many others, who once demanded morality in political leaders (such as Bill Clinton), have prostituted and demeaned themselves in defending absolutely every utterance and act of Mr. Trump. It raises the question, “Can American evangelicalism be saved?” I hope so. But I’m not certain.

Previous Post

March 5, 2018

Beyond man-as-he-happens-to-be

Next Post

March 5, 2018 Lise Meitner, pioneering female Christian physicist

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: 1 John teaches that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE