So what do I think of Galli’s points on immorality? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Recently, I wrote a post on Mark Galli and his editorial on President Trump. A friend of Deeper Waters left a comment asking about Galli’s stance. What about the immoral behavior of Trump? Would we still want to live in Nazi Germany even if the economy was doing great and we had the judges?
To be fair, this reader immediately said we are not in Germany like that, and that’s something important to stress. If you don’t like Trump, that’s one thing, but if you say he’s Hitler, you’re being insulting. To Trump? Yes, but that’s mild. You’re being insulting to millions of Jews and others who died under Hitler and to their loved ones and to the survivors. I couldn’t stand Obama and Bill Clinton, but I wouldn’t have called them Hitler.
2016 was a strange year with the election. Most conservatives did not want Hillary Clinton in power. If you asked my wife why she didn’t, she would say one word. Benghazi. That’s enough. For me, I also knew Hillary is pro-choice and would appoint judges like that. I was honestly convinced and still am that our country could not have survived that.
Keep in mind at this point, I am not asking you to agree with my stance. You can think I am entirely wrong in it, but I cannot be wrong in that that is what I think. I thought the Obama years were a disaster and I did not want to see them go on and if anything, I was more concerned about Hillary since I think she had the capability to do a lot more damage if given power.
So we had to have someone to beat her. Now here’s the question that has to be asked. Why did so many conservatives flock to Trump? What did Trump have that made him so special that so many people looked and said, “I know he’s not the best guy in the world, but I’m voting for him.”
For one thing, we have seen several Republicans who seemed to bend over backwards to try to be friendly to the Democrats thinking they would get an olive branch in return. It never worked. McCain was one person who the Democrats loved, for instance, until he ran for president and then during that time he was a villain. Mitt Romney was someone the media couldn’t stand in his presidential campaign with stories of him about being a racist, causing cancer in people, abusing animals, and folders of women. Now he’s anti-Trump so he’s cool.
What was seen in Trump was someone who would not do that. Voters saw in Trump someone who fought back and stood up for what he believed in. He wasn’t afraid to step on any toes. This is something that was refreshing. With Trump, one never needs to guess where he stands. He comes right out and tells you.
Second, he wasn’t a politician. He didn’t have years of going through all these emotions. He was, in essence, an ordinary guy who wanted to do something for his country. He wasn’t worried about having a legacy to defend. He was an outsider to the system and maybe he could do something to make it work.
Third is he was talking about the issues people wanted to talk about. Okay. The Iran deal is something important to talk about, but most of us don’t wake up in the morning wondering about America’s relationship with Iran. We wake up in the morning wondering about how we’re going to pay our bills and what about our children and will we have freedom in our country or not?
Trump spoke to these issues. Illegal immigration was a great example of this. For many decades, people had got up and said illegal immigration is a problem. Trump just didn’t say it. He made it a focus. People liked that.
In the end, one ultimate difference is we were quite sure that Hillary would be happy to turn against us if she got power. The rights of many Christians we were and are sure would go out the window. We would have more issues with abortion, the homosexual movement, transgenderism, etc. (Worth noting that all of these issues have to do with sex. Consider what that means.)
Trump was not one we suspected would do that, and so far, we have been right. We have seen two justices appointed to the court that we think want to be faithful to the Constitution. More and more judges are being appointed elsewhere.
But what about what Galli says here?
“The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.”
One big problem here. Galli gives ZERO examples of this. Now some we can see. The Access Hollywood tape was a concern for awhile, but Trump supporters went forward for the still the same reason. It was like we were given a choice between Diocletian or Constantine. It might have been good to have a candidate who had the same political stances as Trump, but had moral character. We didn’t get that.
However, here’s something to consider. Who else had a major impact on our society in a very good way, but he also had problems of morality, including women? Martin Luther King Jr. He was even a pastor who had numerous affairs with other women. For some reason, I have never seen a rush to remove Martin Luther King Jr. Day from being a national holiday. We still support the cause that he championed of dreaming of a world of racial equality.
Some of this could also depend on the state you lived in. If you lived in a heavily Republican or Democrat state and it was certain to go one way or the other, then perhaps you could have sat this one at home last time. If you didn’t though, then your vote made a difference. You could have changed a swing state to go that way.
For many of us though, we live in a world where we are seeing the rise of transgenderism, abortion, and homosexual behavior being normalized for us and our children. My wife recently shared pictures from a book a friend shared that was young adult fiction for students in school and had quite explicit homosexual behavior being discussed in it. Go against any of this and you’re a wicked bigot and if the left has shown us anything, it’s that they’re more than happy to shut us down.
“Okay. But with impeachment, why not let Trump take the fall and get Pence? He’s a good Christian. Right?”
Because it won’t stop. It never does. If it is shown that a president can be removed this way, it will happen with Pence as well. Some charge will be found against him. Let Pence get in for reasons such as election in 2024 or if a tragedy happens to Trump in office.
To get back to where we were, in the end, many of us saw that we could either vote for someone like Diocletian or like Constantine. We didn’t know if Constantine had the moral character or not, but we at least knew he wouldn’t turn on us. If the Democrats want to change that, they need to produce a better candidate and so far, I’m not seeing it happen.
In Christ,
Nick Peters