Faith and Politics
“You are a smart person; how can you possibly support Trump!?!” “You are a hack for the Republican party – Crawl back into your MAGA hole!” “Trump has no decency or moral standards!”
These are just a few examples of comments I have received from friends, family, and readers over the years who have such strong and passionate feelings about our former President that they attribute words, ideas, and opinions to me that have never crossed my lips or come out of my pen.
I have nearly always been conflicted over my support for Donald Trump’s candidacy. I have never ignored or applauded his well-known personal flaws. I have never celebrated or excused his obvious shortcomings. I have been accused of being a “blind loyalist” or part of a “cult”, neither of which is remotely true. My support for our former President has always been in spite of his faults – not because of them.
Given a binary choice in the 2024 election, voting for Joe Biden would be impossible for me. Even if there were no concerns about his diminishing mental capabilities, he appears to be an enemy of almost everything I hold sacred as a Catholic, while at the same time trying to convince me that his Catholicism is very important to him.
Internal documents from the Department of Homeland Security released on June 21 have exposed how the Biden Administration classifies someone as a person likely to commit “domestic violent extremist” attacks, particularly those who support President Trump, as being “in the military” or “religious.” So, according to Joe Biden, I, as a practicing Catholic, and my children serving in the U.S. military are a serious threat to our country. I cannot know what resides in Donald Trump’s heart, but during his four years in office he demonstrated that he supports my freedom not just to worship as I see fit, but to live my personal and public life in a manner compatible with my religious beliefs. He did not target me or my church or consider that “traditional Catholics” could be potential terrorists or a threat to his agenda.
Donald Trump was the first sitting president to address the annual March for Life rally in Washington DC with a call to protect the sanctity of life. He did not, as did Joe Biden, stand before a rally of pro-abortion activists and bless them with the sign of the cross – an affront to every pro-life Catholic in this country.
2024 is not just about Joe Biden and Donald Trump, nor is it just about Republicans and Democrats. Following the almost shocking victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential race, the progressive left was outraged because their long march to “radically transform America” through our institutions was suddenly met with a serious roadblock. Donald Trump did not play by their rules. He would not “go along” to “get along”. He called out hypocrisy and corruption when he saw it. Often his methods and terminology were less than ideal and made even his supporters squirm with discomfort. But more than half of the country was willing to set aside their apprehensions, because they were looking toward the long-term health and survival of the American system. And now, as we approach the November election, we have 4 years of leadership under each candidate to compare and contrast.
Not that long ago the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the National Anthem, the Supreme Court, and our Judeo-Christian origins and founding fathers were widely respected. Public classrooms displayed American flags and students recited the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of each day. Today, it is the rare classroom in which you will find this happening. Many Americans no longer respect and share anything resembling a common heritage. Nike was chastised for having a Betsy Ross flag on their shoes. Colin Kaepernick was applauded for taking a knee during the National Anthem. Evangelicals are seen as potential extremists. Antisemitism is running rampant on our university campuses – and even in the city halls of our own community. Nearly every major university faculty, mainstream media outlet, and large corporation promotes the idea that the entire foundation of our country was based upon “white supremacy” and is therefore rotten to its core and must be replaced.
Traditional concepts of morality, family, marriage, children, religion, and even biology are deemed offensive today. Churches are closing by the thousands, we have the lowest birthrate in our nation’s history, and suicide rates, anxiety, depression, and loneliness are soaring. A recent report claimed that half of the youth in our country are suffering from some level of depression. Social media and on-line influences, isolation, confusion about their biological identity, all are contributing to these appalling statistics.
Add to this the millions of illegal immigrants now flooding across our borders. Donald Trump was vilified for his efforts to secure our borders with walls and fences, although President Bill Clinton supported this effort years earlier during his own presidency, when fence construction actually began along the southern border. Despite the public outcry, the positive result of Trump’s policies was that Border Patrol agents were allowed to enforce our country’s existing immigration laws, and the number of illegal immigrants entering our country was reduced dramatically during his four years in office.
In the first days of the Biden administration, the new president reversed almost every rule, regulation, agreement, and system put in place to successfully secure America’s borders. In the midst of a global pandemic, Biden allowed an unvetted, unregulated, and unvaccinated tide of immigrants to cross our borders illegally at a time when American citizens were threatened with losing their jobs if they did not accept a COVID vaccination, when businesses that had survived countrywide lockdowns were open only limited hours and customers were forced to wear masks and remain “6 feet apart”, when restaurants were required to serve customers outside only, when proof of a Covid vaccination was required by our own Center For the Arts in order to attend an event, when churches which had been earlier forced to close were allowed to offer services for only limited numbers and/or solely outdoors.
Fast forward 3 and a half years, and among the 10 million or more who have crossed our borders illegally (no vaccinations required) are dangerous criminals, terrorists and human traffickers from places all around the world, flagrantly breaking our laws, and bringing a flood of dangerous and often toxic drugs such as fentanyl into our country. And we are told we should no longer use the term “illegal immigrant”; instead, these are “people in the country without permission” or “undocumented”.
While hard-working Americans cannot afford to buy or insure a house and are struggling to pay for groceries, taxpayers are providing housing, food, medical care, education, loaded debit cards, and other benefits to those who have broken our laws simply by the act of entering our country. All this is happening while inflationary prices and our national debt soar, and our President, Vice President, and Secretary of Homeland Security continuously assure us that “our borders are secure”.
While Trump was criticized for having “amiable” relationships with world leaders who are not friendly to America, during the four years of his presidency Russia did not invade Ukraine, Hamas did not brutally attack Israel’s civilian population, and 13 American men and women were not killed in a mismanaged pull-out from Afghanistan which left the Taliban once again in control of the country, as well as in control of millions of dollars’ worth of American weaponry.
Instead, during the 4 year Trump administration, a peace agreement was actively being pursued in the middle east with a great deal of potential success, Jerusalem was rightly recognized as the capital of our ally Israel, and a strategic plan for withdrawal from Afghanistan was being developed which would have removed our equipment and weaponry from the country and left just enough American troops in the area to ensure stability and to prevent the Taliban from taking over the region.
Whether world leaders respected President Trump, feared him, jeered him, or just believed he was unpredictable – they restrained themselves from aggressive actions and invasions. Our country had far better relations with both our friends and our adversaries during his time in office than what we are witnessing today.
The remaking of our country is not happening by accident. The most radical and once unthinkable ideas, such as mutilating surgeries on healthy 7-year-olds, anti-white racism in the guise of “diversity, equity and inclusion”, and the full weaponization of the government against political opponents are no longer fringe ideas of the radical Left. They are the platform of today’s Democratic party. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are not outliers – most of the mainstream Democratic party now holds these same opinions.
Perhaps the hate for Donald Trump is so visceral and passionate because he and those who vote for him are standing in the way of bringing these fringe ideas to full fruition. Those who oppose Trump are counting on people of faith who carry persistent guilt over Trump’s obvious flaws to withhold their support for him. In addition, they apply a standard of moral decency to Trump which they refuse to apply to themselves, in an attempt to embarrass people and convince them that they have no choice but to either remain silent or to publicly apologize for anything that resembles support for Trump.
But there’s a reason working-class voters and people of faith are supporting Donald Trump, and it is not because they love or excuse or deny his moral flaws. They don’t. It is because they believe that their vote will give the country they love a chance to change the dangerous trajectory on which we currently find ourselves.