The art of a better deal
‘Hillary Clinton is evil incarnate.” I remember where I was the first time I heard this — I felt a resistance, a repulsion, a sadness.
She’s not.
Look, I worked at National Review during Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. The first time I remember being on one of the national pundit shows — it was one of those programs with four boxes on the screens — I was on the same side of the debate as Kellyanne Conway. (Super grateful to have a pro on my side. I co-hosted a radio show for a time with Steve Bannon, too, as it happens.) Conway and I were arguing that Clinton had abused his power. That neither of the Clintons is a model of moral leadership is not something you have to convince me of.
Furthermore, as I’ve written throughout this campaign, Hillary Clinton’s stubborn extremism on abortion is astonishing. Yes, she’s a liberal ideologue who has been advocating abortion internationally for decades. But now more than ever, America needs a leader who would seek to unite us in ways that are good — that remind us of our inclination to generosity and our most valued freedoms. Polling shows that there are huge opportunities on many issues, including abortion, for this. Instead, Hillary Clinton spent the first two questions of the last presidential debate doubling down on the worst poison in our politics.
I guess I’m experiencing a little more freedom this election, because I’m not voting for anyone on the ballot. I’m opting for the write-in option. Some people reading this will probably think that a reckless copout, but the time has long come to stop pretending that things are all right. Donald Trump didn’t start the fire — he is not evil incarnate, either, for the record — but he may be a pivotal opportunity to say “Enough.”
Something I find myself thinking about a lot in recent days is friendship, specifically friendships after Election Day.
What is it about this election that has put a strain on them? I don’t think either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton have that power — to destroy friendships. But what is going on when people write off magazines they grew up with, people who have long been a part of their working days, family members? What is behind some of the vitriol on social media?
I myself have been informed of all the babies’ deaths I will be responsible for because I’ve criticized Donald Trump along the way. I’m not voting for him, and I don’t see that as a vote for Hillary Clinton, as many insist. We’re on our fourth decade of legal abortion. This is an unnecessary reality, not befitting of the generosity of our people and history. Polls indicate that people know this, but we’re so overwhelmed by manipulative language and by a sense that something better is impossible. The anger of this election is not lifting us out of it.
I’ve been in Florida for the last week, clearly not stumping for Trump but studying St. Ignatius Loyola’s rules for discernment. Father Timothy Gallagher OMV literally wrote the modern-day guidebook to them, The Discernment of the Spirits, and as I walked to his morning class at the Cenacle of Our Lady of Divine Providence’s spiritual-direction school, I couldn’t help but notice a New York Times opinion piece headlined “Donald Trump’s Lack of Discipline and Discernment.”
What Father Gallagher offers is something people are longing for: hope. In the rules of discernment, you acknowledge reality and patterns of temptation and behavior. And in the rules, there is one categorical: Do not make a change in a time of desolation.
People tell me the Church will suffer under Hillary Clinton. You don’t have to convince me of that. Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda, from Erbil, Iraq, was at New York’s St. Patrick’s cathedral one recent Sunday and talked about the genocide his people have faced. In the same breath, he noted the persecution people of faith face here — a different degree, but real all the same, and it’s increasing. Hillary Clinton has said that people who don’t agree with her on fundamentals of human nature and dignity need to change their views. We’ve had almost eight years of an administration that has used coercive government regulations and mandates to restrict religious freedoms. But it’s going to take more than a president to change this political culture.
#related#When Father Gallagher talks about the rules of discernment, he emphasizes that they are all about freedom, that God did not make us and does not call us to captivity. He wants to set captives free. What struck me about that in the context of the election — which neither Father Gallagher nor St. Ignatius had in mind, but I did — is how many people feel captive to these two bad choices: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Ignatius tells us to “work to be in patience” when in desolation. Whatever you do on Election Day, whatever happens, whoever wins, we’re not going to be a winning people, a light to the nations, unless we consider that work in dealing with one another. Maybe that’s the real art of the deal.