The Election: What We Can Do

Disappointment fills the air again and again these days when it comes to politics. Disappointment seemed the universal reaction among conservatives when Paul Ryan said the other day that he’d vote for Donald Trump. Couldn’t he have held out, some wished, until it was officially summer and the eve of the convention? However, if anyone had to support Trump, surely it was Paul Ryan — short of resigning the Speakership (which had to have been tempting).

But what about the rest of us? I’ve known David and Nancy French for a long time, and at first I was as surprised as anyone that his name was being floated as an alternative candidate for president. But the Frenches are certainly exemplars of love of country and self-sacrifice, and either of them would do a world of good in any position. And what wasn’t surprising is that David French was asking himself: What can I do?

A lot of people are asking themselves the same question. Not on a running-for-president level. But they’re asking how we got here — with a presidential election that doesn’t seem to have any good options — and how we can find a way out of this dead-end. I personally have had a steady succession of people asking me what should they do — almost asking permission to vote for Donald Trump. They want to know: Is he merely a narcissist? Would he be harmless if surrounded by the right people? Or is he dangerous?

People announce to me: “But she’s the Devil incarnate.” By which they don’t mean to let Trump off the hook, but they know Hillary Clinton and know that her ideology has bought into everything the Obama administration has to say about human life and about “gender.” Something of a theocracy is being imposed, as my friend Mary Eberstadt lays out quite clearly in her upcoming book It’s Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies.

I’m only certain about one Incarnation, and I want to continue to have the freedom to believe in it, that’s for sure. Meanwhile: What to do about politics to ensure that?

One formerly NeverTrump friend said the other day that the prospect of another four or more years of a national government inclined toward socialism has her in an apocalyptic mood. She hasn’t even told her husband she’s thinking of voting for Trump, but she is coming to believe it’s her moral obligation. It’s exactly the idea of a competing faith — the “progressive” faith — that has no room for religious believers to move around and operate that’s on her mind — room, say, to run adoption agencies that place children with traditional married parents who might do radical things like encourage a child to live as the sex he or she was born as, for instance.

Another friend told me that she has had “so many bizarre conversations about Trump with people I respect and admire who have given in to this idea that Hillary is worse. I truly don’t believe she’s worse — just a different kind of evil. I think in many ways that matter (cultural, mostly, I’ll admit) Trump is worse.”

Another likened the situation to having two plates of meat in front of you. You have reason to believe that one has been poisoned with the Ebola virus, but you don’t know which one. Do you take your chance? Do you skip dinner entirely? Do you opt for salad, which may have the side effect of having someone else eat the bad meat? Yes, these are the conversations I have these days.

If you find yourself thinking similar things, wondering if Trump can be trusted on the Supreme Court or anything else that would make the difference for you, you may be asking questions like: If worse comes to worst, do you not vote? Do you write someone in? Do you hope a David French can save you from having to decide?

My best advice is to pray and open your eyes and get involved in things that change lives and the world.

On June 1, a hundred nuns managed to get New Yorkers to stop for a block party outside their home on 51st Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues for the better part of the day. The Sisters of Life were celebrating their silver jubilee. Twenty-five years ago, the late Cardinal O’Connor demonstrated what his successor, Cardinal Dolan, described as “apostolic swagger” and took a gamble, asking women to come forward to dedicate their lives to Jesus and to protecting innocent human life. The Sisters of Life were formed to accompany women and men and children at their most vulnerable, not merely saving lives, but becoming part of their lives. It was while visiting Dachau that O’Connor had the inspiration to take the divine dare. “We’ve seen miracles happen,” said Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, superior general of the Sisters of Life, at the end of a thanksgiving Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral earlier in the day.

Yet another friend, a literal life-saver, said to me: “Maybe Donald Trump will be good.” She recalled his car wreck of an answer to a question about abortion and punishing women, but she added: At least he must know it’s evil. Still, there’s an uncertainty that is keeping people wondering and worrying.

My hope is in the people doing the real work of walking with others in hard times. They overflow with love in their service. Just the other day Jean Vanier — the Canadian Catholic founder of L’Arche, a community dedicated to ensuring that the severely disabled have a home in which to thrive — commented on the assisted-suicide debate in Canada. He said that while we obsess in our national politics about “the right to die” maybe we could take a few steps back and instead love and live and serve. People have a right to be accompanied, he said. That’s not a legal issue, that’s a human one.

At some point, we have to let the screaming go. We have to stop pretending to have all the answers and magic formulas in the form of political platforms. Politics is important, but it will only ever be as good as we work for it to be in every other aspect of our lives beyond Election Day.

If you’re disappointed in politics, stop bemoaning its state and do something beautiful.