My heart sank earlier today when I noticed a press release about Donald Trump giving a keynote at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority 2022. I’m pretty sure I spoke at a Faith and Freedom Coalition gathering once or twice or more in my life. These were my people, and I’m sure some of them still are (until they read this post?). Although the Christian Coalition before it and the Faith and Freedom Coalition were majority-Evangelical enterprises, I generally felt welcome. (I do remember being at one of the Road to Victory conferences in the mid to late ’90s, it must have been, and hearing grumbling about Father Richard John Neuhaus’s presence, talking about Catholics and Evangelicals working together for life. He came to that position, by the way, after being a leader in the civil-rights movement as a Lutheran minister. Because abortion — and the genocide of black babies — is our civil-rights movement now.)
My heart sank because Donald Trump shouldn’t be headlining political conferences in 2022. Even just watching clips of the January 6 hearings (which is all I’ve managed thus far) is embarrassing and maddening. Why are Republicans still defending him? And more so: Why are Christian conservatives catering to him, even adoring him?
I have friends who worked in the Trump administration, for the good (I think of people like Roger Severino who worked on conscience issues, among other things). Obviously, there are Supreme Court justices who are on the Court because he was president and listened to the likes of Leonard Leo, who have been in the trenches for much longer than Trump has been a mainstay of Faith and Freedom Coalition types. Someone said to me in recent weeks: If the Supreme Court rules as the draft 40 or so days ago suggests, Donald Trump is going to run as the person who ended Roe v. Wade.
The end of Roe v. Wade requires fierce mercy and tenderness and generosity. It requires integrity. It requires someone whose first instinct was not to talk about criminalizing women. I’m all for converts and am grateful he changed his tune, but Donald Trump is such a polarizing figure — and he seemed to be fine with Mike Pence, who up to about that point was his most loyal and gratuitous defender, potentially being killed for refusing to refuse to certify the election results. (Did he think they would really kill him? I certainly hope not. But when you whip up a crowd to right what you say is a wrong, adults know there are consequences. And it would help to have adults as presidents, as a general rule.)
Please, if there is anyone who has any influence over this man, talk him out of running. Make it seem like his idea. If you are a pro-life leader who supports him, please tell him how much more grateful to him you would be if he stepped aside for a new generation in a new era.
Donald Trump divides and brings out the worst in people. That doesn’t mean I’m not grateful for the judges he managed to get on the Court. But look at the violence. He’s contributed to that. And, yes, so have Democratic leaders, including Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden, including for not condemning the Dobbs leak and everyone who seems to have little concern for the lives of Supreme Court justices, especially if his name is Brett Kavanaugh. Please, reasonable people on the right, it is long past time to move on from Donald Trump. And, seriously, do it for the babies. How are we ever going to go about the essential work of saving hearts and minds if we’re still dealing with Donald Trump, whose very presence divides?
It would be nice to have a conservative coalition again that doesn’t have to be divided by the last thing Donald Trump said (or tweeted, should Elon Musk get him back on). Although there is going to have to be some healing work, for sure, considering some of what has been defended.
And if you disagree with me, consider Matthew Hennessy’s argument that it’s long past time for Generation X to take on some leadership.