Some of Donald Trump’s strongest opponents are conservatives who insist
Trump is not one of them. They worry the political climate is freezing
out social conservatives in favor of libertarians in the conservative
movement. Conservative radio host Steve Deace of Iowa is one of them. I
talked with him about the state of conservatism in the United States at
the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington
held Mar. 2-5.
You and I were chatting earlier here at CPAC, and you asked, “Are there any folks like us here anymore?” You
meant social conservatives, evangelical Christians. I started coming
here just a few years ago when the whole debate with the Log Cabin
Republicans and the like began. It’s still a great event, but it seems
like the crowd has changed. [There are more] younger libertarians,
people that are networking for a chance to work within the party system,
looking for a career in politics. What I don’t see as much anymore are a
lot of the movement people, especially the social conservative movement
people.
Does that, in part, explain the Trump phenomenon? I
think the Trump phenomenon is a partial symptom of it. I think the No. 1
thing that the Trump phenomenon is a symptom of is, people have just
become so fed up with anything conventional. I think you’re watching the
culture change. We’re struggling with how to react to it: When to
retreat; when to engage. … This event is symbolic of that in that you’re
watching more and more social conservatives saying, we’re not welcome
here. I think the question then becomes for us, when do you flee? When
do you run for the hills?
A couple of years ago at CPAC, another well-known conservative,
Eric Metaxas, who works with me at the Colson Center, said, “If Donald
Trump is a conservative, I don’t think I am.” Do you think that
statement was prophetic? Eric was prophetic. Let me tell you
about a conversation I had last night at dinner. A young man comes up to
me, and he wants to debate me on Donald Trump and why I don’t support
him. The first question I asked him, I said, “Show me anything about
Donald Trump, at all, that shows he’s credibly conservative about
anything.” This gentleman said, “I can’t.” I said, “Then why are you
supporting him?” He said to me, “Ideology doesn’t matter anymore.”
If ideology doesn’t matter anymore, then we as Christians have to
seriously consider the cost of partisan politics. It caused a lot of
division, a lot of enmity. It immediately turns a lot of people off to
the larger message of the gospel that we want to communicate.
If we’re not doing this to advance ideology, then really what is the
point? Really, what we’re talking about is dueling factions of tribes,
dueling cults of personality. That is not a place where a Christian is
going to thrive.
You have supported Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, since before he won the Iowa caucuses.
Last summer, I got wooed by the Trump people and Donald Trump just like
so many other conservatives and evangelical people did. In the end …
even though [my wife and I] agreed we needed something different than
what the establishment offered, we thought he put us as believers in a
position where we’d have to defend the indefensible. Boy oh boy, has
that proven to be prophetic with the way this campaign has unfolded. One
thing you learn if you’ve been in one campaign or a hundred: Nobody
ends a campaign more principled than they started. Campaigns do not
build character; they reveal it. You’re seeing that especially in the
case of Donald Trump.
What do you think is going to happen? How’s this going to play out?
I don’t believe Trump will be the nominee. I don’t think he can get the
1,237 delegates. If he doesn’t have 1,237 in the broad daylight—if
there’s one thing I know about the Republican Party, Warren, there is no
way that Donald Trump is walking out of any kind of a convention as the
nominee. He has to win the nomination outright, and I don’t believe he
will get there.
Even if I’m right, the long-term damage is something I’m concerned
about. I’ll say this: There have been nights I’ve woke up in the middle
of the night and my heart has been sick. My soul, I’ve been grieved to
watch how too many believers have been willing to define down what they
believe in order to support a person. It was wrong when people did it
for Obama. It’s wrong when people do it for Trump.
The greatness of our system is that the people are empowered to make
their leaders rise to the occasion, rise to them, not dumb-down their
belief system for the politician. That’s really what cults do. I’ll say
this, the worst cult surrounding a politician I’ve seen in my life is
Trump. It’s even worse than 2008 with Obama.
Courtesy: WORLD News Service
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