In the run-up to the 2016 Republican primaries, I wrote an article explaining that I could not and would not support Donald Trump for president. That was back when I had choices like Ted Cruz and Ben Carson. But after Trump won the nomination and began debating his counterpart, Democrat Hillary Clinton, I slowly began to change my mind.
It had little to do with Donald Trump and everything to do with Hillary Clinton. The Democrats had taken a hard-left turn since Barack Obama’s re-election. A decade earlier, Democrats opposed illegal immigration, held publicly at least that marriage should be between a man and a woman, called a terrorist a “terrorist,” and even Robert Reich could be quoted as saying “Free Market Capitalism is still the best path to prosperity” – the “Kudlow Creed.”
My, how times have changed!
The Choice in 2016
Progressivism has overrun the Democrat party. It’s now the party of Socialist Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren. Socialism, transgenderism, free college, #MeToo, open borders, gay marriage, social justice, eliminating the Electoral College, and climate alarmism are now en vogue, while the first and second amendments to the constitution are under fire.
Previously “Liberal” positions held by Democrats, such as a tough stance on illegal immigration, are no longer welcome in the party. Even popular Democrats such as Harvard Law Professor, Allen Dershowitz, now aligns more with Conservative Republicans than with Left-wing Democrats, even though his stance on most issues has remained constant.
It could hardly be said that this country was ever unified in the 1990s; but in all of these issues, Republicans and Democrats largely agreed until former President Barack Obama’s second term. Then it all changed. That’s when we became truly divided as a country. Not because Republicans and Democrats suddenly became “partisan” and “tribal”, but because the Progressive Left, the Marxists, overran their Liberal brethren and took a blind dive off the deep end.
And that’s where we were in 2016. The choice was a blustering, belligerent, immoral businessman and television personality; or a corrupt, lying, Leftist hellbent on diving off the cliffs of moral and political insanity and dragging the collective country with her. When faced with the two options, it was no choice at all.
Supporting President Trump
I threw my full support behind Donald Trump. And I did so with both eyes open. Trump had a long history of immorality and he was arrogant. The Never-Trumpers warned us that he would betray Conservatives and legislate from the middle. But to my surprise, he didn’t. Trump’s belligerence and irreverence for Washington politics turned out to be brilliant. He is, perhaps, the only president I’ve known in my life that couldn’t care less how the media portrays him.
He has the guts to call them “fake news”. He challenges the Left’s interpretations of history and calls them to account. He’s made bold strokes that no other Conservative president had the hutzpah to do – like moving our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He’s the only president to show up for the March For Life. He’s appointed good Supreme Court justices and stood behind Brett Kavanaugh in a shameful display of character assassination – one in which many of my fellow Conservative Christians, to their shame, participated in.
More than two years before the words “quid pro quo” were ever known, Democrats announced they were going to impeach President Trump. They’ve been fishing. And, I thought, who knows, they may actually one day find something to nail him on. But it will be the coward’s way, to be sure. It will be something that Democrats cry moral outrage over but do themselves ten times over without thinking about it. Joe Biden is on tape bragging about his own quid pro quo with Ukraine, and they didn’t care about that.
Quid Pro Quo or No
Who knows? Quid pro quo may sink this president. The Never-Trumpers will say “I told you so” while the Left cheers and jeers.
As for me, quid pro quo or no, Donald Trump has been the greatest president of my lifetime. And, way back in November 2016, when I shed my Never-Trumper cloak for a bright red MAGA hat, I accepted his shortcomings.
In truth, I have far more respect for President Trump than many a Conservative Christian. They have shown far less courage when fighting the real evil of the Left. They would stand by as the country goes down in Socialist flames. They would watch the human suffering and say “At least I didn’t vote for Trump!”
