I don’t know who Bonnie Kristian is but reading her piece, published in The Week on October 12, tells me some people whose opinions I have long respected are either being snookered or so dislike President Trump they’ve placed their critical thinking capacities in hibernation.
Can’t figure out whether her piece—“The Supreme Court deal is done”—is more cynical or circular. The gist of her piece is how the “Evangelical Left” (to whom abortion may or may not be particularly important but not a deal breaker) hopes to peel off enough of the White Evangelical vote to tip the election to pro-abortion Joe Biden.
It goes like this…..
*President Trump is insufficiently [fill in the blank] to warrant all-out support from Evangelicals. By implication, pro-abortion Joe Biden must be better at [fill in the blank]. Consequently, some Evangelicals will take the Blue pill and live in blissful ignorance that they helped elect a man who, along with his party, is not only off-the-charts pro-abortion but also rabidly hostile to first amendment protections.
SIGN THE PLEDGE: We Can’t Vote for Pro-Abortion Joe Biden
*Put another way, President Trump isn’t good enough to warrant their vote. Famed Christian broadcaster Dr. James Dobson answered that in the October letter he sent to his 800,000 supporters:
I have heard from dozens of friends and acquaintances in recent weeks who tell me they will base their decision solely on a candidate’s rhetoric, tone, style, or likeability. Does that describe your thinking process? …
With all respect, this election isn’t about you. It certainly isn’t about me. It is about our kids and grandkids. It is about those who are yet to come, if they are allowed to live. This vote has awesome implications for future generations and the nation we love. It is about our Constitution and the immutable, God-given rights it protects. It is about values, and truth, and greatness, and hope. That is why the notion of choosing a president based on frivolous personality characteristics is so unfortunate.
*Those who’ve found Kristian persuasive do make one unassailable point: not every Evangelical who voted for President Trump in 2016 did so with complete conviction. Guess what? That applies to every category of human beings voting for any candidate. Some we love with all our hearts and souls. Some we tolerate. Most are the middle.
But for pro-lifers and most Evangelicals (I happen to be both), they vote both offensively (because of how much they like a candidate and believe he or she will accomplish) and defensively (to ward off what the pro-abortion candidate would bring). That obviously was true with President Trump.
He made a series of promises which he has faithful kept. He has rightfully earned the mantle of the most pro-life president ever!
We also knew that a “President Hillary Clinton” would come after the defenders of unborn babies—you and me—with a vengeance. It was true in 2016, it is even truer in 2020.
*So Kristian simply says ignore all that. Concentrate, instead, on this. In effect, Evangelicals made a bargain with the devil four years ago. He came through (solid Supreme Court nominations) and to “save our souls,” Evangelicals ought to cut and run in 2020. Granted, her language isn’t quite that blatant, but you can’t miss the suggestion.
This is so stupid, she must really think very little of the intelligence of Evangelicals. To begin with, I would be surprised if 50% of the population, including his supporters, believes Mr. Biden will serve out his first term. Sen. Kamala Harris will be the power behind the throne—she and her allies in the Abortion Industry.
Moreover, while abortion is the preeminent issue for Evangelicals, religious freedom is paramount as well. They [we] can kiss that goodbye if Joe Biden becomes President. Dr. Dobson keenly understands the existential threat Biden and Harris pose to unborn babies and religious liberty.
*Finally (in another slap at the intelligence of Evangelicals), Kristian argues that if Trump wins another term and replaces the aging pro-abortion Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court, that is bad.
Pardon?
“The backlash would be intense,” she prophesizes . “Court-packing and/or a serious loss of legitimacy for the Supreme Court would become all but inevitable.” Two things.
First, there are different older justices who are not enamored with Roe v. Wade. They could retire. Guess who a President Biden would nominate?
Second, the same smears, the same charges of “court packing” are already on display in the confirmation battle over Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
We’ll revisit this topic more than once in the next two weeks. But please remember this parting thought.
From a story by Jon Ward, Senior Political Correspondent for Yahoo News:
Ralph Reed, a veteran Republican operative who has helped corral the evangelical vote for Republicans for the last 30 years, said he thinks white evangelical support for President Trump is likely to be higher in the 2020 election than it was four years ago.
“I think the 81 percent of the evangelical vote that Trump received four years ago is the floor,” Reed, president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said in an interview. “I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that he could end up in the mid-80s.”
Reed said that by Election Day his organization will have knocked on between 3.7 million and 4 million doors in a get-out-the-vote effort.
And he predicted that the efforts of his group, and others like it, combined with white evangelical enthusiasm for Trump, will produce votes from 5 million to 10 million white evangelicals who did not vote at all in 2016. Reed claimed that there were 31 million white evangelical votes for Trump four years ago.
Optimistic? Of course. But I would trust the judgment of a man who has fought the abortion war for decades far more than I would an anti-Trumper who wants the President defeated more than anything.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
