One of the most horrifying spectacles of the Trump era is the moral and spiritual sell-out of evangelical Christians who have made a Faustian bargain with President Donald Trump. They condone or ignore his alleged sexual predation, bigotry, cruelty, lies, abject materialism and egomania. For some judicial appointments, they not only tolerate a host of non-Christian qualities but deify him, becoming the most devoted foot soldiers in the Trump cult. (These were the people who vilified President Bill Clinton for sexual immorality and decided that Jeb Bush wasn’t sufficiently supportive of the pro-life movement.)
Thanks to Trump, his evangelical excuse-mongers and his right-wing media chorus, the Republican Party has become a mostly male, white-grievance party, which is indifferent to real discrimination against women and minorities, to trauma inflicted on migrant children, to those who may lose health-care coverage — really to anyone who is not a devoted Trump fan. The question for the party is no longer whether something is conservative or even good for Americans (or true!), but whether a position helps Trump. It’s idolatry plain and simple.
Into this vacuum of values and faith steps savvy Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg...
...Buttigieg’s model is a good one: Explain positions in terms of universal values (e.g., it’s wrong to tear babies from their mothers’ arms or to despoil the planet). Treat opponents as potential converts. And don’t be shy in pointing out when Trump and his ilk betray the principles of faith they claim to hold and by which they judge their opponents — but not their own side.
