Blogger, political commentator, chief #NeverTrumper and now, apparently, master click-baiter Erick Erickson has just written a piece entitled “Reconsidering My Opposition to Trump” for his website, The Resurgent.
In the piece, Erickson admits that, in light of the very real horrors a Hillary Clinton presidency would impose on our nation and the freedoms we have left, he has been “actively reconsidering” his opposition to Trump.
Seeming to understand the problem at hand, Erickson writes, “[Clinton] would expand the government, engage the government in social experimentation, and she would advance the agenda of the sexual revolution against the church. I am under no delusions. With Clinton as president, the church in this country will be in for a difficult time, besieged from the outside. The forces of Mordor will be fully on the march.”
“With Hillary Clinton, the Supreme Court will fall into the hands of the left for a generation at least.” he continued, which will “pursue expansionist federal policies and concepts of positive liberty that advance the individual prurient interests of deviants against the church in ways the founders would not have anticipated and no rational person would think wise. But Clinton as President will mean the insane have taken over the asylum.”
This is not an ignorant man, this Erick Erickson. He clearly understands what we’re up against.
The former RedState editor-in-chief then lists several obvious advantages of a Trump presidency that even his most strident opponents on the right admit:
“At least with Trump we might, might, get a better Supreme Court. We might get better Cabinet picks. In fact, in terms of my view of the country the odds are pretty great that my side has a greater chance of prevailing with Trump than Clinton. What most would identify as my side would have control of the Executive Branch and the powers of appointment and regulation that come with it.”
So far so good, right? Oh, if only he had stopped there.
But, sadly, he didn’t. Not by a long shot. Instead, Erick doubles down on the insanity as the column devolves into self-righteous Churchian Pharisaism while ultimately rejecting both of the choices God Himself has obviously put before us.
And the logic he uses to do so is horribly, fatally flawed.
Erickson contrasts Clinton’s “tyranny of the minority” with Trump’s “tyranny of the majority” and his “corrupting the virtuous and fostering hatred, racism, and dangerous strains of nationalism.”
Since when, Erick, is putting America and Americans above globalist interests a “dangerous strain of nationalism”?
Trumpism, the movement Trump represents, can essentially be defined as taking our country back from foreign, globalist, corporate and establishment interests by securing our border and limiting immigration, establishing a fair, sensible trade policy that protects American jobs, and limiting foreign interventions overseas, among other things.
What could possibly be wrong with that?
By constantly bringing up the “racist” canard, people like Erickson not only lose credibility – because there is not one single shred of evidence that Donald Trump is a racist – but they insult, like Hillary Clinton did, the millions of Americans who passionately support Trump. It’s tired, old and increasingly ineffective, and yet just like the left, who see a “raaacist” behind every tree, hand-wringers like Erickson continue to deploy it to serve their rhetorical ends.
Further, the attacks on the supposed hypocrisy of prominent Christian theologian Wayne Grudem are beyond the pale, especially given the fact that Grudem made it clear that he did not support Trump in the primaries, just as he didn’t support Giuliani in 2012. However, he most certainly would have supported Giuliani over Obama had he won the primaries, just as he is supporting Trump now, with good reason.
Erickson uses the fact that a fellow parishioner at his church tried to make the argument for Trump based on other flawed men in the Bible God has used, like David, Abraham and Samson, as evidence that Trump has “poisoned” the church from within. He believes that while Clinton will do “long-term damage to the country,” Trump will “do far more damage to the church.”
Ironically, Erickson later writes of the church, “But Christ has already risen, so the true church is in no danger of falling. The gates of hell shall not prevail.”
So, which is it, Erick? If you believe that Christ will protect and keep His church, surely you aren’t worried about a mortal human like Donald Trump wrecking it, are you?
You see, unlike our country, the church IS, at root, a spiritual institution impervious to the machinations of man.
Which highlights Erickson’s most fatal of flaws. In describing miraculous acts God did in the Bible from shutting the door of the ark to throwing open the gates of Jerusalem, Erickson writes, “If God wants Trump in the White House, he does not need my vote or a violation of my conscience to get Trump there. To think otherwise is to think God is not God.”
Except, God has ordained the fact that we presently live in a political system in which one happens to need actual, physical votes to win elections and push the levers of power (unless, of course, the Almighty is planning on rigging the voting machines in Ohio). As a Christian, understanding the fact that Christ Himself is ruling and reigning at God’s right hand (1 Corinthians 15:26-26), His people have been given the power and authority to accomplish “his will on earth as it is in heaven.”
So, may I ask, which entity is more likely to rig those voting machines in Ohio, God or the Democrats?
Are you, too, in Hillary’s “basket of deplorables”? Tell the world with WND’s latest bumper sticker
You see, Erick, these days God’s generally into delegation, not rigging elections. He’s not closing any doors. He’s not building any walls. He’s not defunding Planned Parenthood. He’s not nominating constructionist Supreme Court justices. It’s up to us, His people, to do all those things.
And if enough of you NeverTrumpers choose to ignore the two obvious choices God Himself has given us, and thus fail to cancel out a vote for what any one of us would define as pure, unadulterated evil, if enough people in key states do this, evil will win (at least for now, and possibly for a generation).
Finally, Erickson’s pleas to avoid supporting Trump “for his own salvation” are arrogant and condescending in the extreme. First of all, none of us knows Donald Trump’s heart. Just because his candidness, celebrity, time in the public light and lack of political experience make his flaws more evident for all to see doesn’t mean other presidents, politicians and candidates aren’t even more flawed.
In truth, in this sin-filled world every political choice is between the lesser of two evils.
Besides, only his Creator knows Donald Trump’s heart, and one could make a strong case from multiple “in the know” accounts that the caricature we see portrayed in the media is a far cry from the real Donald Trump anyway.
And secondly, in terms of Trump’s own salvation, it is not up to us to further this along somehow by aiding and abetting the election of Hillary Clinton to the freaking White House. You see, Erick, this is where you need to be talking about God “opening doors” and such, because this is the realm that is God’s and God’s alone. You know, the whole drawing His people to Himself thing.
Based on the beginning of his column, Erick Erickson knows the stakes, yet still abdicates his clear, God-given responsibility to do all that is within his legal power to limit evil. He does this based on flawed logic and and skewed view of God and the Scriptures that is Pharisaical at best, and patently destructive at worst.
Hopefully, his is a voice that should and will fade over time as ordinary Americans, including Christians, refuse to listen to the NeverTrump insanity and instead use their God-given vote to rally and take their country back.