Today, my favorite conservative Christian Trump supporter posted the following tweet:
If we're afraid to fight for our liberties today, our children will not enjoy them tomorrow.
— Dr. Michael L. Brown (@DrMichaelLBrown) June 9, 2018
The irony is impossible to miss. Brown is concerned about protecting religious freedom for his community including, for example, the rights of bakers to make cakes for whomever they choose.
Unfortunately, Brown also supports a president who has long exhibited authoritarian and demagogic tendencies. Consider, for example, Trump’s consistent admiration for dictators like Putin. Duterte, and Xi Jinping. After the Communist Party abolished the two-term limit to make Xi president for life, Trump said “I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll want to give that a shot someday.”
At the same time, Trump consistently attacks democratic states that have been traditional allies of America including Germany, France, Canada, Britain, and Mexico.
Trump loathes the free press, except, of course, those news agencies who support him. And thus, he consistently labels any news outlets that express criticism as “fake news”.
Trump believes the Justice Department exists to defend him and his interests. He believes Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the head of security and intelligence agencies ought to serve him and do his bidding. Hence, we have the petulant manbaby constantly complaining that Sessions betrayed him by recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
Like most demagogues, Trump lies habitually, he opposes science, he seeks to undermine trust in the very institutions that exist to provide checks and balances.
Incredibly, he has of late begun to claim that he has the power to pardon himself from committing crimes.
Like the leader of a banana republic, he is shamelessly nepotistic, appointing his family members and friends to positions in government for which they are ill-suited.
He flouts the emoluments clause and shamelessly seeks to use the government to further his own business interests (e.g. Trump Hotel in D.C.; about-face on ZTE after China granted his child Ivanka several patents).
He demonizes immigrants, refugees, and minorities and consistently seeks to exploit wedge issues (stand for the anthem, damn it!) to further his own political ends.
That’s the man that Christian conservatives like Brown support as president. So forgive me if I find it to be tragically ironic that these same individuals who purport to care about the protection of liberty support a demagogue who labors to undermine it.
