Crossing a dark threshold: Jesus’ teachings aren’t good enough

Who and what is the wicked?

The Atlantic writes about what appears to be a dark new threshold in Republican Party propaganda. Attacking the teachings of Jesus. If this had been going before, I was unaware of it. The Atlantic’s article, The Gospel of Donald Trump Jr., is ominous in its tone and content. We are witnessing the birth of something viciously hateful and divisive. The Atlantic writes:

The former president’s son told a crowd that the teachings of Jesus have “gotten us nothing.”

Donald Trump Jr. is both intensely unappealing and uninteresting. He combines in his person corruption, ineptitude, and banality. He is perpetually aggrieved; obsessed with trolling the left; a crude, one-dimensional figure who has done a remarkably good job of keeping from public view any redeeming qualities he might have.

There’s a case to be made that he’s worth ignoring, except for this: Don Jr. has been his father’s chief emissary to MAGA world; he’s one of the most popular figures in the Republican Party; and he’s influential with Republicans in positions of power. He’s also attuned to what appeals to the base of the GOP. So, from time to time, it is worth paying attention to what he has to say.

Trump spoke at a Turning Point USA gathering on December 19. He displayed seething, nearly pathological resentments; playground insults (he led the crowd in “Let’s Go, Brandon” chants); tough guy/average Joe shtick; and a pulsating sense of aggrieved victimhood and persecution, all of it coming from the elitist, extravagantly rich son of a former president.

But there was one short section of Trump’s speech that I thought was particularly revealing. Relatively early in the speech, he said, “If we get together, they cannot cancel us all. Okay? They won’t. And this will be contrary to a lot of our beliefs because—I’d love not to have to participate in cancel culture. I’d love that it didn’t exist. But as long as it does, folks, we better be playing the same game. Okay? We’ve been playing T-ball for half a century while they’re playing hardball and cheating. Right? We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference—I understand the mentality—but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing while we’ve ceded ground in every major institution in our country.”

Throughout his speech, Don Jr. painted a scenario in which Trump supporters—Americans living in red America—are under relentless attack from a wicked and brutal enemy. He portrayed it as an existential battle between good and evil. One side must prevail; the other must be crushed. This in turn justifies any necessary means to win. And the former president’s son has a message for the tens of millions of evangelicals who form the energized base of the GOP: the scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. The teachings of Jesus have “gotten us nothing.” It’s worse than that, really; the ethic of Jesus has gotten in the way of successfully prosecuting the culture wars against the left. If the ethic of Jesus encourages sensibilities that might cause people in politics to act a little less brutally, a bit more civilly, with a touch more grace? Then it needs to go.

Decency is for suckers.

He believes, as his father does, that politics should be practiced ruthlessly, mercilessly, and vengefully. The ends justify the means. Norms and guardrails need to be smashed. Morality and lawfulness must always be subordinated to the pursuit of power and self-interest. That is the Trumpian ethic.  

Liz Cheney voted with President Trump more than 90 percent of the time but is now persona non grata in the GOP because she is willing to defend the Constitution and the rule of law and stand against a violent assault on the Capitol and an effort to overturn a free and fair election. When Liz Cheney is more despised in the party than the crazed Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, Madison Cawthorn, or Donald Trump Jr., you know that the GOP has lost its moral bearings.

The article goes on to note that the crowd generally enthusiastically received this toxic propaganda. But it also asserts that this kind of talk is common among of at least some Republicans in positions of power, arguably making Donald Trump and Don Jr. a some kind toxic authoritarian evangelist. 

The article also points out that not all Republicans embrace this tactic, asserting that some GOP governors and other Republicans adhere to a less toxic ethic. That said, the author argues it would be “naïve and irresponsible to pretend that what we have seen since Donald Trump left office is the revivification of ethical standards and demands for moral excellence within the Republican Party.”

That assessment feels right.

The unstated, mostly non-existent grievances and persecutions that Don Jr. claims to be suffering from are dogma straight out of Christian nationalist ideology and propaganda. They are myths based on crackpottery, e.g., the left cannot cancel the right. American Christianity is intolerant, aggressive, greedy and heavily protected by the constitution and dozens or hundreds of laws and institutions. Federal, state, county and local governments, the military, police, schools, prisons, most businesses and courts are all dominated by Christians. Exactly what the hell is Don Jr. complaining about? Not enough tax breaks for Christians? Maybe the goal is to make non-Christians pay taxes and let Christians off the hook. 

The main cancel culture here is radical right neoliberal conservatism and fundamentalist Christian nationalism. Republican elites want wealthy White males to control government, education, society and commerce. They demand imposition of their version of history and morality on all of the rest of us. They want to legalize discrimination against women, non-Republican opposition, racial and ethnic minorities and the especially hatred LGBQT community. That is the real cancel culture at play here. 

Questions: 

1. Is this article just an over the top partisan screed[1], or is this a new Republican propaganda effort to negate whatever restraining and democratic teachings the Bible might still exert?

2. Are conservatives really persecuted victims on the verge of being canceled as Don Jr. claims? What does cancellation mean, e.g., mass murdered, re-educated into socialist atheists or subjugated to socialist and minority tyranny?

Footnote: 

1. The author is Peter Wehner, a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and writes about political, cultural, religious, and national-security issues. He wrote the 2021 book, The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump.