For years, some of the purist conservatives have lamented the dearth of conservative purists, at least among those running for president; expressing disdain for McCain, Bush and Romney, and nursing their deep sense of woe. Had they one of their own, deep red and rock solid, they would … drop him in a flash for an ex-Democrat and a friend of the Clintons, howl him down when he said the words “vote your conscience,” and connive at his public demise. Ted Cruz can tell you what you need to know about purist conservatives, and their judgment and standards. And the story does not end with that.
For years, another kind of conservative purist had established himself as a cultural bulwark, foe of trash talk, tight clothes and loose morals, scourge of Bill Clinton and all he embodied, under the banner of “Character Counts.” His sexual past, his draft-dodging exploits, his financial extortions and distortions of truth launched a hundred careers, a thousand best-sellers, and a million laments that he and his wife should have ever come close to the center of power, much less have been given it twice.
Enter a GOP nominee to whom this applies and goes double — and adds to it a layer of callous brutality that leaves even the Clintons dumbfounded — and they do a 180-degree leap into an alternative universe in which it ceases to matter at all. “Trump-Loving Christians Owe Bill Clinton an Apology,” writes James Merritt, correctly. “It’s perplexing that the former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed declared that ‘character matters’ when it came to Clinton but privately offered to run Trump’s campaign in 2012. It’s hard to understand how the former Family Research Council head Gary Bauer ran television ads in the ’90’s calling for Clinton’s resignation due to a ‘virtue deficit’ but now supports Donald Trump.” And it’s hard to see how former virtue czar Bill Bennett now calls Trump resisters “former friends, who suffer from a terrible case of moral superiority” when it was his own sense of moral superiority (over the Clintons, and assorted other conveniently liberal enemies ) that was the basis on which he built his career.
When Bennett said National Review’s Jonah Goldberg was on his “high horse” about Trump and his shortcomings, Goldberg compiled a list of the titles of some Bennett books — “The Book of Virtues,” “The Devaluing of America,” and “The Death of Outrage — Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals” among them — to back up his assertion that few knew “the view from the saddle” like Bill. From his perch in the saddle, Bennett doesn’t seem to think that “Donald Trump and the Assault on American Ideals” is much of a problem. It’s almost as if he and the others thought that the real fault of Bill Clinton was that he was a Democrat who won a lot of elections, and not that he was that much of a sinner at all.
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Ted Cruz can tell you about purist conservatives and their judgment and standards. https://t.co/TMHWRN1KH2 via @DCExaminer
— Vote Your Conscience (@JoshPainter2154) September 6, 2016
Amen to that! I am still sticking to my high standards and ideology. Those who love Trump can do their best to get him elected, but I will not be among those who pull the lever for him.
I am not offended to be called a purist, although I know that there are some things that you can be too dogmatic about and no one will ever meet those standards and be liked well by others, too. Even in beginning a new party, we need to keep the standards high, realizing that we are all fallen human beings, but the intent of the heart needs to be that which seeks to hold to Judeo-Christian ideals and our founding principles. That leaves a lot of room for us to come together on many things, even though there will still be differences of opinion.
It is still a sad thing to see the republican party come to this…electing a democrat and being okay with it. But then, I’ve been praying that God would show us what we need to do and that is becoming more evident every day. It will take a lot of prayer and fasting, diligence and patience, but I do think that the time has come to say good-bye to the RNC/GOP.
Pray for righteousness to be restored and for the peace of Jerusalem
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