A Rare Moment of Hope in the Midst of a Depressing Election

Recently I was invited to participate in the RedState Gathering in Denver, Colorado. During the conference I heard Glenn Beck give a fantastic speech about where we are as a movement and as a culture. One thing he said convicted me to the point I’ve thought about it a lot since.

Beck’s speech was about the need to return to being a people of truth, and a movement of truth. That truth is the greatest casualty of our culture’s decline. And he was right. For example, he talked about those claiming to be in our movement who opted to expose themselves as liars and charlatans during this depressing election cycle. That we shouldn’t forget these people, and remember them going forward. And he was right about that, too.

However, Beck also drew an important distinction between those cretins and those who just philosophically, ideologically, and morally disagree with another about what to do now that Donald Trump is officially the GOP nominee. Beck asked a poignant question: are we leaving space for folks to come together again when this is all over?

Now, light cannot mix with dark anymore than truth can mingle with lies, but just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean they’re a miscreant.

Consider Luther, Calvin, and Wesley as three of the greatest Protestant thinkers ever, but they vehemently disagreed with one another in certain doctrinal areas. So are they all heretics at the same time because they couldn’t agree on everything? Furthermore, two of the greatest thinkers in the history of Christendom were Augustine and Aquinas, who each lived prior to the Reformation and are therefore hallmarks of Catholic tradition. Are they heretics, too, because they served the church of St. Peter and not Protestant denominations that wouldn’t be conceived for centuries?

This is the danger of tribalism. It creates a myopia rather than sustaining a movement. We look for people who don’t just share our convictions on non-negotiables, but those who affirm all of our secondary passions and preferences to boot. If you’re looking for a way to shrink your membership, not to mention diminish your effectiveness, that’ll do it right as rain. Works every time.

I realized after Beck’s speech that I was in danger of falling into a similar trap regarding this election, if I had not already. That if I’m rightly concerned about allegiance to Trump’s candidacy causing conservatism to be dumbed down, I need to be equally concerned that not signing up to carry Trump’s considerable baggage doesn’t do the same.

That Trump isn’t the Mendoza Line for conservatism either way. There are people of good conscience on either side of that line. And that if conservatism is truly about conserving the values and virtues that history proves are best for the human condition, then those values were here long before Trump’s divisive candidacy emerged, and will still be here long after it is over.

So what might that look like?

I got a glimpse of what that might look like this week when I was invited to present my “10 Commandments of Political Warfare,” from 2014 book Rules for Patriots: How Conservatives Can Win Again, to a group of activists/party officials in Kansas City. This was a decidedly pro-Trump audience. I am decidedly not.

Yet by focusing on the principles that unite us in the first place, rather than the personalities who don’t, this ended up being one of the more enjoyable talks I’ve done in a while. Even during the Q-and-A portion when Trump came up, the audience was more interested in how my “10 Commandments of Political Warfare” might help Trump than arguing with me over him.

Afterwards, one of them came up to me after seeing Trump’s endorsement in the book, and asked me, “Why the hell isn’t he doing this stuff?”

Some of the fissures exposed during this depressing election will be permanent. That is unavoidable, when people you used to trust reveal themselves to be untrustworthy in broad daylight making it impossible to ignore. Thus, yes, there is a schism taking place. But while that is necessary, it need not be catastrophic. There’s pruning, and then there’s purging. One is painful but necessary discernment. The other throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water.

I think we can all agree we’ve had enough of angry mobs losing all perspective, and making decisions based on what they’re against and not what they’re for.

I close by now asking you, the reader, the same question Beck asked all of us in Denver a week ago: regardless of which side you’re on, are you leaving space for folks to come together again when this is over? When it comes to Trump, are you leaving space for folks to come together again when this is over? (For more from the author of “A Rare Moment of Hope in the Midst of a Depressing Election” please click HERE)

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