I don't know a better observer of life in America's evangelical communities than author and filmmaker (and former evangelical) Frank Schaefer. He and I are both working on a project called VoteCommonGood, "an effort to dislodge control of Congress from the Republican Party by inspiring Christians to vote on November 6, 2018 according to what our faith tells us is the Common Good. This is the answer to the white evangelicals who put Trump in power and thereby demoted Jesus. We at VCG," he continued, "are brokenhearted and angry about the turn our nation has taken, and the role many of our fellow Christians have played in that turn in electing a thug. The Trumpism take-over of the Republican Party departs from America’s best norms and principles. This is lynch mob America, not Lincoln’s country. Trumpism is an affront to the teachings of Jesus. Put plainly, the Republican-led Congress lacks the moral standing to do its work as a check and balance on the Presidency. Vote Common Good is hitting the road in a 35 city tour to work for candidates out to flip the House, encouraging and equipping you to do your part to help dislodge Congress from Republican Trump enablers’ clutches and restore it to patriotic humane people."Ice, Ice by Nancy OhanianMany of these white Christians are now regretting their Trump votes. They didn't sign on for endless lies, payments to porn stars, crying children, and a Congress refusing to do its job. Significant numbers of these voters have changed. They are ready to say enough is enough. VoteCommonGood is working to help progressive Democrats reach out to them. Writing these voters off is understandable, but a critical mistake being made by Democrats across the board especially because the Republicans are also taking them entirely for granted. Speaking to these voters about shared values, emphasizing Democrats' ability to stop Trump when it matters most is attractive to some evangelicals who still put Jesus before Trump. On Sunday, Frank penned a piece on his own blog, Compare Jimmy Carter's Idea Of Christianity And Leadership To What Comes Next: The Republican/Evangelical/Trump Turn To Theocratic Fascism. Harsh!
Thirty-seven years after leaving office, Jimmy Carter, 93, still bypasses the wealth and perks that flow so freely to other former presidents. White evangelicals hate this Christian who lives like Jesus and follow a lying pervert as he demolishes American democracy.The Republican Party is only in power and Trump is only “president”-- not because of the Russians, but because of white evangelical supporters. The Republicans ARE the evangelicals and vice versa.Take Betsy DeVos. She’s a Republican, white and an evangelical leader. DeVos is also the first secretary of education with a $40 million family yacht that’s registered in the Cayman Islands to avoid American taxes. Just another unpatriotic white evangelical right wing thief, right up there with con-artists like Pat Robertson.DeVos is today’s white evangelical ideal, not Carter. Humility is out. Honesty is out. Trump’s greed for money and power is in.DeVos is worried about the government making “burdensome” demands on the for-profit schools run by Trump-like con-artists offering valueless “education” to those duped into giving them money for nothing. DeVos has stuffed her department with people from the for-profit education industry. The guy supposed to be overseeing fraud investigations is a former dean of a for-profit named DeVry University, which paid $100 million to settle a lawsuit over misleading marketing tactics.That’s nothing compared to what comes next in the Republican Evangelical Trump turn to theocratic fascism: Kavanaugh will reverse Roe. Then the Gorsuch-Kavanaugh court will use the Constitution to ban all abortions, striking down state laws as a violation of a fetus’s “right to life” under the 14th Amendment. That’s the long-held plan antiabortion constitutional scholars have been pushing. These are the same people who have compiled the lists of potential far right judges Trump is appointing to keep his white evangelical base-- led by Franklin Graham-- happy.Republicans in Congress and their evangelical sycophants are acquiescing in Trump’s corruption, his incitements to violence, and his abuse of power, up to and including using the power of office to punish critics; they’re even increasingly vocal in cheering him on. Republicans, white evangelicals and Trump are now one and the same.Make no mistake: If Republicans still hold both houses of Congress after November Trump will go full authoritarian, abusing institutions like the I.R.S., jailing opponents and journalists on false charges, and he’ll do this with full support from the Republican Party and white Evangelicals.Republicans in Congress must be destroyed in November for the same reason World War II had to be won. And the stakes are just as high. Republicans in Congress have made a coldblooded calculation that the demise of democracy is worth it if it means lower taxes on the rich and the freedom to pollute. Republicans are not just wrong but evil.With Trump as the lens we’re looking through we’re seeing what the enabling Trump-Republican Party is made of: White supremacist, pro-billionaire, anti-environmental, racist and sexist fascism. American democracy will die unless Democrats take back the House.
As far as I know, the VoteCommonGood tour is scheduled to kick off in Bangor, Maine on September 29 and head to a big event with Rev. William Barber in Raleigh on October 5 via Syracuse, Scranton, and Allentown. After that, it's right into the heart of "Trump country," with events in West Virginia and Kentucky. There are lots of stops in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas and over a week in "red" parts of California. We'll be giving more information about this effort as the kick off date gets closer.