May 6, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – It’s official now: Republican primary voters have chosen Donald Trump as their presidential nominee. In one fell swoop, they have managed to confirm dozens of left-wing caricatures about right-wing people: racism, misogyny, unscrupulous business ethics, and nationalism with discomfiting echoes from the no-so-far-off past. After eight years of Barack Obama, Republican voters could have chosen the first no-exceptions pro-life candidate, a rock-ribbed constitutional conservative, a champion of religious liberty. Instead, they chose an orange New York business tycoon with a history of radical abortion support, a string of discarded wives, and a complete disregard for religious liberty.
The betrayals from the conservative icons we thought shared our ideals has been painful to watch, too. Ann Coulter, who once functioned as sort of an edgy conservative Jon Stewart, has become so unhinged in her support that she often appears to be campaigning to become Trump’s fourth wife. Newt Gingrich, who has also found time to complete two marriages and begin a third while writing books about returning to America’s founding Judeo-Christian values, is bizarrely effusive in his praise. And as for the Republican Party’s most reliable poodle Sean Hannity, he has been such an eager Trump supporter that one commentator tweeted, “I want my wife to look at me the way Sean Hannity looks at Donald Trump.” Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor and one-time pro-life conservative, has demanded that the #NeverTrump people get out of the GOP. Which, to be fair, seems like the place for principled pro-lifers these days.
So now, Hillary or Trump. To steal a line from Senator Lindsey Graham. Would you prefer to be shot or poisoned?
Trump supporters are now going crazy on social media, demanding that those who told them Trump was, as Ted Cruz said in the dying hours of his campaign, an “amoral narcissist,” get on board the Trump train. Their incoherence is only matched by their fury. To watch the emotion-wracked game of Twister some of these once-conservative people engage in to try and justify their support for the man who suggested removing the pro-life plank from the Republican Party platform would be amusing were it not so sad and depressing. It reminded me of something I read some time ago in Chris Hedges’ appropriately named book Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle:
Functional illiteracy in North America is epidemic. There are 7 million illiterate Americans. Another 27 million are unable to read well enough to complete a job application, and 30 million can’t read a simple sentence. There are some 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate—a figure that is growing by more than two million a year. A third of high-school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives, and neither do 42 percent of college graduates. In 2007, 80 percent of families in the United States did not buy or read books. And it is not much better beyond our borders. Canada has an illiterate and semiliterate population estimated at 42 percent of the whole, a proportion that mirrors that of the United States.
For many Americans, the arrival of Trump is a dream come true: Their favorite TV character has shown up to save the day! It doesn’t matter if that doesn’t work so well in real life. Celebrity culture, Television shows and video games have already destroyed any accurate conceptualization of reality, anyway. As Dennis Prager wrote bluntly over at the National Review, “Every distinctive value on which America was founded is in jeopardy.” Donald Trump has declared that the people have spoken, and he’s right. For example:
According to Pew Research, more and more young Americans do not believe in freedom of speech for what they deem “hate speech.” Forty percent of respondents ages 18 to 34 said they agreed that offensive statements could be outlawed…
The belief that certain fundamental rights are God-based — a view held by every American Founder and nearly all Americans throughout its history — is reviled outside of conservative religious circles and held by fewer and fewer Americans.
The view that male and female are distinctive identities — one of the few unquestioned foundational views of every society in history — is being obliterated. One is deemed “a hater” just for saying that one believes that, all things being equal, a child does best starting out life with a married father and mother.
The traditional family has become nothing more than one of many options open to Americans. For the first time in American history, there are more unmarried women than married women. The number of adults age 34 and younger who have never been married is nearing 50 percent. Twenty percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 are wedded, compared with nearly 60 percent in 1960. More than 40 percent of American births are to unmarried women. Among Hispanic women, the percent is over 53; among black women, the rate is over 71 percent.
Once you start looking long and hard at numbers that explain our culture, Donald Trump starts to make a lot of sense. A post-literate, post-Christian, broken culture has chosen a man that they feel represents them. Perhaps they’re right.
So now, Hillary or Trump. To steal a line from Senator Lindsey Graham. Would you prefer to be shot or poisoned?
