Touching the Robes of Trump

Hey there, long time no email! I have been either insanely busy or painfully sick with the flu for the past two weeks, so apologies for the gap. There’s more coming ahead that I hope more than makes up for it!

In October of 2023 I wrote about the modern Christian church and its supplanting of Christ with political figureheads. I was disturbed by the trend of those who claim to be Christians following not Christ but the leaders of their political factions. I remain increasingly concerned by this trend.

The other day I was on social media when I came across this tweet:

It’s a long post, but the essence is that a woman in South Carolina was getting ready to vote in the Republican Presidential primary, and on the way to the polling place broke her hip.

Now, the Republican Presidential primary is pretty much settled. Donald Trump is going to win the delegates needed to become the Republican nominee. I say this not as an endorsement or as a hope, but as key context surrounding this woman’s experience.

She is on her way to vote for a man that she knows is going to win the election with or without her vote. Her vote is purely a personal statement. So, when this woman breaks her hip en route to her polling place, the rational response would be for her to get to a hospital and get help.

Instead, she gritted through pain, crying out that “I have to vote for Trump!” This was her Valley Forge, her Waterloo, her last stand. In this woman’s mind, she needed to sacrifice, to give all she had in order to hold out and vote for Donald Trump.

It’s impossible to read this story and not think of the story of the bleeding woman straining to touch Jesus’ robe. The devotion, the conviction, and the determination to reach out for salvation from a man is clear.

But the man that the Republican Party reaches for is far from one worth following.

As his numerous primary opponents have fallen, key Republican leaders have coalesced around Donald Trump and endorsed him. Men and women who, on January 7th stated that Trump put the American republic at risk have turned around and endorsed him.

They haven’t broken any bones, but the injuries that these so-called leaders have endured are far more damaging. These people have sacrificed their careers, their seriousness, their very credibility on the altar of Trump.

And Trump is far from Christ. I mean this not just in demeanor, but in ability too.

In 2016, Trump was this vile, yet somehow effective fundraiser who was able to bend the media to his will. That miraculous ability is now gone. Take a look at his fundraising numbers:

Trump was a fundraising powerhouse in 2016 and 2020. He is a powerhouse no more. He is an old, confused, vengeful man saddled with a litany of legal prosecutions and left with a den of vipers as his only remaining confidants.

When the bleeding woman reaches out for Christ’s robes, she is reaching for salvation. She is reaching for the ultimate victory.

When Republicans reach out for Trump’s coattails, they reach out not for a savior but for ruin. They reach for the hand that will lead them to the wilderness.

This is a party in a tailspin. Eight years we have sowed, tying all of our prospects to the electability and media dominance of one man, abandoning all pretentions of principle or honesty to support him. He is now crashing and burning, and bringing the party along with him.

Many of us warned about the threat of this reality eight years ago. And it seems that, when confronted with Hillary Clinton as an alternative, many of us decided to bail out the Republican Party.

I wouldn’t count on the cavalry to arrive this time around.