A Ridiculous Essay About Anti-Trump Evangelicals

https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/the-resistance-will-be-organized

I think I've just about had my fill of Aaron Renn and for that matter the on-line rag known as The American Reformer. After reading several of his pieces, I think I've more or less grasped where he's coming from and I don't see that he has a lot to offer.

This piece was pretty characteristic of what I keep encountering – more Right-wing boilerplate material.

There's a great sinister plot at work – all kinds of dark money funding the anti-Trump Evangelical movement.

Actually I'm not terribly convinced of this – though I think it more likely that it picked up as the country neared the 2020 election.

Is Renn unaware of all the Right-wing secular money that flows into the coffers of Evangelical ministries and denominations – into the Christo-Trumpian Right? Is he really unaware of how money from big oil companies and other corporate entities is funnelled into sundry think-tanks which partner and pair with ministries? Study the tax forms of these non-profits, read the journalistic investigations. That money – effectively ends up funding propaganda on the airwaves of Evangelical radio and it even makes it into Sunday School curricula, pastor's conferences and the like.

The irony here is that some of these anti-Trump conservatives (no doubt communists in Renn's book) are actually motivated by the same kind of patriotic motives that he is – and therefore just as confused.

And yet they rightly understand that Trump weakens America and is destroying what little was left of Christian ethics in the Church. The Evangelical movement has all but destroyed the conscience of its members over the past several decades but Trump's rise was Rubicon-moment to be sure.

But the people who are upset at this are all closet Leftists and elites – or so we're led to believe.

Mind you I don't think well of any of these people. I'm not a fan of Brooks, Hunter, Moore, or Keller – and never have been. And yet, in a moment of crisis I was surprised to see that at least some of these people had a shred of decency left, they had some notion of morality and a commitment to character.

Does Renn think Trumpism is going to produce a positive change in America?

I've listened to Alberta being interviewed. I'm pretty certain that I'm not going to agree with him on many things but I found his conviction and concern to be somewhat refreshing. Does no one stop and reflect on just what has happened over the past thirty or forty years – and how much of a departure Trump is from what Evangelicalism was supposed to be about?

I'm not an Evangelical but I grew up in those circles and to watch this downgrade and sprint into all-out apostasy has been both startling and disturbing.

The Renn essay just gets worse and worse as you read through it – by the time we're done, we're off into Covid anti-vax looney-land.

I detest Silicon Valley millionaires too and shame on Moore or any of them if they collaborate with such. Of course I'm sure everyone on the Right avoids Peter Thiel like the plague – right?

And yet here we are in 2024, and still there are people like Renn that apparently do not understand what happened with the Covid virus – they're still trapped into thinking that the leaders of the American Empire have a suicide wish and want to bring it all down and spend what remains of their lives loafing about in Mao suits.

Meanwhile, Renn is among those that is so Biblical in his thinking (and such a patriot too!) that he had no problem with over a million of his countrymen dying because he couldn't be bothered or inconvenienced – or because he was far more concerned with controlling and promoting a political narrative. I'm glad he got vaccinated and boosted but he's still promoting lies that led others to reject even the most basic protocols and acts of mitigation.

Russell Moore is a longtime Democrat. Wow. Do you know what this tells me? This tells me that Renn is ignorant of basic US political history. All Southern Conservatives were Democrats and only began to migrate into the GOP during the 1970's, 80's, and 1990's.

Is he aware of the difference between conservative and Right-wing? There is a difference though I doubt he could elaborate upon the issue.

Trumpism is a Right-wing movement. It's not conservative by any stretch of the imagination. People who put up F--- Biden signs in the yard, and F--- Your Feelings stickers on their cars are not social conservatives.

History gives us examples of this Right-wing/Conservative divide and even explains why conservatives eventually fell in with and supported the Right-wing movements. The history is found in the rise of fascism but the American Right has so clouded the discussion that it's almost an impossible topic to explore at this point in time. It requires humility and a return to some basic history and political theory and let's just say Trumpism doesn't promote intellectual exploration and it despises humility. It's very Christian that way isn't it?

Renn falls into non sequitir and thus invalidates his entire essay. The analogy of Right-wing billionaires funding Black politics or the like is false. What he's calling 'Left' is not left. The problem is that he (in keeping with the GOP) has moved so far to the Right that even those who are in fact hard-right actors and yet unwilling to leap off the Trumpian cliff are being considered Leftists. Liz Cheney is not a Leftist. Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy are not Leftists. But the GOP has moved beyond the pale and these people have been alienated. It's not because they've gone 'woke' – it's simply because they have some understanding of what the system is all about and how it works. I don't agree with them either but I'm not going to write them off as Left-wing.

Renn's argument fails and exhibits a real blindness as to the realities of not just anti-Trump conservatives but the real nature of Right-wing politics and the relationship of its elite with the Evangelical movement.