By Steve BermanDear “Evangelicals for Harris,” who have become drones, emotionally invested in Kamala’s campaign:
I understand that some politicians—ex-Republicans (or soon-to-be-ex) like Adam Kinzinger and Geoff Duncan—really believe that the best path foward for the GOP is to side with Democrats for a cycle or two. These people have no future in the GOP, despite the fact that Duncan wrote a book called “GOP 2.0”. I read it: a repetitive, turgid tale filled with prescriptive self-righteousness, written by man whose epiphany struck him from his one ride in The Beast with then-President Trump. Duncan declined to run again for his post as Lt. Governor of Georgia, while Gov. Brian Kemp ably led the state, while managing to stand against Trump at the same time. To Mr. Duncan, I say: there’s value in doing your job versus bloviating.
It’s David French’s job to bloviate—a bit more cogently—for the New York Times and other outlets. French was doing his job when he said it’s time to vote for Kamala Harris to save conservatism. He’s not wrong that the Republican Party, as it is right now, is no vehicle for the advancement of conservative values. In fact, I’d say the GOP is dead, if the GOP was indeed a living thing.
Political parties are not living things—a better analogy is that they are edifices, or small cities with buildings of varying size and purpose, all grouped together and linked by proximity, funding, and population of people who use them. The GOP, as it stands, has been taken over by MAGAtown. Its biggest skyscrapers are run-down shambles featuring gilded penthouses, all emblazoned with the name “TRUMP” at the top. It will take more than a splash of fresh paint and some spackle to repair the GOP.
So here’s what I’m seeing. Conservatives who noticed the new management of the GOP and fled found themselves outside any organization, without a city, so to speak. The only thing they knew is that MAGAtown, spread wide and far, would be like the alternate future in “Back to the Future Part II” where Biff Tannen’s vision was realized; in fact, writer Bob Gale explicitly based that on Donald Trump in 1989 (dude’s a prophet, even with the Cubbies, but not flying cars).
A number of conservatives who want a city not welcoming to thugs and homeless freaks, gamblers and self-promoters, went wandering, and finding no rest, settled on the only place with the lights on: Democrats who at least offered a jug of water to parched tongues, rightly pointing at MAGAtown and calling it “weird.”
Now, about “weird.” Let me go back to my original point. I know who and what Donald Trump is. I’ve written well in excess of 100,000 words about Trump. I won’t bore you with another recap. He’s Biff, okay? It’s all true. But he’s built a very bright, gaudy city that’s attractive to people who see progressive, urban, elitist American liberalism for what it is. The American progressive movement at its core is statism: the belief that a citizen’s primary responsibility is first to the state—the government, represented by federal primacy—next to the community (represented by very small but loud racial and identity groups like trangenders), and last to family.
Of course, actual liberals—the ones privileged enough—don’t live this way at all. They put their family first, then their neighborhood (NIMBY, anyone?), then their principles, which they can afford to have. The single mother, struggling to feed her kids, is a wonderful trope, but the mom herself doesn’t care who pays her grocery bills: the church, a charity, or the government—as long as she feeds her kids. There’s also the drug addict whose only desire is to get the next fix. There’s the homeless, mentally ill person who rejects all societal norms. It’s easy for rich, elitist, bicoastal liberals to put all these “freedoms” on a pedestal and treat them equally, because they can generally live on a different plane of existence from them.
In general, everyone lives for their own self-interest, apart from grace, charity and the noble acts of conscience flowing from good souls. So it’s fine for politically homeless conservatives to believe that the GOP is derilect and decrepit, and the Democrats at least have something functional. Fine, let them vote for Kamala. But they shouldn’t enjoy it.
But what I’m seeing is an emotional investment in Kamala Harris and her campaign from many of these conservatives, and that’s dangerous. Blighted neighborhoods, you see, are still populated with people who live in them. The GOP is a monster of blight, taken over by slumlords and demagogues—some are cultists—who require their tenants to worship their masters. But even blighted neighborhoods can be revived, and the residents deserve the dignity and respect humans owe to each other.
The accounts online who mock Tim Walz’s eighteen-year-old son Gus for his emotional outburst on Wednesday night are truly awful, but many (most?) of them are bots, run by malicious AIs owned by enemies of America. The ones who are real people are either shrill seekers of relevance and fame (Ann Coulter, anyone?) or gross gargoyles who spend too much time cheering on the Tate brothers (who are sexual predators—no links, Google it if you care to but I recommend against it). It’s easy to get angry at these online trolls, but keep in mind, most MAGA supporters are not very-online. They might get their news from Newsmax; they might indulge in Alex Jones (neither are healthy news diets), but they are regular people, and your physical neighbors.
The Golden Rule is to treat others the way you want to be treated. The Biblical command is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Even the progressive core belief wants you to invest in your “village.” Politically, we inhabit different villages, even different cities. I believe, because the GOP is dysfunctional and bereft of its most effective managers, that Donald Trump will lose in November, and Kamala Harris will win. The Democrats just have the organizational and managerial advantage this time, and unless events overwhelm, they’ll prevail in the election.
But we, the conservatives who used to inhabit the GOP, will still be here after Harris takes office, and we will have to live with our MAGA neighbors. Our police officers, our sheriffs, our mayors, city council members, business owners, retirees, pastors, elders—all of them will still be here. Some of them went to the January 6th “Stop the Steal” rally. Some of them will believe election denier conspiracies this year. Some of them will still listen to conspiracists online and on television.
There are two dangers of emotionally investing in the Harris campaign. The first is that this leads to a desire to punish the GOP for being taken over by MAGA. The desire is expressed in voting “D” all the way down, and potentially handing both houses of Congress to Democrats along with the White House. Don’t be surprised when Democrats use this to enact all the things they have promised, which are not conservative values. When the pregnancy crisis center you support with your donations and time is made illegal, and those who continue to work there are subject to prosecution or lawsuits, that’s the city the Democrats are building.
When the next health crisis occurs, and your churches are censored or prohibited from meeting, and your pastor’s sermons are examined by government officials for “misinformation,” that’s the city the Democrats are building. When your neighbors are investigated and some of them cancelled, their First Amendment rights trampled (and the ACLU cheering it on), that’s the city the Democrats are building. You don’t want to live there, do you?
Handing over the federal government, and the states, to one-party rule is never a good thing. Under Barack Obama, nearly 1,000 state legislature seats moved to Republican. Now look at what that accomplished: it enabled many states to support the MAGAtown takeover, and make the GOP into a blighted, decrepit vision of Biff Tannen’s Pleasure Palace. One-party takeovers are never a good idea, even if the parties themselves live for that dog-catches-car fantasy.
Getting emotionally swamed into the Harris campaign can lead to a top-to-bottom D takeover that will take a generation to unwind.
Also, there’s the Jacobin factor. Those who still live in MAGAtown might be wrong to you, but they live there because they see no better, more attractive place to live. They might not have the financial, educational, or cultural wherewithall—I’ll say the word, privilege—that you have. They may not see the world the way you see it, but that doesn’t make them worthy of punishment. The city the Democrats are building will encourage you to pursue vengeance against your neighbor. The unity Kamala Harris seeks is not the Golden Rule. It’s the statist progressive vision favoring the privileged.
It’s easy for people with law degrees, paid mortgages, and well-adjusted kids living in two-parent homes, stocked fridges and reliable cars to tell folks how evil conservatives who support Trump are. It’s easy to use the powers of the state to criminalize supporting the actual criminal (Trump is a convict, officially). The Biden administration did not have to order the FBI to pursue over 1,000 cases against January 6th protestors. Yes, go after the leaders, but I’d have pardoned the rest. That’s unity, that’s forgiveness.
The division sowed in the last four years—again, by both sides here, along with the online attacks from our adversaries—makes it dangerous to get emotionally invested and swarmed around the Harris campaign. The desire to become a Jacobin, a useful drone of vengeance, against your own neighbors and family, exhibiting a smug righteousness, doesn’t help to rebuild the GOP. It doesn’t help to build a political city or party that promotes values conservatives believe in. It does destroy the hope of revival, post-MAGA. It plants the seeds of suspicion, paranoia, and hatred. It ignites the flames of feuds that will continue for a generation or more. It takes hammer and tongs to a vision of conservatism that echoes George Washington’s scripture quotation: “but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.”
Rabid progressives who have pushed the Democrats toward a statist vision, culminating in Kamala Harris, who likely will be our next president, make me very afraid. MAGA makes me afraid too, but in a different way. Moving out of the MAGA city and settling into the Democrats’ city, getting comfortable and emotionally invested in their victory, makes me afraid that those who dwell there too long, like Lot in Sodom, might not want to leave.
Don’t swarm around Kamala. Don’t cheer her victory. If you must, hold your nose and cast your vote. My brother said that this, and all that will follow, is “the balloon payment for the House of Trump.” Perhaps it is, and perhaps the GOP deserves to inherit the broken windows and black mold-infested empty skyscrapers it enabled. But I don’t intend to cheer when the lights go out in MAGAtown. Those are my people who will live there in darkness.
Before you go after the Republicans who refused to “cross over,” keep in mind that these are the people who will be first with a shovel to rebuild. Don’t be a Jacobin. Don’t dwell in Sodom. Don’t gloat. Love your MAGA neighbor, even when Harris wins.
Signed: Not Voting for Harris, Steve
Follow Steve on Twitter @stevengberman.
The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at ideas@thefirsttv.com.
