There is no neutrality when it comes to Donald Trump.
To the contrary, he is arguably the most polarizing figure in America, if not in the world, and at the mention of his name, temperatures rise. To his loyal supporters, he is a courageous hero of superhuman proportions. To his fervent detractors, he is the incarnation of evil itself in exaggerated form. Why, then, does Trump bring such extreme polarization?
Why is he so hated?
The first and most obvious reason is that Trump is reaping what he has sown. He has sown hatred and he is reaping hatred. He has been nasty and cruel and crude and vicious, and his detractors are responding in kind, giving him some of his own medicine.
This should occasion no surprise, even to his most dedicated followers. He punches his opponents in the face, metaphorically speaking, and they punch back. (Would a more fitting metaphor be that he hits below the belt?)
There is no fair play. The gloves are off.
Second, Trump was hardly seen as a model of Christian virtue and humility in his pre-presidential days. Instead, he was known as a proud womanizer, a man who made money on strip-club casinos, not to mention being thrice-married himself. “Narcissist” was his middle name.
That’s why his critics have wondered aloud at the widespread support Trump has received from Christian conservatives, in particular evangelicals.
Weren’t these the same people who would not vote for Bill Clinton because of his alleged sexual dalliances? Weren’t these the same people who once billed themselves “the Moral Majority”? Weren’t these the “Values Voters,” the ones who shouted, “Character counts”?
How could they then vote for Trump, let alone support him so passionately?
Those of us who did vote for him would have a ready response: to our knowledge, his immoral days were in his past. But either way, we are in an existential fight for our nation’s survival, and without question, Trump was and is a better choice than Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton.
To say this, though, is to miss the point of this article, which has to do with why Trump is so hated.
Instead, those of us who support(ed) him need to put ourselves in the shoes of our ideological opponents, asking this question: If Donald Trump was a far-left Democrat, running against a God-fearing, highly moral Republican, how would we feel about Trump?
Put another way, if Trump was the enemy rather than the ally, would we excuse the sordid nature of his past and overlook the unsavory aspects of his character today? Wouldn’t we say, “We do not want a man like that in the White House?”
Do give this some thought. The answer should be self-evident.
Third, Trump is deeply hated because his opponents believe the very worst things about him, in particular as peddled by major media outlets: He is not just a bad person. He is a danger. A real danger. The devil has nothing on him. If elected, he will strike down the rule of democracy. He will empower the most foul, vicious, and violent elements of society. He will remove the rule of law. He will destroy the world!
During his presidency, a childhood friend of mine unfriended me on Facebook simply because I voted for Trump, and, while never excusing his foul behavior, I defended him when he was falsely accused.
How could I possibly do this? He was outraged.
I only realized later that the Trump he opposed was an extreme caricature of the real man, far more demonic, far more treacherous. No wonder this old friend had no tolerance for my views. I was kissing up to Hitler.
Fourth, Trump is a threat to the establishment, to the political and social status quo. And to the extent there is a deep state (a subject I will let others debate), he is its enemy. He is not beholden to the elites and he does not bow down to the system. He must be taken down and eliminated.
This means that he has enemies on both the left and the right. He is ruffling the feathers of the old guard. He is not part of the good old boys’ club. The accepted rules of the game mean nothing to him. He rattles too many cages. He must be stopped.
Fifth, Trump has identified publicly with Christian conservatives, and to the extent we and our values are hated, he is hated. If you are pro-abortion, he is the enemy. If you sympathize with transitioning children, he is the enemy. If you don’t like the Bible, which Trump freely waves and endorses, he is the enemy.
Whether or not Trump is truly Christian or even reads the Bible is not the issue. It is that he has surrounded himself with Christian conservatives, some of whom are quite bold about their faith, and therefore, as they are hated, so also is he hated. We, on our part, are perceived as power hungry hypocrites, willing to go to any lengths to have a seat at the table.
Trump, then, is the chief hypocrite, a fitting leader for these misguided, theocracy-minded leaders.
That is the perception of those on the “other side.”
That’s why it is so important that, if we do choose to vote for Trump, as I have said time and again, we make that the secondary matter, lest we tarnish the name of the Savior we love.
In other words, to the extent that we preach Trump rather than just vote Trump, we defile our witness.
So, let’s preach Jesus and model our lives after Him. And let’s be sure to vote.
