How Biden Can Win the Evangelical Vote
Joe Biden, a practicing Christian as opposed to non-practicing Donald Trump, can win the Evangelical Christian vote, and thereby easily beat Trump, by 1) pointing out that Jesus Christ condemns hypocrites and all those who support them and denies them entry to Heaven; that Trump is clearly a con man hypocrite who takes advantage of gullible people and only pretends to be a Christian for political gain while egregiously violating Jesus’ morality and being a slave to money; 2) by pointing out that Jesus Christ would severely condemn the abhorrent way the Trump Administration has treated captured migrants at our Mexican border, putting them in concentration-like detention camps and inhumanely separating children from their parents just like the Nazis did; that Jesus would deny Heaven to all involved in giving those orders and carrying them out; and 3) by pointing out that the Christian way of dealing with abortion is not to outlaw it (a measure which has never worked and only ended up multiplying abortions outside of medical facilities, endangering the lives of many women), but to help prevent unwanted pregnancies and to encourage adoptions.
Joe Biden should forcefully and repeatedly make those points in person at Evangelical churches and universities. Biden must directly challenge Evangelicals to faithfully follow Jesus Christ’s principles, and not be misled and duped by Trump, a veritable con man whose entire life has been led in a very unchristian way. By supporting Trump, an incompetent businessman with multiple bankruptcies, who constantly and openly violates Jesus’ morality in multiple ways, Evangelicals are betraying Christian values.
How can Evangelicals continue to vote for Trump whose best foreign friends are corrupt, murderous dictators, egregious violators of human rights? How Christian is that? That is a mockery of Christianity, a mockery of Jesus Christ. True Christians cannot be for dictators. Not even for self-proclaimed “Christian” dictators. Dictators are essentially non-Christian; they are all criminals, hypocrites, highly immoral. Jesus would never have been friends with or admired dictators. Trump is an insult to democracy and human rights, a disgrace and embarrassment for the United States. The United States fought in World War II against fascist Nazi Germany, and fought the long Cold War against communist Russia, only to end up with a president who likes neo-fascists and former Russian KGB agents, and acts like a Russian agent? What a disgrace for the nation and for all those citizens who voted for Trump.
How can Evangelicals continue to support Trump when he says there are “fine people” among Neo-Nazis and the KKK? Many German Christians backed Hitler and his persecution of Jews enthusiastically, but those were not true Christians. In accordance with his words in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus certainly has denied them Heaven. It’s up to American Evangelicals to demonstrate that they’re true Christians by repudiating Donald Trump.
As Evangelicals know, Jesus was against adultery. How can any true follower of Jesus Christ support Donald Trump, a serial adulterer, even while his wife was pregnant. It is hypocritical for any Christian to support Trump, it shows disregard for Jesus’ moral principles.
Then there’s the fact that Trump has no empathy, just consider his Nazi-like treatment of migrant detainees, whereas Jesus wants empathy from all his followers. Trump is a “law and order” politician, and all such politicians are hypocrites with no empathy. They never work to reduce and resolve social conflicts and violence; they only back police repression and violence. Trump would want the United States to be a police state, like Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. Under his command. Trump has expressed no empathy and no outrage over police brutality, which all too often targets black Americans. He only criticizes perfectly understandable and justified demonstrations against repeated grave injustice. He has not called for greatly improved police training in order to avoid all instances of police brutality and incompetence. “Law and order” politicians are all would-be dictators with no empathy, so how can Evangelicals support Trump?
Evangelicals who continue to support Trump are dismissing his egregious act of hypocrisy when he walked from the White House with a group of officials to a nearby church and posed standing in front of it with a Bible for a brief photo-op. That is the height of hypocrisy, which Jesus Christ severely condemns (see Matthew 6). No true Christian would support such a man.
Evangelicals must also realize how shockingly unempathetic and idiotic it was for Trump to criticize John McCain for being shot down and captured during the Vietnam War, and hypocritical since Trump was a draft dodger. How can Evangelicals support Trump and consider themselves good Christians?
Biden must make the point that Trump’s appointing conservative judges opposed to abortion and willing to overturn Roe v. Wade does not absolve him from his egregious immorality, nor does it justify any Christian voting for him. True Christians will work to prevent unwanted pregnancies and encourage adoptions, not to make abortions illegal. Historically, making abortions illegal has not reduced the number of abortions, only made them happen outside hospitals and clinics risking the health and lives of many women. Since the great majority of unwanted pregnancies involve high school dropouts, the solution is making sure that every single youth gets a truly excellent high school education, with those having academic or psychological difficulties receiving individual assistance. That is the true Christian way. Biden must challenge Evangelicals to be logical and strictly adhere to Jesus Christ’s morality. He must challenge them to view Trump objectively, as person who violates Christian morality, and to stop supporting him. He must remind them that good Christians never make deals with the devil.
As for saving innocent lives, does Evangelicals’ great concern not extend beyond fetuses? What about the enormous number of Americans who have already died and will die because Trump has discouraged wearing masks, the most effective way of preventing the spread of COVID-19? Dying because Trump lied, calling COVID a Democratic hoax, knowing full well that it was a deadly disease? Hiding the truth from Americans? We have reached 200,000 deaths, and still counting because of Trump’s dishonesty. Most of them were totally avoidable. Masks simply needed to be required in public from the outset. Trump is even preventing the CDC from reporting medical reality in order to cover up his dishonesty and incompetence. He is not on Americans’ side. He’s not on Evangelicals’ side. He’s on nobody’s side but his own. Biden must tell Evangelicals that Trump treats his followers as dupes, he has no respect for them, he only wants their adulation, money, and votes.
Biden should also point out Trump’s dishonesty in hiding his tax returns. An honest politician would never do that. Trump clearly has something damning to hide. Dishonesty violates Christian morality. How can Evangelicals ignore that?
Biden should also point out that drug addiction and all sorts of violence are the result of psychological problems, and that the Christian solution is to address the problem of mental health starting at a young age, by having the public high school curriculum include four years of psychology accompanied by “group therapy” and “good parenting” workshops, with individual assistance for those in need. The Christian solution is to ensure that all our youth be psychologically well-adjusted, empathetic, happy individuals. In any case, making drugs illegal is obviously not a solution, since black markets always exist. The same goes for making guns illegal, apart from there being many other ways to maim and kill. Since gun violence is committed only by psychologically disturbed individuals, the solution is to ensure mental health, starting at a young age. That is the truly Christian solution. Meanwhile Trump encourages violence, even gun violence by vigilantes. That’s not Christian. That’s not even law and order!
As for illegal immigration, Biden must declare that it is irrational to have open borders. Half the world would be at our borders! It has always been morally and politically acceptable for all nations to set immigration limits. The United States has always had immigration limits and no one complained. But the large numbers of desperate, poor people camping out at our Mexican border wishing to apply for asylum after long dangerous treks with children and the aged is an unconscionable situation, the result of incompetent U.S. policy. The solution is requiring asylum and immigration applications to be made at U.S. consulates in the country of residence, not at our border.
Beyond that, we must enforce our own decades-old asylum law (inspired by the 1948 United Nations law prompted by the Holocaust) which applies only to individuals persecuted by their own government on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, and political opinion (INA 101(a) (42). It does not apply to people fleeing poverty and crime. Since there is no known persecution in Mexico and Central America, practically all the migrants at our Mexican border do not even qualify for a hearing. If that were well communicated, and if asylum applications were required at U.S. consular offices in the country of residence, there would be no waves of migrants taking long dangerous journeys to the U.S. border.
Furthermore, Biden should state that we must be truly concerned about poverty and crime in our southern neighbors, and that we should therefore institute a major Peace Corps program providing education, infrastructure, and medical clinics. That would not only be the humanitarian, Christian thing to do, it would be enlightened policy, benefiting not only those developing nations but also our own economy, particularly in the long term. Had this been done 50 years ago, Mexico and Central America would have become socially and economically prosperous decades ago, we’d have no illegal immigration problem, and much less reliance on China regarding supply-chains.
Of crucial importance, Biden must assure Evangelicals that he is not a socialist, but as a good Christian he wants to solve our deep social problems such as poverty. To be convincing, he must declare that the way to eliminate poverty is not to raise taxes and “soak the rich”. He must explain that income inequality is a demagogic red herring. The problem is not income inequality, the problem is low incomes and poverty, which are both due to failed social policies, not to capitalism and the wealthy! Communism was obsessed with income inequality, and through income and wealth redistribution it reached equality by having everyone poor. That’s what happens when the wealthy are targeted, because all productive innovative investment comes from the wealthy, the only group which has the means to invest. No society can be economically prosperous and advance without large amounts of intelligent, free market directed investments, as opposed to government directed investments.
The only way to eliminate poverty and low incomes, beyond having enlightened pro-growth fiscal and monetary policies which prevent long recessions and high unemployment through QE funded stimulus, is to provide a truly excellent public school education which prevents dropouts and leads to every single youth obtaining a college degree. No one can object to that, neither left-wingers nor right-wingers. It is self-evident that a universally well-educated citizenry leads to social and economic prosperity, with much lower taxes. That ambitious goal (requiring a dramatic upgrade in the public high school curriculum, strict class discipline, lots of homework, individual tutoring and study hall for students with poor grades, along with well-organized after-school activities in sports, arts, and vocational-training, on weekends, holidays, and during the summer break) must not be blocked by misguided, small-minded budget deficit concerns, especially since QE financing by the Federal Reserve can obviate the need to raise taxes.
In addition, Biden should propose eliminating long-term capital gains taxes, explaining that they are unfair by taxing illusory inflation-related gains (particularly unfair to those selling their primary residence and end up after taxes with much less money to buy an equivalent home), beyond being economically counter-productive by discouraging private investment and reducing economic dynamism.
Biden must also address the issue of taxation unfairness due to tax shelters which unjustly favor the wealthy, apart from being economically counterproductive by severely misallocating investment capital.
On the issue of climate change, Biden should state that although minimizing pollution must be a goal for its own sake, the theory that pollution causes global warming is totally illogical when one considers that there have been five ice ages followed by five major global warmings before humans ever existed. That means natural forces are the main cause of climate change, not human activities. Indeed, the current warming is probably the continuation of the last great warming cycle. So, calls for eliminating fossil fuels should be replaced by policies to minimize pollution from fossil fuel development and usage. It is a delusion to believe that eliminating fossil fuels will stop global warming. Science must be considered in its totality, not through cherry picking, such as focusing on CO2 emissions. Science requires distinguishing coincidence from causation. Our five major global warmings following the five ice ages were not caused by fossil fuels. That is a scientific fact. Inexplicably, that scientifically incontrovertible fact is ignored by those who insist that fossil fuel pollution is the main cause of climate change.
On the issue of affordable healthcare, Biden should amend Obama Care by removing the individual mandate provision opposed by Republicans, replacing it with the obligation for the uninsured to pay their heath care bills according to a repayment plan based on their income and wealth. That way, people who could afford insurance but refuse to buy it would be held accountable, a perfectly Christian and Republican free-market solution. In addition, Biden should remove all geographic limitations on insurance companies so that there is nationwide competition on health insurance, the effect being to lower premium costs and improve the quality of care.
Since a poor public high school education is the root cause of our social problems and most of our political divisions, greatly upgrading the curriculum is an absolute necessity. Apart from psychology (accompanied by “group therapy/good parenting workshops), other critically important courses are 1) logic and critical thinking; 2) economics and investing, including explaining why QE-financed tax rebates (not ultra-low interest rates) along with QE-financed infrastructure spending should be the standard economic stimulus tool; 3) analysis of domestic and world history in great detail from 1900; 4) ethics and empathy; 5) the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the history of human rights violations; 6) introductory law; 7) comparative religion; 8) history of art, architecture, and design; 9) history of music; 10) the major mistakes in economic, social, and foreign policy over the past 100 years and which would have been the correct policies.
Importantly, Biden must not be evasive and duck accusations like most politicians. He must directly address accusations of impropriety regarding his son’s Ukraine and China business dealings. He must prove himself to be a truly honest politician, even if it means admitting mistakes. Furthermore, Biden should immediately publish his tax returns of the past 10 years, and challenge Trump to do the same. He should also call for the mandatory publishing of 10-year tax returns of every single presidential and congressional candidate, and make the point that Trump’s excuse of being audited is totally invalid, even fraudulent.
Last but not least, Biden must explain that the Democrats, and even Robert Mueller, have fallen for the fraudulent, corrupt, unconstitutional, totally invalid Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel rule (it’s just a baseless rule, not a law!) against indicting sitting presidents, ordered by none other than Richard Nixon to defend himself as Watergate was unfolding. Nixon knew full well that indicting sitting presidents was constitutional, and feared being indicted. What he did not fear was impeachment and removal from office since the Republicans, his own party, controlled the Senate. Attorney General William Barr knows all this, and is corruptly enforcing the Office of Legal Counsel rule to protect Trump, laughing to himself as nobody objects! Biden should make the point to Evangelicals that the corrupt OLC rule must be revoked and Barr impeached and removed, in order to follow Jesus Christ’s morality that the guilty not go unpunished. Barr proudly advertises that he is a Catholic, but he is not a good Christian, as he is obstructing justice and undermining democracy. Biden should publicly confront Barr on this matter. (What is the rationale behind the OLC rule? That presidents would be too distracted from their duties by being indicted. That is a transparently fraudulent rationale, since being indicted is no more distracting than being impeached. The Constitution does not state, explicitly or implicitly, that indicting sitting presidents is not allowed. In fact, having the right to indict presidents is a perfect complement to impeachment and removal, when a president’s party controls either the House or the Senate. The Constitution clearly does not want criminal presidents to be shielded, as they would be when their own party controls either the House or the Senate. Furthermore, attorneys general must always recuse themselves from all matters involving the president who appointed them, due to conflict of interest considerations.)
A suspicious detail regarding Barr. It seems very strange that Jeffrey Epstein was able to commit suicide in prison one night when he was under suicide watch, directly under the supervision of Attorney General Barr. Just a coincidence that the video surveillance cameras were not working that night, and that the prison guards fell asleep instead of doing their rounds to check on Epstein? Just a coincidence that Epstein knew a lot (possibly even damaging information) about highly placed people, including Donald Trump and William Barr? Why no news about Epstein’s partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell, imprisoned for months now? Is she alive? Does she have a lawyer? Is she seeing a lawyer? Who is her lawyer? When will her trial take place? Will she also commit suicide under Barr’s watch, because she knows too much? Or die under suspicious circumstances? The American public has a right to hear from Ghislaine Maxwell without further delay, and to have guarantees that she will not be murdered or be able to commit suicide in prison.
One more suggestion for Biden: he should wear an American flag printed mask, not a funereal black one.
© Edward Sonnino 2020
September 18, 2020
