For those of you unfamiliar with the man sitting next to President Donald Trump in the picture above, it is Terry McAuliffe, the recent former Governor of Virginia (2014-2018) who is, of course, a Democrat. McAuliffe isn't, though, just another Democrat, he is an exceptionally shrewd and resourceful power-player in the Democrat party and much of this stems from his business and political acumen which is superior to most.
Born in 1957, McAuliffe began a business as a teenager, tarring driveways, before entering Catholic University and then graduating from Georgetown Law School. Immediately afterward, in 1980, McAuliffe took a job with the Carter campaign as national finance director with significant success.
These events, along with McAuliffe's substantial achievements in his business enterprises, led him to become a co-chair campaign manager for Bill Clinton's re-election in '96 and then a chairman for Hillary in her 2008 bid. Sandwiched in-between this, in 2000 Gov. McAuliffe began his tenure as the chair for the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic National Convention from which the party benefited richly in regards to McAuliffe's financial and voting re-alignment strategies. And as mentioned, from 2014-2018, he served as Virginia's governor.
But never-minding Terry McAuliffe's resume, there are some conspicuous reasons which make McAuliffe, probably the best match-up against President Trump of all the candidates heard from so far. Point by point, with regard to personality, style and temperament, he is almost Donald Trump's charismatic equal, possible what one might call the anti-Trump (this is not a slur by any means, just a metaphor).
And debating? Gov. McAuliffe not only holds his own, he excels. Unlike many, probably most, of the early Democrat hopefuls, McAuliffe's views as expressed in speeches and interviews but as in view here, in debates, will and do come from centrist Democrat positions. While likely holding to more leftist positions at times, he rejects certain extremes which his contemporaries foolishly support with vocal zeal these days.
In the front, at this moment with the Democrat presidential hopefuls are the noise makers. Beto will disappear, he's an impostor as it is and a poor candidate to boot. As to Kamala Harris, this is a stunt, she doesn't really want to be president, are you kidding? And Cory "Spartacus" Booker? Hardy, har har. There is a long list of wannabes and Pocahontases hoping their early sprints will somehow enable them to survive the kind of scrutiny and vetting process few survive but for most, this is simply for another end, not an actually race for the gold key.
McAuliffe not only survives, he thrives in this arena. He is a real Democrat with real experience along with the maturity, pedigree, success and appealing charm which may be the necessary formula for winning against President Trump in 2020.
Who will his running mate be? Possibly, this woman:
This is Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, of Hawaii. She is not only a minority on more than one level, which satiates many Democrat appetites, but she is also an Iraqi war vet and, of course, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives with a so-far, flourishing history within her party.
Though she has announced her 2020 presidential campaign bid, this is likely simply an effort to raise her national profile and open the door to the the V.P. slot. There is a great deal to like about Gabbard if you are a Democrat or even a left-of-center libertarian (she endorsed Sanders in 2016, possibly with the future in mind and not wanting to scar herself with a Hillary nod). As well, she speaks as a modern middle-of-the-road Democrat which isn't saying much other than she sounds reasonable in her presentations though, for example, she supports Medicare for all which many libertarians may find unacceptable. This, however, is likely not a deal-breaker. And obviously Gabbard is an attractive candidate, as shallow as that may sound this is the world in which we live. Added to that, her age gives her an advantage with a younger voting block, one in which 50% prefer socialistic ideas.
If This Is The Case
If the set-up ends up as I have postulated, it would make Donald Trump vulnerable, particularly with the Vice Presidential candidate. V.P. Mike Pence, while a man to be appreciated for many virtues, too often comes across as stiff and almost as boring as watching paint dry. There have been questions raised, already, some months ago, which speculated that Pence may not be on the ticket for 2020.
It is no secret that President Trump gave to former S.C. Governor Nikki Haley, the U.N. Ambassadorship job with the future in mind. And upon her announcement of leaving the post, she made it clear she would be all-in for Trump's re-election bid.
While this would be unusual, would it or could it be possible that this is to be the new second?
It might be unorthodox but let's be frank, President Trump is a pragmatist, he likes winning, not following everyone else's arbitrary rules and if believes the better running mate is Haley, it would not be surprising if he negotiated some kind of agreement with Mike Pence on this issue. But let me be clear, this portion of my prognostication is simply a possibility and not as likely as the McAuliffe/Gabbard ticket but, it would be interesting and dynamic.
To gain Haley is to keep much of the Evangelical vote but as well, it is to also gain an appreciably successful female governor and stateswoman with international politics as part of her profile.
On the other hand, to lose Pence in such a manner, no matter how even Mike Pence might present his not choosing to be on the ticket in 2020 with the kindest of words and unimpeachable continued campaigning for and support of Trump, this could create distrust among some Evangelicals and beyond.
Never-Trumpers are a self-righteous group. That is what they share in common and a move like this would only be an excuse to hate President Trump even further, a childish but all too real scenario.
Final Thoughts
President Donald Trump's campaign was the perfect storm. He had a bevy of dumb Republicans who believed their own prevarications only to be shell-shocked by a man who was used to writing his own rules because he could see through everyone else's dishonesty and was not about to play by their duplicitous regulations.
And in the national election, Hillary Clinton was as unappealing a candidate as the Democrat party could find but the devil be damned, it was her turn and so, as history now informs us, before Bernie Sanders had raised his first dollar, Clinton had already won the nomination. Given that sense of entitlement and her own grotesque personality and contempt for the rest of the world, Donald Trump was the man for the hour and the only man.
In 2020 it will be different. President Trump has faced the realities of certain limits which are placed upon him as President thus, like all politicians, he will be liable for unfulfilled campaign promises and a mainstream media colluding with tech giants, to do everything in their power to defeat him. They were caught off guard, they won't be again.
If there is anyone who has a realistic chance, it is Terry McAuliffe. He is equally as savvy, energetic and intelligent as Donald Trump. But, if there is anyone who can match Terry McAuliffe and more, it is the man with the magic touch, President Trump himself, who has made a life of winning but beyond that, his love for this country and her values compels him with convictions to which no politician can correspond.
It has been some time since I have written and it will be difficult to produce work for a while, though I will try. I want to, however, stop and assert this proposition. Donald Trump is America’s Martin Luther.
I realize such an assertion does not sit well with the Incredulous Class, the Smartest Guy in the Room Class, or the Sanctimonious Class, but it does and should with the common class of which most of us are and of which we should be proud.
Martin Luther was despised by all the right people and so is Donald Trump. If one reads Luther, they ought to remember he had to crush an entire institution which incited the religious community to seek to put him to death.
And when I say that Donald Trump is America’s Martin Luther, I do not say it as if Trump is faithful to God and his conscience is seared with devotion and passion to purity in ecclesiastical matters or toward theological integrity. But when this proposition is offered, it is done so because few seem to understand just what exists, politically, with regard to elected bodies alienating themselves and this nation through their governance from our constitutional boundaries and values and Donald Trump's allegiance to righting the many wrongs perpetrated over the last 8 years with the gross attempt to dispossess America of her attributes and world standing but even beyond that, possibly the last 40 years of a slow national deference to others, ultimately to our detriment as a nation.
Trump understands this plodding decline and our Congress’s unwillingness to do what is in the best and necessary interest of the nation. He gets that the new but false social political correctness morality which has overtaken even groups such as the ERLC within the Southern Baptists, is nothing more than a fake morality imposed upon traditional values in order to degrade and eventually reduce to an invalid, United States capitalism and our constitutional freedoms in order for losers, who cannot sustain themselves and become producers, to climb atop a heap of shredded good men and say, “Look what I have achieved."
The parallels between Trump and Luther are undeniable. Reformers are rarely appreciated when they are up to their waist in refuse as they are throwing it out. But President Trump, like Luther, tells it like it is, sometimes in blunt and crude terms to make sure his point is clear.
For years there has been a medium called “News”, which has belied its claim of professionalism through its obvious gross bias in reporting stories. And now, today, we have a Reformer, challenging it's dishonest participants and shaming them, directly, from his civic pulpit. Hallelujah!
Our selfish Congress has also been exposed by the Reformer, Trump and they hate him for shining the light upon them. Their response? Impeach. All because they are being uncovered and their feelings being hurt, Yet, they easily attack the President and dare to lie and call him a racist and so forth. They are duplicitous and corrupt carpetbaggers. Trump is exposing their hypocrisy on this thus, they are further infuriated.
If you think the President is somehow intimidated by the various and powerful news media, daunted by celebrities crying and throwing temper tantrums, shaken by elected officials screaming “impeach”, or dismayed by this special investigation into collusion with Russia for which there will be the conclusion that there was no complicity or anything illegal done by the President, think again. He has just gotten started and year two is upon us.
America’s recent election not only revealed a magnified crevice between two sociopolitical groups, the first being the producer/nationalist class and the second being the dependent/globalist class, but it also manifested a long minimized but very real partition between the aristocratic theological intelligentsia Evangelical ruling class and the pedestrian Evangelical laity class. One of the major personalities among these Evangelical elites has been Southern Baptist, Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. And to this, Southern Baptists in general, should be gravely concerned.
Mr. Moore demonstratively made it his mission during this past election cycle to relentlessly campaign against Donald Trump on what he generally tracked as moral disdain which allegedly forced Moore to pronounce political anathema against Trump but it did not stop there. His implication was against Southern Baptists and more widely, orthodox Evangelicals who supported and ultimately voted for Donald Trump. To plead for Donald Trump was tantamount to voting in support of immorality, racism and misogyny hence, you must be akin to this in some way, at least this is the unapologetic manner in which he crusaded in the minds of a vast number of Southern Baptists and Evangelicals at large as I have observed.
And as I write this, I am tempted to go backwards and revisit Moore’s numerous articles in which he wrote at length about his contempt for the bellicose, immoral, unwashed and intolerable Donald Trump, a man for whom is conscience could not vote but more than that, a man against whom he sought to turn many Southern Baptist/Evangelical consciences but that didn’t happen. I don’t, however, have to turn to Moore’s past articles, I need only look to a recent post-election piece in which his full, ruinous pristine moralizing is on display.
Writing at his website and for distribution elsewhere, Moore published a piece titled, President Trump: Now What For the Church? And here are but a sample of Moore’s continued misleading and disingenuous characterizations regarding Trump and those who voted for him, yes, the 80% of Evangelicals.
Moore - The sort of conservatism that many of us had hoped for—a multiethnic, constitutionally-anchored, forward-looking conservatism—has been replaced in the Republican Party by something else.
My Response – Sorry Russell, but the very people who elected Tim Scott, one of only two black U.S. Senators, were a constituency from South Carolina that also supported Donald Trump at almost a 90% level. Further, Mr. Moore, those voters supporting Donald Trump did so because of his forward looking conservatism that had a female campaign manager who was the first woman to head a presidential battle in the general election and win, not to mention bringing Dr. Carson onto his team as a major campaign adviser and who will likely play a hearty role early in his administration.
So excuse me, Russ, if I may and I will, who or what are you referring to when you lament that the multi-ethnic Republican party has been replaced by something else? Because it certainly isn’t Mr. Trump or his supporters. This leaves us two choices Mr. Moore, either you are incompetent and unable to see what is in front of you or you are simply dishonest and in either case, unfit to represent Evangelicals and certainly, the Southern Baptist Convention with all of its deplorable members.
Moore continues:
Moore - This means that conservative evangelicals are politically homeless—whether they know it or not.
My Response – Mr. Moore, you do realize that the Vice President Elect is a conservative Evangelical, right? You do realize he is second in power, correct? I almost want to use the juvenile expression, “what planet are you on because it isn’t earth?”, but I will not.
This is simply more delusion in his mis-characterization of the administration America elected, an administration, by the way, which will follow one of the most divisive and disruptive in recent history. But the last eight years apparently do not faze Russell Moore, at least not in any manner that would cause him to mount a reasonable and expected protest. That, instead, was left to the little people he claims to represent in their ouster of leftist values for this nation while they performed the necessary dirty work in voting for Donald Trump.
Who, then, exactly does Russell Moore represent?
This introduction leads me to my main question which wonders precisely who Russell Moore represents within the Southern Baptist Convention and more broadly, Evangelicals because, as we understand by his efforts with The Gospel Coalition and beyond, the SBC is not his only desired constituency? Russell Moore certainly does not represent 80% of Evangelicals which I am going to safely surmise is also about the same percentage of Southern Baptists who voted for Trump.
Russell Moore was not only on the wrong side of history but devoted himself to the leftist moralizing narrative of anti-Trumpers and disdain for Donald Trump's supporters, many of which were Southern Baptists. If Southern Baptists are so wrong in so large a number on such a pivotal and critical worldview, at least according to Moore, then there is an incompatibility problem the size of Godzilla before anyone within the SBC can move on with any sensible confidence in Russell Moore as a genuine representative of its members.
The Average Christian Joe and Jane
The average Christian (most people for that matter) does not aspire to capacious influence. A vast majority of the population have the goals of a good job/career, satisfying marriage, a healthy and safe life, well-loved and educated children and for Christians, of course, growing in and serving God via the gifts and opportunities given in life. And frankly, for most people, this is all they either have time for or were designed however, do not be mistaken, they are not stupid in their average pursuits.
Unfortunately, this is how I see the Russ Moore’s of the world treating their constituencies, like children who need lectured accompanied by finger-wagging about the dangers of robust alpha men and women who fight wars and like to watch the enemy die when we all should be playing nice with one another, surrendering to those who would import destructive ways to a nation to which we belong and ultimately bring collapse to the boundaries of freedom which are ours. At the expense of a nation they would posture. These are not leaders, these are religious neo-pharisites who risk your liberties and mine while their lives are assured comfort and privilege.
Why? Why do these kinds of men who are not genuine leaders and builders but lecturers and crusaders, rise up in a church they genuinely do not represent?
The answer lies in the ambition of the man or woman. People who covet influence do so because they believe they are smarter than most people. Usually these kinds of people are hyper-idealists and due to this, the political arena becomes a magnet. This, as we know, is where Moore was birthed with respect to his notability, as a Democrat. I am not claiming clairvoyance thus, ascribing these motivations to Moore but I am saying they regularly are part and parcel with the kind of position he holds. But what I am saying is that the chasm between what Moore proposes and what the majority of SBC members hold to as a worldview and theological preference, needs a great deal explaining before you can convince me Russell Moore is the result of an organic promotion by SBC members to his position, one that is ratified by natural majority support, all of which I see glaringly absent.
On the other hand, there is a group of men and women who are compelled, not by idealism but realism. They usually are reluctant but ultimately driven by truth and concrete ideals which they know must be preserved and elevated for the benefit of whatever group they see needs such shepherding. These kinds of leaders generally represent the every-day common sense of freedom-loving people, worldwide. Their instinct isn’t to lecture but to lead. They aren’t posturing critics rather, men and women with real solutions to real problems.
It is time to show Moore, the door?
Whatever Russell Moore is, he certainly does not represent 80% of Southern Baptists from what I have learned not only during this election but before its cycle, on a number of ethical and theological matters. I believe he, while possessing a higher-than average IQ, is subverted by his idealism and view that through expatiated moralism he can shame Southern Baptists into acquiescing to his brand of Christianity and politics. Throughout this entire cycle, Moore has constantly wagged his finger at Christians supporting Trump and ultimately found himself too immaculate to force upon himself the smudge of voting for Donald Trump, a thing he sought to convince the entirety of Evangelicalism to do thus, denying Trump/Pence the White House and permitting the ultimate destroyer, Hillary Clinton who was to bring with her the consummation of far-left progressivism as a way of life irreversibly forced upon America’s culture and legal system.
That is the permanent status Russell Moore sought to impose upon this country. Why? Again, I beckon to the raw premise above but for specifics, I point you to the many posturing and feathery essays Moore has available at his website from which you are to form your own conclusion. They will be there as a monumental episode of embarrassment in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention which must never be permitted to be repeated though sadly, I am not sure the lesson will have been learned fast enough.
I have no doubt that Russell Moore knows Christ and some theology and he certainly may want to see the world saved but he is unfit for leadership among Southern Baptists seeing the tremendous distance he has placed himself from the majority of its membership. He is far more fitted for a left-leaning para-church organization such as The Gospel Coalition who, via its co-founder Tim Keller, gladly embrace the social gospelism Moore has long touted in its proprietary PCA brand which which has come about over the last two decades.
Do I believe he will be forced out like he should be or that he will suddenly be seized by a conscience that is utterly embarrassed by an awakening to his self-righteous posturing which almost aided in bringing a continued but greater anti-Christian darkness to this nation, politically, in his aim to defeat Trump thus, help elect Hillary Clinton ? No, I do not think either are likely to occur, at least not real soon because of the many allies he has who hold power in the SBC.
What I do believe, however, is that many Southern Baptists, just like many Americans, who supported Trump not only will be vindicated by a robustly constitutional Christian friendly nationalist administration in Trump/Pence but as the days go by, they will have within themselves a refusal to tolerate the keyboard dictates of idealistic and over-paid philosophers like Russell Moore and a wave will rise, slowly but surely. The poison of Moore’s ideas will be much clearer as Trump/Pence succeed and people will come understand just how unfit Moore is for the position he now fills as the ethical voice of the SBC.
