Character Matters

At least, that's what Republicans used to believe

This was written in late October of 2016, right before the election of Donald Trump.

In 1987, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America started running an advertisement in which a father angrily confronts his son with drug paraphernalia.  The son initially denies and the father gets more intense, finally asking “Who taught you how to do this stuff?”  The son, in response, yells “You, alright? I learned it by watching you!”

The commercial has been referenced numerous times in popular culture and I’ve thought of it often in this election season, as I’ve watched numerous conservative and evangelical leaders line up behind, defend, and excuse the rhetoric and history of Donald Trump.  This has been especially disheartening because they are the ones who first taught me what I still think is true about the importance of electing people of character.

On Tuesday, November 3, 1992, I cast my first vote for president of the United States.  I was 20 years old and I voted for George H. W. Bush over William J. Clinton.  When I stepped into the voting booth, I knew that Bush was probably not going to win the election, but still remember that moment because it was the first time I felt like a citizen and not just a resident.  Putting the paper ballot into the counting machine felt like a rite of passage.  It was exciting and new.

Four years later, I cast my ballot for Robert Dole.  This time, voting was slightly less exciting because it was clear Dole was going to lose and conversations with people who were not as interested in politics as I was fed my natural cynicism.  At the time, I was working at Walmart and during a discussion about the election, one of my co-workers asked me who I was voting for.  When I said “Bob Dole,” the co-worker looked at me, horrified, and said “But he’s going to LOSE.”

In the weeks before that election, Dole asked a simple question: ‘where is the outrage?’  In that speech, Dole listed a number of Clinton scandals and seemed genuinely baffled at the refusal or inability of American voters to acknowledge the true nature of the man they were about to re-elect as president. Two years later, Clinton’s critics were vindicated on August 17, when the president admitted on national television that he “did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate…”

In August of this year, Jonathan Merritt wrote the following in “The Atlantic:"

In September 1998, James Dobson of Focus on the Family sent a letter to 2.4 million conservative Christians claiming Clinton should be impeached because his behavior was setting a bad example for our children about “respecting women.” Dobson’s apparent concern for women back then feels like a partisan political move now that he’s given Trump an enthusiastic endorsement.

In that letter, Dobson asks some very good questions about Clinton’s character:  “What are they learning from Mr. Clinton? What have we taught our boys about respecting women? What have our little girls learned about men?” Since that time, Dobson has apparently set those concerns aside and like many other evangelical leaders, Dobson endorsed Trump and has stood by him even after the release of the tape in which Trump brags about his ability to grope women at will.  When asked whether his endorsement of Trump is consistent with his criticism of Clinton, Dobson offers a variation on the ‘but the Clintons’ deflection that those who have identified as Never Trump have heard so often this year.

Another critic of the Clintons was William Bennett, former education secretary and author of “The Book of Virtues” and “The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals” recently said that conservatives who will not vote for Donald Trump “suffer from a terrible case of moral superiority and put their own vanity and taste above the interest of the country.”  This is actually relatively tame and civil criticism compared to the usual stream of invective aimed at those who are Never Trump.

What makes the criticism from Bennett and others hard to take is that the very existence of Never Trump actually shows how successful they were in teaching those of us who were finding our conservative identity at the time the importance of valuing character in our political leaders.

Yes, we were listening.

In 1992, I voted for George H.W. Bush because I agreed with him on many issues, but also because I believed character mattered, because that’s what the political leaders I trusted had taught me.  In 1996, I voted for Bob Dole for the same reason.  In 2000, 2008, and 2012 I voted for the Republican nominee not just because I disagreed with the Democrat but because I believed those Republicans running for the highest office in the land were decent men.

This election, that is why those of us who are standing up for the idea that character matters are so discouraged about being judged by those who taught us to believe it.  You worked to create men with chests and now you expect us to reject the virtues for which you fought.  What was once considered protecting honor is now treated as political treason.

Every charge that evangelical and conservative leaders leveled against Bill Clinton can be used against Donald Trump.  They are both adulterers, liars, and abusers of power.  The only difference between them is the party to which they belong.

I understand that some of these leaders feel they need to vote for Donald Trump to keep the Clintons from returning to the White House.  What bothers me, however, is that many are trying to convince us that political calculus is an act of moral necessity.  Worse, some are attempting to use the moral authority they have earned over decades to shame those of us who disagree about Trump into joining them in supporting a man who embodies everything they once taught us to reject.

Sorry, gentlemen, but my answer is still no because I learned it by watching you.