The Swine of Conservatism

Ross Douthat on the distinctive predators of cultural conservatism.

As I post this, a fifth accuser has just come forward and Mitch McConnell has pivoted from “if he is is guilty” to “I believe the women.”

Even Matt Walsh–Matt Walsh!–can see the obvious:

Allred’s involvement is unfortunate but the accuser sounds credible and her story is horrific. We now have two accusers and dozens of corroborating sources. Neither accuser is being paid anything and neither was eager to tell their story publicly. Neither stands to gain anything. Both told their stories to people close to them when it happened or around when it happened. The most recent accuser has physical evidence that she knew Moore because Moore signed her yearbook, calling her “beautiful,” when she was just 15. We must now either believe in a vast conspiracy against Roy Moore, which began decades ago, or we must believe the women. I do not know how we can ever believe any allegation against anyone — Clinton, Weinstein, Spacey, etc — if we summarily dismiss these, which are more supported than many of the allegations against the men listed above.

At this moment, the *only* people I still hear defending Moore are the Greatest Christians of All Time: Men like Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr. and (to the burning shame of Catholics) Deacon Keith Fournier.  And, of course, the Christianist Right is using the Holy Family as human shields for this perv, as well as comparing him to Jesus.  These people compare themselves to Jesus a lot.

And then there are the Evangelicals who declare they are more likely to vote for him even if he is a pedophile.

And, of course, there is the reliably dishonest Liesite News, which rejoiced over the destruction of Rebecca Bratten Weiss’ career for the crime of teaching Lolita to her Lit students, going to bat for the old perv.  And there is, naturally, conservative Catholic Folk Hero Austin Ruse of the mysteriously well-funded C-FAM, who claims to care about the family, also sneering at Jonah Goldberg in defense of Moore and placing himself solidly in the rolls of history along with the defenders of Maciel, Euteneuer, and Corapi for his considerably more than 30 pieces of silver.

If you had told me 20 years ago that conservative Christians–outraged over feminists who said they would fellate Bill Clinton themselves because of his support for abortion– would now constitute the *backbone* of a party ready to vote for Roy Moore even if he *is* a pedophile and defending him by using the Holy Family as human shields for it, I would have called you a liberal propagandist of the lowest order. If you had said, “That’s nothing. That will come *after* their passionate support of a confessed sex predator with 16 credible victims and his mockery of POWs, Gold Star families, and the disabled.” I would have said you were a disgusting liar ready to do *anything* to discredit conservative Christians, just to win. You would have lost all my respect. If you had told me that *Hollywood* would be demonstrating more integrity in facing the sex predators and pervs in their midst than conservative Christians I would have simply started laughing at you.

And now, here we are. I remain as staunch a Catholic as ever, because I know the freak show of conservative Christian Trumpians, in fact, hates the Magisterium (except for the politically useful prolife stuff) and that the Church’s teaching, in fact, stands dead against that freak show. I know that freak show now dominates the GOP and the bulk of conservative media readership and viewership–especially FOX. I know how much these adorers of Trump and Moore hate good Pope Francis. And I know how little they know of the Bible (hint: the incarnation is not the result of old Joseph and teenage Mary having relations). So my faith in the Church’s teaching hasn’t changed bit. But my naive folly in thinking the freak show of post-Christian Christianist Nihilist Misogynous White Spite that is the Party of Trump has anything to do with the Faith is deader than a doornail.

Same-sex marriage gets legalized
GOP: “This is so bad, it could lead to pedophilia!”

A Republican gets outed as a pedophile
GOP: “That’s not so bad. Hey, at least he’s not gay, right?”

— Craig Rozniecki (@CraigRozniecki) November 13, 2017

Dear Conservative Christian Trump and Moore supporters: The world does not reject you because you are like Christ. It rejects you because you are like Judas.