When Republicans refuse to choose life

"Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now choose life! Then you and your children may live." - Deuteronomy 30:19

Vladimir Putin killed Alexei Navalny. Not with his own hands, but it is absolutely clear that the Russian dictator had his leading dissenter and political rival murdered. This is what dictators do. They kill people. 

Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now choose life! Then you and your children may live,

Deuteronomy 30:19

That is the Word of God about life and death, and the clear and compelling instruction that stands with us after thousands of years. 

So far, none of the other dictators around the world have lamented the murderous death of Navalny or expressed condolences to his widow, Yulia, or daughter, Dasha. They have yet to hold Putin responsible for the death of this husband and father, courageous lawyer and spokesman for freedom who was sent to a Russian gulag for his bravery. 

Donald Trump, who seems to admire many dictators around the world, especially his friend Vladimir Putin, has yet to hold the Russian dictator responsible for killing Navalny – but neither have many Republicans. And now Republicans, led by speaker of the House Mike Johnson, are holding up aid to sustain Ukraine's self-defense against a Putin invasion and attempted takeover of their country, which could give Putin the green light to move against other European countries who were formerly part of the old Soviet empire.

Why are Republicans blocking crucial help to Ukraine? Because Trump told them to. And Trump has publicly said that he could not be counted on to protect other European countries from Putin, who should be free to “do whatever the hell he wants.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime hawk on American foreign policy, is going along with Trump now on Ukraine, revealing himself now as an absolute coward who has lost his soul.

Trump compares himself to Navalny as a persecuted hero. Rep, James Clyburn has given a nickname to the GOP: Groupies of Putin. Republicans, what has happened to you?

The excuse given by these Republicans for the denial of aid to Ukraine, about their concerns about the southern border in our country, reveals one of the greatest moral hypocrisies in Congress I have seen in my lifetime. After the Senate passed the toughest immigration bill in decades after many weeks of bi-partisan negotiations, the Republican House refused to bring it up for a vote. Again, because Donald Trump told him to stop the border reforms from happening, so he can use it as a campaign issue. Solutions, even bi-partisan ones, are replaced by the partisan and personal political interests of Trump.

Donald Trump is already the dictator of the Republican Party, installing his daughter-in-law as head of the Republican National Committee, so the RNC can funnel political contributions into Trump’s growing legal bills and financial penalties for fraud and rape, which are mounting to half a billion dollars. Who are you Republicans?

Last weekend, Trump spoke to a group of Black conservatives and told them and the world that “the Black people” and “the Black population” like him because he now has a “mugshot”and that he is being persecuted by the criminal justice system just as they have been. 

Donald’s Trump has long history of being a racist and using racism with white fears and grievances at the core of his political strategy and campaigns. His and his companies’ racist history are well known, as is his calling for the death penalty for some teenagers in New York even after DNA evidence exonerated them. But doesn’t this all go back to when the Republican Party decided to go for white votes in America after the civil rights and voting rights bills were passed in 1964 and 1965, leaving many white Americans angry and aggrieved? Isn’t Donald Trump just the culmination of all of that history? Morally, where are you Republicans now?

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News propagandist for the “great replacement” theory that has inspired gunmen to kill people of color, decided to go to Moscow and interview Vladimir Putin. Carlson didn’t ask any challenging questions, as even Putin acknowledged afterward, and toured Moscow subways, which he said were so much better than the graffiti and filth of American systems and, in particular, showed how Russian supermarket carts can’t be taken home by people to their homeless camps. I agree with what Jon Stewart said about Tucker Carlson with language I shouldn’t use in my column but you can watch it here. Do any Republicans want to challenge Carlson’s fawning interview with the world’s most lethal dictator?

And finally, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held its annual event in Washington D.C. Donald Trump again, was the main speaker. Other speakers' overt language for autocracy and even dictatorship was positively put forward. Nazis and white supremacists were visibly and proudly in the room, saluting each other in the hallways and hotel lobby. 

Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official, regaled the crowd with many cheers, “I’m so proud to be at CPAC with so many great Americans who represent Donald Trump’s army to take this country back and that’s what it’s gonna take – an entire army.” Are Republicans part of that army now?

“We’re blessed by God to have Donald Trump be our juggernaut of justice, to be our leader, to be our ... warrior in the arena. We have to fill that arena with Americans behind him who are going to take the fight to the mainstream media. We’re going to take the fight to the corporate bureaucracy,” he added.

And we heard from far-right activist and prominent “Pizzagate” promoter Jack Posobiec, who hailed the “end of democracy.”

“Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely,” Posobiec boasted during a panel moderated by former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon. “We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this, right here,” he proclaimed. The “end of democracy” apparently includes cutting funding for poor families and anti-discrimination efforts. Have you read your Bibles, Republicans?

There has always been a far-right in America, and they have always offered racist and authoritarian visions for America. But the far-right has come to the mainstream of the Republican Party. So given where we seem to be going now, with Trump’s dictatorship already begun and his future autocratic plans for the country not being hidden anymore but proudly proclaimed, the question remains. Where are you Republicans?

That question isn’t just a political one. It is also a moral and theological one for Christians, as many Republicans claim to be. This question needs to be asked of Republicans by Christians everywhere this election year: Will the GOP heed God’s call in Deuteronomy to choose life, or will they side with murderous dictators?

My new book, “False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy,” is available for preorder. Please consider ordering a copy.