Buttigieg blasts 'hypocrisy' of Trump's evangelical followers
Mayor Pete Buttigieg calls out evangelicals who support President Trump. Fox News contributor Rachel Campus-Duffy calls the criticism a fundamental misunderstanding of what Christians really want.
I don’t need my president to be my savior – I already have one. However, after eight years of President Obama’s anti-Christian agenda, it was time to get a new leader in the White House who would defend Americans’ right to freedom of religion.
I am a practicing Catholic, not an evangelical Christian, but in 2016 I stood with millions of evangelicals who decided that Donald Trump would be the best person to fight for our religious liberty.
Since taking office, President Trump has done exactly that. He is unwaveringly pro-life, supports giving poor and working-class parents the same choice in education as rich parents, named a religious liberty czar, denounces Christian persecution domestically and abroad, and is the best friend our ally Israel has ever had in the White House.
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These are some of the top issues Christians care about – not that Democrats seem to care. Their 2020 presidential candidates try to pander to the faith community, but their actions speak louder than words and Christian voters simply aren’t buying it.
Now yet another Democratic candidate is jumping into the race: Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana – which was named “one of the most dangerous cities in the United States.” Buttigieg has made Christianity a cornerstone of his candidacy, but while he talks the talk, his record in office doesn’t show he is walking the walk.
As mayor, Buttigieg blocked a pro-life women’s care center from opening in South Bend, against the will of the city’s Common Council. Meanwhile, he disregarded several complaints against the proposed medical director of a South Bend abortion clinic, who was found to have failed to report sex abuse of girls under 16. And, he is on record supporting late-term abortion as stated in the bill passed in New York state and proposed in Virginia.
Buttigieg preaches kindness and open-mindedness but is quick to cast personal judgment on the faith of those with whom he disagrees. Just look at the way he has repeatedly attacked President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s faith, despite pondering, “What can we talk about that brings us together?” Pence, on the other hand, has only spoken kind words about the mayor.
Most frustrating for me has been Buttigieg’s repeated accusations that Republicans and President Trump do not care about the poor, the immigrant or the prisoner. All the evidence proves this preaching is patently false. Under President Obama, millions of people fell into poverty and dependence on the government. But in only two years, President Trump and Republican policies have lifted millions of people out of poverty and into jobs, giving them what they really want: financial independence and the dignity that comes with work, not government handouts.
The free market and regulatory reforms enacted by a Republican-led Congress and President Trump have resulted in a blue-collar recovery, breathing life and jobs into working-class communities that Democrats had written off as expendable collateral damage in the inevitable globalization plans of American and global elites.
President Trump championed and signed into law the greatest reform of our criminal justice system in a generation. The First Step Act is already delivering second chances to prisoners who have served their time and are now living redeemed lives as contributing members of society.
And it is President Trump and the Republican Party who seem to be the only ones who care about the sexual abuse of children and women on the dangerous journey to our southern border. Democrats like Buttigieg are “morally opposed” to fixing an immigration system that incentivizes a sexually exploitative journey for vulnerable children, forced by parents and cartels who use them to game our asylum system. There is nothing compassionate or Christian about that.
Buttigieg, like Obama, puts a mild-mannered face on a radical agenda. Look under the hood, though, and the policies look just like those of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez minus the Christian rhetoric. Buttigieg claims moral superiority, but his behavior today – in addition to his failed mayoral record – suggests the opposite. Not to mention that he is the son of a radical, Marxist professor, which might explain the policy positions that are far from being mild, centrist or Christian.
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Serious Christian voters know better. We will not be fooled. Nor should we allow ourselves to be scolded by the very people who have been encouraging and profiting from the coarsening and sexualization of our culture for decades.
Whether we like it or not, we all swim in the popular culture cesspool Hollywood created and Democrats endorse, so excuse me if I’m a little desensitized to the tabloid scandals of our president -- a former Democrat. As a Christian voter, I’ll take loud-mouthed President Trump with his colorful, scandalous personal life over “mild-mannered” Buttigieg’s policies any day. Before judging Trump’s faith, or the faith and sincerity of millions of Christian Trump voters, maybe Mayor Pete should take the policy log out of his own eye!
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