Capitol and Cathedral
The Reverend Dr. Richard Land, a former religious-right heavyweight, has an unusual piece in his Christian Post. He urges Donald Trump to shore up his evangelical support by appointing Sen. Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court. He also urges Trump to seek the endorsements of people evangelicals love (Dr. Ben Carson, diplomat John Bolton, Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee, etc), and promise to appoint them to senior executive branch posts.
I’m pretty sure almost everyone on Land’s fantasy shadow-government wish list is already backing Trump, but never mind.
Mr. Trump, there are numerous things you could do and actions you could take that would go a long way toward making many of these American Evangelicals feel far more comfortable trusting you with the office of the presidency.
Two of the oldest axioms of public policy are “the best predictor of future performance is past behavior” and “personnel is policy.”
What Land misses here is that Trump already has as much support from white evangelicals as Mitt Romney received in 2012. All he is missing is a subset of evangelical elites who arguably are not nearly as influential as we suppose and who have said so many negative things about Trump that any summer or fall turn toward the reality TV star would make them look incredibly disingenuous and lacking in integrity.
Trump played the old guard of the religious right like a pawn shop fiddle. The last thing he needs is unsolicited advice from Richard Land.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In