Eric Metaxas on Virtue and...Donald Trump

Earlier this week, we posted a Q&A I did with Eric Metaxas about his new book, If You Can Keep It. I saved the conversation about the presidential election for you dear Corner readers today. I can’t say I’m where he is on this, but it’s only fair to hear him out. I know a lot of people are thinking — and praying — through this election.

KJL: You write that “we need a culture of virtue, and our leaders have a vital role to play in that regard.” Is it really the role of our political leaders to model virtue?

Eric Metaxas: Generally speaking, yes. How they behave affects how citizens think of the whole government and the whole nation. When one has a Washington in leadership, or a Lincoln, one knows that one can generally trust one’s government to do the right thing, even when it is very, very difficult to do the right thing. Virtuous leaders inspire virtue in the citizenry. They help us believe that the system is not rigged, but that it’s generally something that works and that needs our attention as citizens, that invites our attention.

KJL: Does that automatically suggest one cannot vote for one Donald J. Trump?

Metaxas: Not only can we vote for Trump, we must vote for Trump, because with all of his foibles, peccadilloes, and metaphorical warts, he is nonetheless the last best hope of keeping America from sliding into oblivion, the tank, the abyss, the dustbin of history, if you will. If you want to know how bad things are in America, and how far we have gone, read the previous sentence aloud over and over.

KJL: What if Trump has a tyrannical impulse? What does that do to the Battle of Britain thinking?

Metaxas: Just to be clear, would this hypothetical tyrannical impulse be as pronounced as the actual tyrannical impulse of Hillary Clinton? I think behaving like a Dowager Empress when you’re only Secretary of State might be considered tyrannical. In any case, if Trump were to indulge the Caesaristic longings he’s feared to have, I am very confident that the liberals in Congress wouldn’t be nearly as feckless and cowardly in dealing with him as the conservatives have been in dealing with the tyrannical impulses of Barack Obama. So yes, I do think that the separation of powers would counter this decidedly and work in America’s favor, as long as the imperious fascist troublemaker isn’t a Democrat.