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I posted a meme critical of Trump on my Facebook page and had a couple of folks came out arguing that the nation was better under Trump than Biden. I pointed out that they could have that again with a DeSantis or Haley presidency AND a better chance of winning, to boot.

The remarkable thing that Trump has done is recruiting a base that's more than happy to volunteer to be his human shields, even when it's to their own demonstrable detriment.

On Iowa, I've seen some anti-Trump Hopium being peddled in the form of "49% of Iowa voters wanted something else!" That's nice, but unless those defectors vote for Biden over Trump in the general election, it really doesn't matter, because as we've seen in cases like the National Review, they'll come slinking back to Trump in the end, and pretend that they were never opposed to him in the first place.

Trump may have this sewn up, but it's not going to stop me pointing out that the GOP STILL has a choice to pick a candidate who has a better chance to beat Joe Biden instead of one who is batting 0.000 against him.

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DeSantis or Haley would be more likely to win the general election. I prefer DeSantis but Haley would do. The problem for democrats is their candidate (right now) is Joe Biden. No telling how low he might sink. There are a lot of voters, including me, who think Joe Biden is a greater threat to the USA than Donald Trump. It doesn't get any better when one considers that Kamala Harris would most likely finish out his second term. Even Governor Sununu, who is almost a never-Trump, says he could not support Joe Biden because of what he has done to the nation.

I do not believe the democrat candidates will be Biden / Harris.

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The "Biden as greater threat than Trump" bridge is one that I won't be able to cross, but we can at least agree that both parties' tickets will STINK come November (should Biden run with Harris again).

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A quick question for any trump supporter reading this and directly related to this comment from the article: "Entrance polls from the caucuses illustrate the problem. Per CBS News, the most important factor for caucus-goers was that a candidate “shares my values” at 40 percent."

Can someone/anyone tell me what trump's values are? Thanks.

Another interesting take on the article that struck me as odd: Immigration is a primary issue for voters in Iowa. Turns out they rank near the top of states with meat processing plants and it has a huge proportion of those workers being Latino. Throw in the agricultural use of immigrants, if they rounded up all the "illegals," the state's economy would collapse. To say nothing of fast foods and hotel workers who make up another significant percentage of the workforce.

Oh, but wait, i guess all those farm kids would pick up the slack and fill the plants and fields and take those jobs back from the immigrants. When freaking pigs (pun intended) fly.

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With regard to values, I'm pretty sure voters want policies that reflect their values. CBS tried to separate values from policy which probably works only for philosophers.

The kids and citizens could do it if the corporate farm industry did not have access to a dirt-cheap source of labor. It's been done before. Some school districts have been known to shut down for harvesting season.

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I have no question of values of the Iowa voters, the question is what are trump's values?

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A blunt question that deserves an answer.

"The value represents fundamental convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence". From iedunote.com/values

In politics, the above means getting reelected. Trump and Biden share that value. Voters have values that differ from those of politicians and hardly ever agree.

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I'd argue that Trump values staying out of jail more than he values the office of the Presidency. Unfortunately (for him), returning back to the White House is the most dependable Stay Out of Jail card that he can try to draw.

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Every politician has his reasons.

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I'd think staying out of The Big House would be a pretty significant one. :-)

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Hi David, two questions:

1) How would you define a MAGA republican?

2) Considering all of Biden’s moral issues as well, is it plausible to say that Trump is the most “unchristlike candidate” in the race? From a purely Biblical perspective, that’s a tough point to make.

Note: I’m not defending Trump.

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Which moral issues do you have in mind that might make Biden a bigger sinner than Trump?

Honestly asking, as this seems like an odd tack to take, instead of of the one that Trump is very un-Christ-like, but is a useful tool for those that are (and refilling the mulligan barrel).

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The point is: why make a comparison of sins? It would be useless (and unchristlike) to argue or list moral deficiencies of ANY two people. Was Herod a greater sinner than Caesar? Is Fanni Willis a greater sinner than Gov. Kemp? It’s the Pharisee thanking God he’s not like the tax collector again. To say that one person is the most unchristlike in a race is ridiculous because we only know what has come to light.

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Because character influences policy. (And personnel as well.)

Are we electing a man who views the rest of the country as his own fiefdom to plunder, regardless of what's right or wrong for the citizens living in it? Do we want our foreign policy to be directed by international actors who most appeal to our President's vanity? Do we want the next generation of leaders to be handicapped in favor of our next President's child?

It's amazing how folks who used to LOUDLY proclaim that character matters (not saying that this is necessarily you - I have no idea who you are or what your history is) have slipped into the sloppiest forms of moral relativism to cover up the fact that they're so far down the sunk cost slope justifying the various sins they've overlooked - in exchange for proximity to power - that they're essentially indistinguishable from the most woke college sophomore postmodernists.

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Unfortunately you’re still ignoring the point: the futility of comparison. No disagreements whatsoever about Trump’s lack of character. Character always matters. It does influence policy and personnel. It would also be foolish to paint Biden as a person full of moral character Still, No one is in a position to say that one candidate is more holy than another without putting themselves in the position of God. I call on DAVID to retract his statement based solely on Biblical values.

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I no longer subscribe to the Christian faith (I left over 3 decades now), but the moral guidelines laid out by the Ten Commandments and the words attributed to Jesus don't require an advanced degree in theology to read, understand, and live by.

You're correct that we don't know everything in Biden's background that would or would not merit his inclusion in the Book of Life, but it's also not unreasonable to say that based on what we DO know, we can sort folks based on their observed behavior to take a rough stab at who has better odds of being included and who has better odds of not being included (even in cases where neither is being painted as "full of moral character"). Our rankings may not line up perfectly with St. Peter's at the Pearly Gates, but I suspect that it wouldn't be too far off either.

If Christians took the tack that adopting a willful blindness to character because no one (other than God) has perfect information, that totally negates any utility in adopting other human beings as role models to follow and emulate in those who are seeking to become more Christ-like.

Again, not a problem for me (as an unbeliever), but it is a problem for Christians whose recent adoption of this form of moral relativism negates just about everything they've been preaching in the political sphere prior to adopting Donald Trump as their champion and political avatar. Given that this is a political blog and David's posting about a political phenomenon, his statements don't seem to be unreasonable or out of line in this context.

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There is no such thing as moral relativism. Morals are not absolute. The ends justifying the means are personal opinions that come into play in every political philosophy. Morals are undefined except to individuals.

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"his own fiefdom to plunder". And how does that differ from what Biden is doing (and what Obama did) to fundamentally change America and gain tens of millions of dollars in the process.

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Biden isn't overcharging the Secret Service to stay in his hotels when he goes on a trip.

The Chinese gov't isn't paying Biden to stay in a hotel that he owns.

The Saudi gov't didn't give Hunter Biden 2 BILLION dollars to manage, despite their own risk assessors telling them not to.

If you want to compare Obama's book and speaking fees (which I'm against as well - President should be the LAST paying job any American holds) against the self-dealing of the Trump administration, be my guest.

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My preferences for Presidents are individuals who are businessmen who have military experience. I would not expect a businessman to give up his businesses for an 8-year maximum gig as president.

In this case, neither candidate has military experience, but Joe Biden never had a real job until he became President. He lived on the taxpayer's dime and any of the windfall graft that went with his position. He immediately became wealthy between the time he was no longer VP and the time he was elected President. Millions of dollars flowed to him from sources not fully accounted for.

Donald Trump has real corporations that pay taxes on corporate income. The prices they charge are a matter of public record as are the funds for development. Corporations are regulated, unlike influence peddling.

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We can only judge by what we see, but we can objectively say that much of Trump’s behavior is the opposite of what the Bible teaches.

Would you hold him up as an example for your children or your congregation to follow in their daily lives?

Biden is definitely flawed (as we all are), but he seems to be a decent man and is a practicing Christian who does not make messianic claims (https://x.com/trumpdailyposts/status/1743306613497426058?s=61&t=X6XxCDIBmdrPHrSiKT5oaQ). I’m old enough to remember when Republicans said that “character matters.”

Republicans said in 2016 that they didn’t want to elect a national pastor. As someone pointed out, “That’s good because they got the farthest thing from a pastor that they could.”

Eight years later, many seem to have decided that Trump is a step above a national pastor.

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I would say that MAGA Republican is mostly a self-applied label, but I’d broadly define it as people who support Trump when there are other good options.

When I read biblical descriptions of good character, it seems that very few of the character traits apply to Trump. Consider 1 Timothy 3:2-3:

“Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.”

Rather he seems like a clanging gong devoid of love. To top it off, he seems to enjoy the messianic claims and imagery that many of his followers apply to him. A lot of that borders on or even crosses over to heresy.

The Bible says that “Bad company corrupts good character” and we’ve seen the truth of that and Matthew 24:24 in the evangelical church over the past few years.

I have differences with Biden over many issues including abortion and homosexuality, but I consider Trump to be a 1 John 2:18 antichrist for the damage that he’s done to the American church.

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Very interesting use of scriptural context.

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To quote Patterico re Trump voters:

"I’m sure many of you have fine rationalizations for supporting Trump, but none of them stack up against the results of the national election being nullified and the presidency being handed to the guy who lost. Avoiding that is of paramount importance, and support of Trump is support for that kind of election nullification. It is support for the unforgivable, and you can cite me all the rationalizations you like, none of it works."

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I have never heard of Patterico but I'm sure the result of the national election has never been nullified. It has been questioned and contested by Republicans and democrats.

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