Thursday, August 30, 2018  

The Honorable John Thune

United States Senate

Senator Thune:

I am compelled to write because at long last, I am unable to contain my disappointment.

For the past ten years, my wife has been employed at the center of the relatively small political science department at [your Alma Mater], where you are a favorite son.  For most of my life, I have been involved in the leadership of the [same evangelical denomination], both as a pastor and lay leader. Back in the 70s, along with your brother Bob, I was one of “Wally’s boys.” We’ve worked together and known each other all these years.

It’s been a delight to see you emerge as a respected, high profile political leader.

What I am about to say is not from my wife or your Alma Mater. I speak for myself.

While you, by necessity, remain a stalwart party loyalist, my former Republican Party has been an embarrassment to me for a long time. It’s no longer George F. Will or William F. Buckley or Everett Dirksen or Abraham Lincoln. It’s the party of Fox News. I gave up on Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity over a dozen years ago when the toxicity of their influence overwhelmed the entertainment value of their clever banter. They, along with Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Roger Ailes pretty much ruined the party for me. To make matters worse, my people, the Evangelicals, have become identified with Jerry Falwell, Jr., Franklin Graham and the feckless Pastor Robert Jeffress down there in Dallas. Most disappointing of all is Eric Metaxes. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (daughter of the infamous Baptist reverend) makes the White House Briefing Room the stuff of late-night comedy. It’s enough to make many of us give up on the name (Evangelical). They now assume they represent the infamous “Republican base.”

And now, Donald Trump.

Whatever core values once defined the Republican party have been obscured by the noise generated by these purveyors of fear, conspiracy, name-calling, and protectionism; capitalizing on stereotypes, demonizing the opposition all of which raises mountains of cash, increases the ratings and rallies the mob, whipping them into a wide-eyed frenzy.

President Trump hijacked the party you love. From the moment he descended the glittering escalator with his Barbie doll wife and declared his candidacy, positioning himself as the very caricature of the angry white male, I have considered him the quintessential ugly American. His performance since that watershed moment only underscores that conclusion. His spurious claim to an “A+” comes from a wild, reckless tax cut, unfettered de-regulation, and the appointment of a Supreme Court justice and a host of federal judges (appeasing Evangelicals who care about little else than abortion, gay marriage, freedom to discriminate, gun rights and “Merry Christmas”). Sure, the stock market celebrates those corporate tax cuts and the absence of restrictions in their unbridled pursuit of “free markets” without accountability. Anybody surprised?

Via a flurry of unilateral Executive Orders, Trump’s pen dismantles every effort of the Obama era to codify fairness, justice, clean air, and equal rights. The stack of leather-bound documents stands as a collection of trophies awarded to himself.

All this earns him the maniacal ovation of that legion of MAGA devotes, and, I see, many of the wealthy who somehow have come to view this POTUS as the Great Protector of privilege. In recent days, the truth about Trump’s personal and political criminality is coming to light. More by the day. The dark clouds are rolling in.

And you, a proud Biola grad, along with your Republican colleagues, remain conspicuously silent.

You are a smart guy. Unlike our President, you read books. Thanks to your family upbringing and your undergraduate degree, you’ve got a firm biblical foundation. But like so many others in the party, you apparently have too many red-capped MAGA junkies in your own base to speak your mind.

Knowing something of your heritage, I must believe that you are better than this. When the door is closed, and it’s just you, I’ve got to assume that you are as conflicted as the rest of us.

You may dismiss me as one more “Trump hater” who has been caught up in the narrative of the liberal media. That would be convenient, perhaps. But my views are rooted in nothing other than the President’s own behavior and words; words both spoken and tweeted. I don’t need partisan talking heads to interpret.

Today, Evangelicals are known to the rest of the world as unrepentant, hoodwinked hypocrites. The “boys will be boys” defense doesn’t work for anyone but the most cynical. The gala dinner in the East Room just this week appears to everyone but the most loyal as a blatant sell-out. For the rest of us, the pseudo-defense emanating from that room filled with “the nation’s top evangelical leaders” is a complete sham.

The time has come for courage. It’s getting serious.

Will you, in the tradition of the biblical prophets, find the audacity to speak truth to power? Even at the risk of offending your own base?

Take a cue from your now former colleague, the late (and fearless) Senator John McCain.

I hope and pray you will.

Most sincerely,

Ken Kemp

Southern California

cc John Thune’s Political Science Professor and brother, a life-long friend and  evangelical pastor