It is a question seemingly without an answer: Why is William Barr risking his legacy, his credibility, and his reputation, in support of Donald Trump? This question dovetails into a larger question — why are evangelicals supporting, in Bill Maher’s words on Real Time last night, “that lying, adulterous pornstar fucker” — in seeming contradiction of their own stated beliefs?
Over the past few weeks, I have watched pundits, politicians, and comedians, all struggle to answer these questions. I was without an answer, until I came across an essay Bill Barr wrote in 1995. And then, in one fell swoop, it all clicked into place.
Barr, and his fellow evangelicals, have made a deal with the devil, because they believe the devil they are supporting will give them control over sex, sexuality, and abortion, and thus, final victory in the culture war they are fighting.
From Barr’s 1995 essay Legal Issues in a New Political Order:
We live in an increasingly militant, secular age. We see an emerging philosophy that government is expected to play an ever greater role in addressing social problems in our society. It is also expected to over-ride various private interests as it goes about this work. As part of this philosophy, we see a growing hostility toward religion, particularly Catholicism. This form of bigotry has always been fashionable in the United States. There are, today, even greater efforts to marginalize or"ghettoize" orthodox religion.
Okay, wow. And Barr gets even more extreme in his essay. A few of the highlights:
- America should not be secular, but instead should enforce “a transcendent moral order with objective standards of right and wrong that flows from God’s eternal law.”
- He blames crime, poverty, and even sexually transmitted diseases, on a nebulous Federal government attack on what he believes are American “traditional values.”
- He outright calls for the Federal government to pay for religious education through subsidies
- He calls for the creation of laws which “restrain sexual immorality” which will target homosexuals and transgenders
- He complains about “laws which treat a cohabitating couple as a married couple,” and goes on to suggests housing discrimination against unmarried couples, gay or straight, should be perfectly legal
The essay goes on and on in this fashion, clearly demonstrating the depth and commitment Barr advocated to removing the wall between church and state.
In Barr’s confirmation hearing before the Senate this year, he would not commit to supporting Roe, which strongly suggests to me that his views, expressed in this essay written 24 years ago, have not softened over time.
And why should his views have softened?
Trump has publicly committed to stacking the courts with anti-choice judges. Trump has stated repeatedly he will veto any legislation that strengthens choice. Who knows what Trump, the self-proclaimed “deal artist,” has promised religious zealots like Barr behind closed doors? After all, the devil, will likely promise anything, to make a deal...
So — Barr and his evangelical comrades are no longer a mystery to me — they support Trump, this antithesis of their loudly proclaimed beliefs, simply because they believe he is their best chance to bring down Roe, to stop the gays, and to crush the heathen unbelievers and their unsanctioned pre-marital sex, with a religious sledgehammer forged from Federal law...