Election Postmortem: Political Theology after 2016

November 12, 2016

In the days following the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, many of my non-American friends at St Andrews have been asking about my thoughts on the current state of American politics. I was not thrilled by the major party candidates this year (even to the point that I could not bring myself to vote for either one), but I think there are several key takeaways for Catholics and Christians in light of this election season.


Our country is more divided than ever. That said, all Americans must try to understand why the election went the way that it did. It is far too simplistic, naïve, and condescending to whitewash everyone who voted for Trump as a racist, bigot, or xenophobe. This sort of indiscriminate patronizing is what made our country so divided in the first place. As Archbishop Kurtz noted, “Millions of Americans who are struggling to find economic opportunity for their families voted to be heard. Our response should be simple: We hear you.” By the same token, we should not label Clinton voters as elitists who want to undermine religious freedom and the dignity of the unborn.

In short, we should pursue charity before all things and try to understand the genuine motives that led people of goodwill to make difficult, conflicting decisions in their voting. Only then will our country begin to heal.

From a Catholic perspective, it is worth noting that Trump won Catholics by 52 percent to 45 percent. This marks a notable change from the 2012 and 2008 elections, in which President Obama won the Catholic vote by 2 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Does this mean that American Catholics wanted Trump as their president? Probably not.

One of my Scottish friends made the point that Trump’s turnaround was likely the result of the animosity that cultural elites have demonstrated toward traditional Catholic sensibilities. This is demonstrated all too clearly in the emails not only showing the Clinton campaign mocking Catholic beliefs, but revealing that political operatives have set up organizations with the express purpose of changing Catholic doctrine. Another friend of mine believes that the vast majority of Catholics probably found Trump’s blatant racism and misogyny completely opposed to the teachings of the Church. However, she thinks that a good number of them hesitantly voted for Trump because of the importance of future Supreme Court nominations and the surrounding issues of abortion and religious freedom. Thus, while I never supported Trump, I believe it’s critically important to understand why a large number of conscientious Catholics voted for him, however reluctantly.

Along with the British referendum on EU membership, the American election points to a growing apprehension of globalism, which many cultural elites have written off as nativist. This dismissive attitude reveals the unwillingness of many leaders to acknowledge the downsides of globalization, trade, and technological progress. Although these phenomena have certainly brought a degree of material prosperity, they have also threatened many people’s livelihoods, weakened the vitality of local communities and families, and tend to operate according to a macro-utilitarian framework that strips the individual of his or her personal dignity. Future political leaders, instead of dismissing these worries as backwards, will need to seriously grapple with these problems and seek solutions to them.

In sum, the American church has its work cut out for it in terms of pursuing justice in public life. While we have the opportunity to begin protecting the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters in the womb, we should also ceaselessly defend the dignity of other marginalized members of our human community: the migrant, the refugee, the prisoner, the elderly, and the poor. This will mean holding both of our major parties accountable. In addition to defending the least among us, the Catholic Church must seek the common good and call people to solidarity. Before we can even begin to heal the wounds that plague our country, we must be willing to reach out and understand the other at his or her best.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Christians must always remember that the church’s mission transcends all nationalities, ideologies, and political parties. As the parish priest at St Andrews was eager to point out to me, “Regardless of who is president, Christ is always King.” We must therefore resist the temptation of political messianism and abandon the secular prophets who preach salvation in the politics of the present age. As several political theologians have noted, the Christian is first and foremost a citizen of heaven who finds himself on pilgrimage in the bizarre, yet redeemable wasteland that is our world.
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