[Response to a Christian Sister]
Conservative Christians like me care about the same things you just listed, and we show it by what we actually do. We don’t want to abolish the social safety net. We do want to reduce the fraud, abuse, and waste within it, and we want immigration to be legal and orderly. Is that really too much to ask? It simply isn’t true that Republicans or conservatives don’t care about migrants, the homeless, the working poor, or elderly people struggling on fixed incomes. I’ve written about this in some detail.
But, Sis, I think you’ve missed one of the major themes I’ve been writing about over the last six months, particularly regarding the DSA.
The Democratic Socialists of America are not simply advocating Scandinavian-style social democracy or a somewhat larger American safety net. They explicitly describe capitalism as a system that must be replaced, and their own documents call for a radical restructuring of American political and economic life. Their analysis of “structural oppression” focuses heavily on capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy, and their political program includes proposals to abolish the Senate, fundamentally replace the presidency, and radically restructure the Supreme Court. I’ve laid all of this out in an extended blog post using the DSA’s own documents.
So when I make the Marxist connection, I’m not saying that supporting food banks, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, housing assistance, or help for the working poor makes somebody a Marxist. Of course it doesn’t. I support a social safety net too.
I’m talking about a particular political movement with a particular understanding of capitalism, class, power, oppression, and the structure of American government.
People supporting politicians such as Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Mamdani in New York, or even AOC—who apparently isn’t radical enough for some of the DSA’s foot soldiers—are participating in a political movement that is arguing for considerably more than preserving a safety net for people in need. And consider this: AOC has publicly declared that “billionaires should not exist.” Not that billionaires should pay higher taxes, mind you, but that they shouldn’t exist as a class of extraordinarily wealthy individuals. And she’s not radical enough for some of the DSA? Really?
FOR THE RECORD: AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Zohran Mamdani have all publicly argued that billionaires should not exist. They aren't merely debating how generously we should fund Social Security, Medicare, or food assistance. They're raising much more fundamental questions about the legitimacy of private wealth and the economic arrangements that produce it.
And this is why I resist the idea that “progressive Christian” compassion somehow occupies the moral high ground. Everything you listed—making disciples, proclaiming the Word, serving the poor, caring for migrants, helping the homeless, supporting the elderly—is important to me too. Conservative Christians do those things every day. People who vote the way you vote are not unique in that regard. It would be deeply unfair to say that conservatives simply don’t care about the poor.
Where we differ is largely over prudential questions: what government should do, what civil society and churches should do, how much government should spend, what immigration laws should be enforced, and which economic system actually does the best job of creating the prosperity that makes generosity possible.
And then I add some moral concerns that I believe contemporary progressivism badly neglects: defending the most vulnerable human beings among us, children in the womb; resisting gender ideology and its deeply distorted understanding of the human body; defending religious liberty; preserving economic freedom and the market economy; and confronting the astonishing growth of government spending and debt. We’re approaching $40 trillion in national debt. At some point, stewardship matters too.
Put all of those things together and, yes, you begin voting more like I vote.
That doesn’t mean I think Donald Trump is beyond criticism. Far from it. He presents what you might call a target-rich environment. There is plenty about him that I dislike, and conservatives should be willing to say so.
But I also don’t think our dislike of Trump should blind us to what is happening on the ideological left. The DSA is an increasingly influential activist force within the Democratic coalition, and its ideas deserve to be examined on their own merits—not treated as though they amount to nothing more than wanting a stronger safety net.
So I’m not choosing between Christian compassion and conservative politics. I’m trying to think about politics more holistically: compassion for the poor, protection of unborn life, the dignity of the human body, economic freedom, fiscal stewardship, religious liberty, ordered immigration, and the proper limits of government.
That may be less “progressive,” but I don’t think it is any less Christian.
Your brother.