American arrogance. That arrogance is fed by military power. And the difference between Trump and past Presidents is that our previous Presidents were clever enough and cared about being more subtle. Trump is rather subtlety-impaired.
Trump's base doesn't care about subtlety either. They love his tough guy image. They love the wielding of power. That is because when America's power is used by a tough guy like Trump, not only do they feel protected, they feel proud. They feel like their country can do anything it wants and the rest of the world is helpless. Nobody can mess with us now. And that is where many of us find significance.
Trump is not the first President to use American military power arrogantly. He is not the first president to act in ways that ignore what other nations, and international law, say. Obama extended Bush's use of drone warfare. Bush invaded two nations one of which had nothing to do with 9/11 despite his claims otherwise. That Bush said to the world that you are either with us or with the terrorists. Clinton carried out the sanctions that followed the war led by the first Bush. The result of the actions of Presidents George H. W. Bush and Clinton were the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children. Those actions consisted of the combination of the first Persian Gulf War and the subsequent sanctions. That result was buried so that we Americans would not have to feel bad about our nation. George H. W. Bush also attacked Panama. And then there was Reagan.
The latest example of arrogant American exceptionalism was the drone assassination of Iran's General Soleimani. That was followed by Trump's threat that he had put potential targets on 52 Iranian sites including cultural sites. Attacking those sites would be a war crime. But Trump and his base say 'who cares.' Why? Because we are militarily powerful enough to make the rules but are too weak in character to follow international laws.
So what happens when Trump's assassination of a foreign government's official starts to serve as a precedent? What happens when other nations use drones to attack leaders from other nations? Will other such assassinations be acceptable to the US? That depends on who is assassinating whom. And that is the definition of moral relativity.
And the conservative Christian part of Trump's base should alarmed at their acceptance of moral relativity, but it is not. Trump's conservative Christian followers should be alarmed at becoming more and more like the world because they preach so strongly against such conformity. But they are not. They should be afraid because such an acceptance of moral relativity shows that they have traded at least a part of their faith for things of the world which Trump has offered. But they have no such fear.
That selective acceptance of moral relativity by the Christian part of Trump's base only shows that those Christians have joined the same world they preach against. They are like Old Testament Israel that began to worship the idols of their neighbors and allies. These Christians have traded in part of their faith for worldly advantages. And lest those of us religiously conservative Never-Trump Christians opportunistically pounce on their Trump supporting brothers and sisters, we should recognize that we have all, at times, traded part of our faith in for worldly gain. And that fact should temper how we sound the alarm for our fellow religiously conservative Christians who have been deceived by what Trump appears to be offering.
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