Dreher is the author of The Benedict Option about religious believers withdrawing from an increasingly secular society into enclaves of like-minded souls. It is his view that, as a society, we are some distance past the tipping point of irredeemability (a search shows the word actually exists).
He concludes:
Politics, as the saying goes, really is downstream from culture. A culture that has ditched its Christian morality is one that will not be able to sustain liberal democratic norms in the long run.My answer to that question: “Make America Great Again” is profoundly conservative. It’s an attempt to slow down, perhaps even reverse, the slide into the toilet that history shows eventually awaits every great civilization.
Our de-Christianization will occasion a re-barbarization. My despair is such that voting these days has to do with whether we want to fast-track it, or slow it down. If that’s the choice, I’ll go for the slow route, and hope that something unforeseen happens to change history.
The question is: is Trump an accelerant, or will he slow things down? Or can he be both?
We’re pretty far gone into decadence, the stench of Weimar Germany as depicted in Cabaret hangs in our air. I hope it’s not too late for us. (Full disclosure: I’m not religious.)
