David French: The “Principled Conservative”

French’s response to criticisms like mine is to say that Trump is not pro-life even if his policies and judicial appointees were. This is, to quote French, a “miserable political take.” I’ve long heard similar arguments about the Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity and the Edict of Milan which he issued in 313 A.D. declaring his chosen faith a religio licita (“tolerated religion”). He wasn’t really a Christian, some historians say. That may be. But for the sake of his soul, the point is irrelevant. The fact is, Constantine’s policy ended almost two centuries of Christian persecution. Yet in French’s moral universe, Constantine is no better than Nero, and Trump is not to be preferred to Biden.

So incensed was French by the prospects of a Trump presidency (not a Biden presidency if word count is any indicator) that he considered his own presidential run. Since Trump lacked “character and competence,” French decided America needed a man like, well, himself. This is a bit like Marshal Philippe Pétain saying he would give France “The gift of his person.” Don’t be fooled by the niceties. French has just the sort of monumental hubris he decries in the former president, it’s just that Trump makes no effort to hide his own. In the end, French decided to forego the Oval Office and instead use his platform at National Review to attack Trump and his supporters—not Biden and his. (You know, the ones who were burning cities and sentencing your grandmother to a lonely death in isolation.)

In an article titled “How to be Pro-Life in Biden’s America,” French wrings his hands over the now-imperiled Hyde Amendment, which prevents an estimated 50,000 additional abortions per year. 50,000 human lives, not abstractions. In the column, he tries to reassure Christians disturbed by what a Biden Presidency means for the unborn:

“In the days and weeks since Biden’s election, I’ve heard a number of Christians express genuine anguish about the prospects for defending life during the Biden administration. Make no mistake, there is cause for deep concern about the administration’s policies…”

“Cause for deep concern.” Ya think, David? This is the political and cultural Armageddon that people like French have given us. They brought us here. His whole article reads like it was written by someone who aided arsonists in burning your house down but who now wants to offer you the comfort of his counsel, all the while never comprehending the hypocrisy of his actions.

Lest I be misunderstood, I am not a moral pragmatist. I believe in the same God of the Bible as David French and subsequently believe in the absolute, universal principles that flow from that God’s existence. While I have occasionally, in my own sinful nature, violated those principles, I have never worshipped them or paraded them as an emblem of my own virtue. And I certainly don’t expect others to suffer for my convictions, be they unborn children or children languishing in orphanages, and that is the practical outworking of principles like those of David French.

Principles, like anything else, can be perverted. In this case, they are an idol, a Golden Calf that has supplanted the God to whom they must be tethered. Unmoored from that Fixed Point, as Blaise Pascal put it, French’s principles take on a dangerous character because they have been harnessed to a deeply unprincipled end.

But isn’t French’s position rooted in Scripture?

I don’t think so. Take, for example, French’s “character” argument that serves as the basis of his Never Trumpism. (Which is, by the way, the only tenet of “French-ism.”) French uses a lot of Christian language and biblical references, but that’s as far as it goes. If French means to apply the standards of ancient Israel, a theocracy where there was no separation of church and state, he can’t à la carte those standards. He has to take it all the way, but that won’t work for his purposes:

• The Lord, a “jealous God,” required the people to worship him and him alone, and he certainly required it of kings: Exodus 20:3.

There goes Mitt Romney, a Mormon, and a David French favorite.

• The Lord forbid the people of Israel to mix with other nations: Nehemiah 13:3; Deuteronomy 7:3-4.

There goes French’s immigration policy of permitting some Muslims into the country “with open arms.”

• And the Lord had a very low tolerance for critics of his anointed leaders, that is, for people like David French. (See the terrifying story of Dathan, Korah, and Abiram in Numbers 16.)

So, why does French stop at the character argument? Because it suits the sole tenet of “French-ism.”

The fact is, the God of the Bible used not merely ungodly kings, but outright pagan ones like Nebuchadnezzar and Darius to render justice on behalf of his people. In Esther chapters 4-8 we see Mordecai, a Jew, appealing to King Xerxes through Queen Esther to save the Jews from the plot of the wicked Haman. In reading the story, I don’t get the impression the Jews were much over-worried about the fact that Xerxes was a pagan king who slept with a whole host of virgins before deciding which one he would marry. As the story unfolds, Xerxes responds decisively to the Jews’ plea for help and destroys Haman and the plotters.

There is a difference between private sin and public policy, and it is foolish to confuse the two. Does French make the same “character” demands of his barber, his mechanic, his accountant, or his surgeon? Or does he look for someone who can do the job competently?

The word “competent” is significant here given French’s tweet (see below) “demand[ing] character and competency in the presidency.” Turnabout is fair play, and one might also demand it of journalists. For two years, French, blinded and bamboozled by his own hatred for Trump and a media conspiracy to unseat him, incompetently championed the discredited (and ridiculous) Trump-Russia collusion narrative. “Let the implications of that statement sink in.” If Trump was to be indicted were the allegations proved true, what should the consequences be for French for promoting a scurrilous story we now know was not true? Here’s a biblical argument: “For in the same manner you judge others, so shall you be judged.” (Matthew 7:2)