Dear Mr. Graham:
You will notice that I didn’t call you “Reverend.” That was intentional. You don’t deserve that title after the way you and the rest of the religious right made it clear that you were so determined to push your agenda through that you were willing to support a man who is the most manifestly unqualified major-party presidential candidate in recent American history. In so doing, you have not only exposed the religious right as morally bankrupt, but you have abused your father’s legacy in a shameful, cynical, and despicable way.
As someone who has long admired Billy Graham’s work and as a fellow Charlottean, I have been dismayed at how you have used your father’s good name to carry water for the right in recent years. I didn’t think it was possible for you to sink any lower when you joined the vulture flock of evangelicals who thought Sandy Hook wouldn’t have happened if we still had mandatory prayer in public schools.
I found that I couldn’t have been more wrong when I saw your reaction to Donald Trump’s appalling comments about groping women. This is what you said on the morning after the tapes broke on Facebook.
In so doing, you joined a host of religious right leaders who declared that Trump’s despicable comments were not nearly as important as stopping abortion and marriage equality. Mr. Graham, I ask you the same question that I asked then–would you be so willing to put the Supreme Court above all else if Trump said something like this to your sisters, Anne and Ruth? Or to your daughter, Cissie? And if someone fobbed those remarks off as merely “entertainment,” would you accept it?
Any real man would never tolerate this sort of degrading talk about any woman. And for any real man, such things as where someone stands on abortion or gay rights ought to be the last thing on his mind in such a situation. By downplaying these comments, you effectively told your followers that comments no real man would tolerate in their own house would be acceptable in the people’s house–just as long as he makes the right clucking noises on social issues.
I know the religious right has talked a lot about building a “culture of life” in this country. But by saying that Trump’s comments didn’t matter because they came 11 years ago, you have effectively said that you want to build that culture of life on the backs of survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault. As someone who counts a number of domestic abuse survivors among my friends and is a domestic abuse survivor myself, I find this to be beyond outrageous. Do you mean to tell us that our pain doesn’t matter because it was long ago? And are you willing to do so to our faces, rather than the comfort of your office in Charlotte?
I hope I’m wrong here, because if I’m not, you managed to convince a lot of people that Trump’s comments weren’t that big a deal because they were so long ago. And as a result, he was able to stay in the race. In a sane world, that tape should have ended his campaign, and you would have joined in the condemnation of such outrageous behavior, regardless of when it surfaced. Apparently you forgot what happened when your father got too close to Richard Nixon.
You then compounded this outrageous response by remaining silent when Trump made blatantly anti-Semitic remarks at a rally in West Palm Beach, then used it as the soundtrack for his final campaign ad. I wasn’t surprised when most religious right leaders kept quiet about it. But I thought that you, remembering the lessons of your father, would condemn this for the bilge that it was.
I was wrong. Instead, on the last weekend before the election, you lent your voice to an American Family Association get-out-the-vote effort, and declared that “we’re going to lose this country” unless Christians come out and vote for someone who will put “pro-life judges” on the courts. Let me refresh your memory with this video.
And on the morning after the election, you had this to say on Facebook.
So you are on record as openly rejoicing that you persuaded a number of evangelicals to ignore the fact that Trump plastered a private cell phone number on social media, mocked the disabled, condoned violence at his rallies, gloried in disrespecting women, and revealed himself to be a stone-cold anti-Semite. All in the name of derailing abortion and marriage equality. Disgraceful.
And what did we get? A president-elect who finds it acceptable to name a man who probably couldn’t get a security clearance under normal conditions due in part to his clear links with the worst people in the world as a senior member of his administration. Earlier, that same president-elect apparently gave serious thought to giving a cabinet post to the man who let the worst financial crime in world history happen right under his nose.
You and the religious right own this, Mr. Graham. And you will own every single bit of fail that will come from Trump over the next two years. The way things are going, Trump will not be reelected, and there’s a very good chance he will either be forced to resign or be impeached before then. And when he goes down to defeat–whether at the polls, or via resignation or removal from office–the reality-based community will make sure that you and the rest of the religious right tail-enders who continued to stand with him go down with him.
Samaritan’s Purse could have been your legacy, Mr. Graham. Instead, unless you come to your senses, it will be the fact that you helped enable a man who is a clear and present threat to our democracy. Be warned–learn the lesson that your father did.
Sincerely,
Darrell
(featured image courtesy Graham fils’ Facebook)
