Yeah, you read that right. Ben Sasse, junior senator from Nebraska, has more degrees than a compass: a BA from Harvard (government), an MA from St. John’s (liberal studies), and an MA, MPhil1, and a Ph.D. from Yale (all in philosophy). Yet he talks just like me and you. Most of the time.
Ben has another Facebook post up “AN OPEN LETTER TO TRUMP SUPPORTERS” to go along with an earlier one “AN OPEN LETTER TO MAJORITY AMERICA”, which I snickered at here. Ben’s faux folksiness is worth another chuckle—he’s still working that WalMart shuffle, passionately denying that he’s a goldurn elitist—but he throws some surprisingly well-targeted punches at Donald Trump. In particular, he nails Trump accurately as a compulsive foe of the First Amendment, to wit:
“We’re going to open up libel laws and we’re going to have people sue you like you’ve never got sued before.”
“When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. They were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak…”
“Putin, who has killed journalists and is pillaging Ukraine, is a great leader.”
The editor of National Review “should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him.”
On whether he will use executive orders to end-run Congress, as President Obama has illegally done: “I won’t refuse it. I’m going to do a lot of things.” “I mean, he’s led the way, to be honest with you.”
“Sixty-eight percent would not leave under any circumstance. I think that means murder. It think it means anything.” [AV: I don’t know what Trump is talking about here. But I guess he thinks that we need to murder someone.]
On the internet: “I would certainly be open to closing areas” of it.
His lawyers to people selling anti-Trump t-shirts: “Mr. Trump considers this to be a very serious matter and has authorized our legal team to take all necessary and appropriate actions to bring an immediate halt…”
Similar threatening legal letters to competing campaigns running ads about his record.
In keeping with his “godly” persona, Sasse insists that Trump’s hostility to the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech will soon metamorphose into a similar hostility to freedom of religion, which prompts this whopper (from Sasse this time): “I believe a sizable share of Christians—who regard threats against religious liberty as arguably the greatest crisis of our time—are unwilling to support any candidate who does not make a full-throated defense of the First Amendment a first commitment of their candidacy.”
I pity any Christian who really thinks that “threats” against freedom of religion constitute “arguably the greatest crisis of our time,” but I welcome anyone who will oppose Donald Trump, and Ben Sasse, bending over backwards so hard to pretend he’s the second coming of William Jennings Bryan that he’s got the back of his head nestled ‘twixt his butt cheeks, is doing just that.
Afterwords
Back in 2014, Sarah Posner wrote an interesting take on Ben’s thesis, “The Anti-Madalyn2 Majority: Secular Left, Religious Right, and the Rise of Reagan’s America”.
