Evangelicals will not win by looking for an anointed man of God and giving him license to whip the rest of the Republican Party and country into shape. These efforts are a way of seceding from normal American politics, both as a matter of imagination and as a practical endeavor of networking and staffing. The Carson campaign is a despair of politics, an attempt to outsource a movement’s hustle and everyday righteousness to a single hero.
The name of the game in political influence is infiltration, institution building, and expertise. Evangelical political victories will happen and become sustainable when it doesn’t matter whether the Republicans nominate a co-religionist like Mike Huckabee or a non-practicing Jack Mormon like Jon Huntsman. It will happen when the political culture and party apparatus is so infused with evangelicals’ influence that policy decisions are made in their image, when they are the GOP’s most effective fundraisers and best activists, and live persuasively. And evangelicals should know this from their Bible: Joseph rises to power in Egypt through hard work and showing prosperous results for his master and, ultimately, for Pharaoh.
Carson is diverting monetary, emotional, and organizational resources away from the real long-term work of evangelical politics. He has no ideas to offer his party, which is in need of them. He has no political leadership skills for a culture that is desperate for them. He is pulling evangelical influence and resources away from candidates who can win, which ultimately enhances the grip of the more secular, more liberal Republican establishment. This is political malpractice.
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