PEPFAR: A Moral High Watermark

Can Christian Americans Resist Authoritarian Drift?

Pete Wehner—The Atlantic columnist and former Reagan and Bush administration staff member—joins host Curtis Chang to ask the uncomfortable question: in Trump's America, is morality a loser that's been replaced by the "law of the jungle"—especially in U.S. foreign policy? From Venezuela to a looming Greenland/Denmark showdown that could fracture NATO, Wehner argues we're watching "might makes right" go mainstream. The antidote, he says, isn't vibes—it's resistance: stop living within the lie and start living within the truth.

00:04:23 - Explaining the U.S. Foreign Policy Shift

00:06:36 - What Is America's Moral Aspiration in Foreign Policy?

00:07:57 - Trump's "Will to Power" Ethic

00:11:34 - Do We Have Historical Amnesia?

00:16:36 - Contrasting Trump and PEPFAR

00:19:09 - The Disconnect Between Christian Identity and Policy

00:26:34 - Demagogues and Moral Erosion

00:34:19 - President Trump's Unique Amorality

00:37:10 - Primacy of Human Dignity and Christian Ethics

00:41:01 - Venezuela, Greenland, and Moral Implications

00:44:02 - The Value of Beauty and Creation

00:47:14 - What Are the Limits and Possibilities of Action

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Mentioned In This Episode:

• Pete Wehner's article Trump's Folly
• More about PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief)
• Anne Applebaum's Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
• William Galston's Anger, Fear, Domination: Dark Passions and the Power of Political Speech
• Jeane Kirkpatrick's essay Dictatorships and Double Standards (Commentary)
• Václav Havel's The Power of the Powerless
• David Brooks' article America Needs a Mass Movement—Now Without one, America may sink into autocracy for decades (The Atlantic)
• C.S. Lewis' idea of active obedience is found in Mere Christianity
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Prize Lecture (literature, 1970)

More from Pete Wehner:

• Pete Wehner's articles at The Atlantic
• Pete Wehner's opinion pieces at The New York Times

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The Good Faith Podcast is a production of a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization that does not engage in any political campaign activity to support or oppose any candidate for public office. Any views and opinions expressed by any guests on this program are solely those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Good Faith.