Kareem Abdul-Jabbar open letter to Trump supporters

Dear Trump supporters:

America hears you.

You are angry with the gridlock caused by the petty bickering of professional politicians more interested in being lackeys to lobbyists and other big-money donors than in improving the lives of average wage-earning Americans. Money, jobs and opportunities seem to flow upstream to those who already have everything, rather than downstream to those most in need. Truly, this is how most Americans feel.

The question for this election is: Which candidate will actually do something about it? Who will be our champion? Your passion for Donald Trump, an outsider to governing, is proof that our political system, though sometimes infuriating, is as noble, contradictory and inspiring as America itself.

But can Trump be the champion his supporters really want? Or, once he is elected, will the status quo persist, leaving you disappointed and sheepish about having missed the signs? To see whether he is a false prophet, let’s look at the most important reasons people say they support Trump: First, they are either the most conservative voters or they say he represents conservative values. (Focus groups bear this out.) Second, because he’s tough.

[Abdul-Jabbar: The difference between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders]

Does Trump really represent conservative values? Even avowed conservatives don’t always agree on what these are, because they include social causes such as opposing abortion and same-sex marriage; political ones such as curbing the reach of government and devolving power to the states; martial ones such as asserting American power abroad and maintaining a superior military; and economic ones such as lowering tax rates and spending less money.

But on few of these is Trump a classic conservative. His windshield-wiper party affiliation — in 1999 he switched from Republican to independent, then to Democrat in 2001, then to Republican in 2009 — suggests either internal conflict on the issues or blatant pandering. He favored the economic stimulus plan, the automobile industry bailouts, the bank bailouts and the assault-weapons ban; he has called himself “very pro-choice,” “very liberal” and a backer of “universal health care” on national television; during the 2012 campaign, he criticized Republican Mitt Romney’s harsh immigration rhetoric.

No wonder National Review, the house organ of the right, recently used an entire issue to showcase famous conservatives from across the spectrum warning against supporting Trump. If you are a Trump supporter who likes the billionaire’s conservatism, ask yourself this question: In what ways were the most articulate and well-known conservatives wrong? To hear their critiques and pretend your candidate still advances your worldview is like being diagnosed with a deadly disease and refusing to listen to the doctors who are specialist in the field because you’re just going to walk it off.

Religion is very important to American voters. According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, being an atheist is the trait most likely to cause voters to reject a candidate. They are more likely to vote for you if you are Muslim than an atheist. Accordingly, Trump has asserted his deep religious belief and spoken several times of his respect for the Bible in an effort to win evangelical support.

But asked about his favorite Bible verse, Trump was unable to recall any. “I wouldn’t want to get into it, because to me that’s very personal,” he said. Was he an Old Testament or a New Testament guy? “Probably equal,” he replied. An odd statement for an avowed Christian.

A month later, he amended that by telling Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody that his favorite was “Proverbs, the chapter ‘never bend to envy.’ I’ve had that thing all of my life where people are bending to envy.” Although Brody couldn’t recall the specific phrase, Trump’s aides later informed him that it came from Proverbs 24:1-2. (What that verse actually says is, “Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them; for their heart devises violence, and their lips talk of troublemaking.”) In a more recent flub, Trump referred to Second Corinthians as “two Corinthians,” showing a fundamental lack of familiarity with the Bible. Then blamed someone else for writing it down incorrectly. Perhaps his penchant for blaming others for his mistakes, as he has for several misogynistic and racist tweets, is even more worrying than the mistakes themselves because it indicates a man averse to being humbled by his errors and unwilling to learn from them. A decidedly unbiblical attitude.