I was very moved by reading and listening to interviews with Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, who described how he continued to write notes for his memoirs even in the most brutal prison conditions in Western Siberia. In 2020, after being poisoned with a nerve agent, he recovered in Germany, and then returned to Russia knowing he would be arrested. “I knew from the outset that I would be imprisoned for life — either the rest of my life or until the end of the life of this regime,” he wrote in his diary in March 2022. “I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here.” Despite this, he believed that it was more important to fight for truth. The title of his book is Patriot: A Memoir.

In stark contrast, Mitch McConnell’s recently published book is aptly named The Price of Power. Until he sensed the way the political wind was blowing, the senate GOP leader called Donald Trump “a despicable human being” and unfit for office. Trump’s main opponent in the primaries, Nikki Haley, described him as “unhinged” and his running mate, J. D. Vance, once described him as a “moral disaster.” All of them chose political expediency and joined the Trump bandwagon along with the majority of leading Republicans.

Materialist ideologies such as Marxism believe that the ends justify the means. The Republican Party in pursuit of its goals is following the same path.

Many Christians are also strongly supporting Trump. Until 2016, most mainstream evangelical leaders held him at arm’s length. But in The Violent Take it by Force, Matthew Taylor describes how the New Apostolic Reformation, a loose network of Christian Pentecostal leaders claiming to be “anointed” as prophets and apostles to discern the will of God and the true meaning of scripture, became the “tip of the spear” of radical Christian Trumpism. Chief among them is Paula White, a celebrity pastor and longtime advisor to Trump, who became chair of his Faith and Opportunity Initiative. She led a prayer at the pro-Trump rally before a mob attacked the Capitol. Today, the vast majority of evangelicals are publicly supporting the election of a man impeached twice for high crimes and misdemeanors, convicted of 24 felonies, found liable for sexual assault, and whose organization was convicted in criminal court of 17 counts of tax fraud.

As we face a pivotal election, I hope that we will all ask ourselves hard questions about truth and how we came to this place.

I do not condemn the broad MAGA movement for the fact that Trump looks stronger than ever. Millions of people are understandably angry and perhaps confused by the recent years of inflation, the impact of Covid-19, and misinformation by social media. But the leaders of the party and those whose resources have funded Trump know better.

For Democrats, the truth is that the party became disconnected from its traditional base, many of whom see it as a voice of the intellectual elite. The cities and wealthier parts of the East and West coasts have little communication with America’s heartland and regions that struggle with declining industries and the effects of NAFTA. The liberal agenda has downplayed religion and promoted a relative morality that has undermined family life. In retrospect, a party of moral integrity would not have allowed Bill Clinton to remain in office after the Monica Lewinsky affair. Many on the left insist on a single view of history that casts white people, especially white males, as intrinsically racist and colonizers and demands a response of guilt and shame. Yet the most liberal cities in America are the most racially segregated, and Democratic voting communities often pursue NIMBY policies that make housing unavailable or unaffordable.

Those on the liberal side need some honest self-reflection. Those who support a Trump presidency now will find it hard to explain to their grandchildren. Those with integrity say it is better to lose an election and save democracy. Let us remember the message of another great Russian patriot, Alexander Solzhenitsyn “One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.”