Among the changes that America has witnessed since then Donald Trump rode the escalator in 2015 and declared he wanted to be president: the end of Nancy French's political writing career.
As the Frenchman explains in Ghost: An American StoryShe was a successful ghostwriter and consultant who helped create books for conservative leaders (former Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska) and celebrities (Sarah Palin). She also prepares clients with “hot takes” for softball interviews on Fox News.
French Nancy
“I turned ‘conservative talking points’ into a scientific matter,” she wrote in Zondervan’s memoir released this week. “I can write about American military power, 'family values,' and personal responsibility, and know exactly how it will be received among other conservatives.”
At their highest point in 2012, She and her attorney husband, David, were the “Prom King and Queen” of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, where David received that year's Ronald Reagan Award.
But within a few short years, they both found themselves separated from the conservative tribe they had helped build but found missing. David's criticism of Trump put him on the hit list of Cesar Sayoc, a troubled man who sent pipe bombs to Trump critics in 2018 before pleading guilty to 65 felonies.
“I have the same beliefs I had when I was a kid, thinking about Ronald Reagan,” 49-year-old Nancy French said in a recent interview. I haven't changed, but the Republican Party has changed. “I am displaced religiously, spiritually and culturally.”
I haven't changed, but the Republican Party has changed. “I am displaced religiously, spiritually and culturally.”
Is it still conservative? “I don’t know what that word means anymore,” she said.
Is it still evangelical? “To be completely honest, I don't know what that word means.”
It still embraces family values, but not the “pro-family” groups that abandoned these values “when given the opportunity to have a seat at the table” of power.
“I'm definitely still a Christian, but I'm hanging on by my nails,” she said. “I love God so much, but I feel so hopeless about the church.” (The couple attends a Nashville church.)
She wrote her memoirs to atone For her past work, which helped pave the way for today's MAGA mania.
“I was wrong in the way I dealt with politics and with other people,” she said. “I was not just an observer. I participated in this. I feel like I was complicit in some of the acrimony.”
French's success has come not from seeking and sharing the truth, but from serving a burgeoning industry that weaponizes information. The mission was simple: build members of your ideological tribe while destroying everyone else. Right is always right. Others are always foolishly wrong.
“When you're trying to make the other side look bad, you take every opportunity,” she said. “I knew how to get rid of political enemies, and I did it. Disembowelment was not mentioned in 1 Corinthians, but it was my gift, and I used it.
“Disembowelment was not mentioned in 1 Corinthians, but it was my gift, and I used it.”
“I knew how to say things In the most polarizing ways. I loved making liberated tears for my clients and drinking them.
“Nut picking” was a favorite rhetorical weapon. “You find absurd crazy people, like one of the crazy people in Topeka, and then they raise the stakes and say, 'That's what liberals are.'”
French business relations with its conservative clients suffered and eventually ended. “The gap between us is getting bigger and bigger,” she writes. Over time, she saw her job for what it was: bearing false witness against her neighbors.
“I decided that I would not bear false witness against my liberal neighbors, and that decision marked the beginning of the end of my political writing career.”
Another big reason she wrote her memoir was to criticize evangelicals for ignoring sexual abuse in their churches, ministries, children's camps, and their preferred presidential candidate.
The issue is personal. As a child, she was sexually abused by Conrad, her Bible school teacher. (The churches never held Conrad responsible, but when French later tracked him down, he had access to the young victims as a high school employee. He resigned after she complained to officials in Kentucky.)
“I support the 1998 Southern Baptist Convention She said: “An announcement confirms the importance of the moral character of the presidential candidate.” “I 100% believe Bill Clinton is a rapist. I also believe Donald Trump is a rapist.”
“I 100% believe Bill Clinton is a rapist. I also believe Donald Trump is a rapist.”
But that was not the verdict her tribe's spiritual guardians judged. Trump's many glaring sins were no reason to disqualify James Dobson, Franklin Graham, or the Mohlers.
“It's enough to get you injured,” French said.
She spent years researching the sexual assaults of hundreds of young men at Camp Kanakuk, one of the largest and most respected camps in the world. She and David reported what they found, but Joe White of Kanakuk was able to recover the damage through cash settlements coupled with nondisclosure agreements.
“I Really desperate for abuse “The issues in the church and how everyone ignores them,” she said. “I thought once that was proven (in Kanakuk), the church would really respond. But they didn't respond. They responded by ignoring that. I can't get over that.”
Nancy and David are also concerned about their former tribe's growing acceptance of Trump's overt racism. This is also a personal matter. The couple adopted a child from Ethiopia, one of the countries that Trump described as “shithole countries,” and Trump also described immigrants as “animals.”
Nancy mostly ignores political news these days, leaving that to David, who works as a newspaper columnist New York times Since the beginning of last year.
Her focus these days is She survived her difficult chemotherapy regimen to treat her “very aggressive breast cancer” which had spread. She is ready for her forever home after suffering years of tribal displacement.
“Facing death in this way was a beautiful experience,” she said of her diagnosis. “I'm grateful that I actually wrote the book and have this record.”
Her wish for the rest of us?
“To see each other as Americans, to love our neighbors, and not bear false witness.”
Related articles:
David French says fundamentalism is more of a mindset than a theology
Kanakuk Child Sexual Abuse: The Power, Lies, and Biblical Values That Cover Up the Abuse | Analysis by Mallory Challis
