Among the changes in America since Donald Trump rode down an escalator in 2015 and declared he wanted to be president: the end of Nancy French’s political writing career.
As French explains in Ghosted: An American Story, she was a successful ghost writer and consultant who helped create books for conservative leaders (former Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska) and celebrities (Sarah Palin). She also prepared clients with “hot takes” for softball interviews on Fox News.
Nancy French
“I’d had the ‘conservative talking points’ down to a science,” she writes in her memoir, out this week from Zondervan. “I could write about American military strength, ‘family values,’ and personal responsibility and know exactly how it would be received among other conservatives.”
At their 2012 high point, 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, both found themselves estranged from the conservative tribe they helped build but found wanting. David’s criticisms 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,” said 49-year-old Nancy French in a recent interview. “I haven’t changed, but the Republican Party has changed. I’m religiously, spiritually and culturally homeless.”
“I haven’t changed, but the Republican Party has changed. I’m religiously, spiritually and culturally homeless.”
Is she still a conservative? “I don’t know what that word means anymore,” she said.
Is she still an evangelical? “To be completely honest, I don’t know what that word means.”
She still embraces family values, but not the “pro-family” groups that abandoned these values “when they had a chance to gain a seat at the table” of power.
“I’m still a Christian for sure, but I’m holding on by my fingernails,” she said. “I love God so much, but I’m so despondent over the church.” (The couple attend a Nashville church.)
She wrote her memoir to atone for her past work, which helped pave the way for today’s MAGA mania.
“I was wrong in the way I approached politics and 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 didn’t come from seeking and sharing the truth, but from serving the booming industry that weaponizes information. The mission was simple: Build up members of your ideological tribe while destroying everybody else. The Right is always right. Others are always foolishly wrong.
“When trying to make the other side look bad, you seize every opportunity,” she said. “I knew how to eviscerate perceived political enemies, and I did. Evisceration is not listed in 1 Corinthians, but it was my gift, and I used it.
“Evisceration is not listed 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 to create liberal tears for my clients and drink them.”
“Nutpicking” was a favorite rhetorical weapon. “You find people who are absurd lunatics, like some crazy person in Topeka, then elevate the situation to say: This is how liberals are.”
French’s working relationships with her conservative clients suffered and eventually ended. “The chasm between us got larger and larger,” she writes. In time she saw her work for what it was: Bearing false witness against her neighbors.
“I decided I would not bear false witness against my liberal neighbors, and that one decision was the beginning of the end of my political ghostwriting career.”
There’s another big reason she wrote her memoir — to call out 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 vacation Bible school teacher. (Conrad never was held responsible by churches, but when French later tracked him down, he had access to young victims as a high school employee. He resigned after she filed a complaint with Kentucky officials.)
“I support the 1998 Southern Baptist Convention proclamation affirming the importance of moral character for a presidential candidate,” she said. “I believe Bill Clinton is a rapist, 100%. I also believe Donald Trump is a rapist.”
“I believe Bill Clinton is a rapist, 100%. I also believe Donald Trump is a rapist.”
But that’s not how her tribe’s spiritual gatekeepers judged it. Trump’s many gaudy sins were not disqualifying for James Dobson, Franklin Graham or Al Mohler.
“It’s enough to give you whiplash,” French said.
She spent years researching sexual abuse of possibly hundreds of youngsters at Kanakuk Kamps, one of the world’s largest and most respected camps. She and David reported on what they found, but Kanakuk’s Joe White contained the damage through cash settlements paired with non-disclosure agreements.
“I’m really despondent over abuse issues in the church and how everyone ignores them,” she said. “I thought once I proved it (at Kanakuk), the church would really respond. But they did not respond. They responded by ignoring, it. I just can’t get over that.”
Nancy and David also are concerned about their former tribe’s growing acceptance of Trump’s upfront racism. This, too, is personal. The couple adopted a child from Ethiopia, one of the nations Trump called “shithole countries,” and Trump has called immigrants “animals.”
Nancy mostly ignores political news these days, leaving that to David, who has worked as an opinion columnist for The New York Times since early last year.
Her focus these days is surviving the difficult chemotherapy regimen she’s undergoing to treat “a very aggressive breast cancer” that has spread. And she’s ready for her eternal home after experiencing years of tribal homelessness.
“Facing death like this has been a beautiful experience,” she said of her prognosis. “I’m thankful I already had the book written and have that record.”
Her wish for the rest of us?
“That we see each other as Americans, love our neighbors, and not bear false witness.”
Related articles:
Fundamentalism is a mindset more than a theology, David French says
Pedophilia at Kanakuk: Power, lies and evangelical values that cover up abuse | Analysis by Mallory Challis
