In the Republic, Socrates dialogues with the Sophists regarding the value of virtue. Not the benefits of virtue but the virtue itself.
There are plenty that see the benefits of virtue. For one thing, those that are perceived to be of virtue are highly regarded. One Sophist argued with Socrates that perhaps one can have their cake and eat it too: they can appear to be virtuous while benefitting from not being virtuous.
Machievelli and later Nichesta would later accept that reasoning along with the conclusion that politics has nothing to do with virtue at all really. Politics is about power.
When you view today’s Trump-loving evangelical cesspool, remember that today’s Christians have simply bought into that old Sophist argument. They have decided that power is more important that virtue.
