How ‘Values Voters’ Became ‘Nostalgia Voters’

White evangelicals are culturally and economically disaffected—anxious to protect the conservative Christian culture rapidly disappearing in America.

How did Donald Trump—a twice-divorced, casino-owning New Yorker who curses during campaign speeches and is prone to church-related gaffes such as accidentally putting cash into the communion plate—win in this southern state where approximately seven in 10 GOP primary voters are white evangelicals?

Trump’s success has demonstrated that the conventional mode of thinking about white evangelical voters as “values voters” is no longer helpful, if it ever was. The Trump revelation is that white evangelicals have become “nostalgia voters:” a culturally and economically disaffected group that is anxious to hold onto a white, conservative Christian culture that is passing from the scene.

.. The best explanation for this unlikely consolidation of white evangelical Protestant support behind Trump is that his appeal to “Make America Great Again” resonates more deeply and powerfully with the group’s anxieties than a checklist of culture war issues or an appeal to shared religious identity.

.. Two-thirds of white evangelicals say that immigrants are a burden to the country because they take American jobs, housing, and health care; and nearly six in 10 say it bothers them when they come into contact with immigrants who speak little or no English.

.. On the economic front, eight in 10 white evangelicals believe the country is still in an economic recession today.

..  His appeal to nostalgia voters has brought together important groups that have historically been overlapping but distinct:

  1. the voters of the southern strategy,
  2. the Christian right,
  3. and the Tea Party.