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:
- the voters of the southern strategy,
- the Christian right,
- and the Tea Party.
Why Evangelicals Heart Donald Trump
Beyond the politics of resentment is the Calvinist notion that the frontrunner’s wealth marks him as God’s anointed.
as Sarah Posner has posited at Religion Dispatches, Trump is running a messianic campaign. Only in this case, the messiah, of course, is Trump himself.
.. On the right, the term “political correctness” essentially means a perceived proscription on speech that demeans groups of people based on the basics of their identities: African Americans, Muslims, Mexicans, women, et cetera. It’s an expression of resentment over a changing order of society, one in which people in those various groups assert their right to lay claim to positions, whether of power or mere citizenship, previously reserved only for white Christians.
.. Embedded in that DNA is the gene of Calvinism, one that has undergone a rather horrible mutation. While I’m hardly a John Calvin fan-girl, I will at admit that in his formulation of his principles, Calvin at least attempted some accommodation of the common good. But the populist Calvinism that has since engulfed much of American culture, both inside and outside the religious right, has jettisoned that piece of it, along with calls for the wealthy to exercise thrift and sexual morality, leaving only Calvinism’s veneration of the rich and damnation of the poor as its tenets.
.. In Calvin’s view, according to Chip Berlet, the longtime researcher of right-wing populism, there was nothing a human being could do to up his or her chances at getting into Heaven. God picked for you at birth for either the up or down path. Those tapped for celestial upward mobility were deemed “the elect.”
.. Calvinists justified their accumulation of wealth, even at the expense of others, on the grounds that they were somehow destined to prosper.
Why evangelicals are splintering and what it means for the GOP
As older, predominantly white churchgoers age and a younger generation thinks differently about faith, evangelicals are fracturing as a voting bloc and the power of pastors to all but endorse candidates from the pulpit is fading.
.. “That’s the debate the Republican Party’s having and, in many ways, that’s the debate American evangelicalism is having,” said Moore, who encourages evangelicals to be more inclusive and less insular as part of their faith.
“Preaching to the choir has become an industry in American life, and that’s not how one brings change,” he said. “We want to be speaking to persuade, not just to vent our outrage.”
.. Evangelicals first emerged as a potent electoral force with the rise of the elder Falwell’s Moral Majority in 1979, credited with helping to elect Ronald Reagan. Leaders barnstormed the country calling for a return to Christian values as an alternative to the nation’s growing secularization.
The organization disbanded at the end of the Reagan era, confident it had accomplished its mission.
.. Though Cruz has distinguished himself as an outsider on Capitol Hill and butted heads with what he terms the Washington “cartel,” he’s seen as the “establishment” favorite of old-school evangelicals.
.. Rubio appeals to the children of the Moral Majority, who aren’t necessarily more liberal or secular than their lineage, but prefer the come-as-you-are inclusivity of today’s cargo-shorts-and-guitar-rock churches.
.. For many of them, Rubio’s attempt to tackle immigration reform and his comment that he would attend a friend’s same-sex marriage better reflects their brand of Christian values, Moore said.
The More Donald Trump Defies His Party, the More His Supporters Cheer
He dismissed ideological labels altogether, a sentiment endorsed by the 10,000 people in the arena, who thundered their approval over and over. Instead of calling himself conservative, Mr. Trump said, “I’m a guy with common sense that’s going to make us a fortune.”
.. Most surprising, perhaps, is that Mr. Trump led Mr. Cruz by 20 percentage points among evangelical voters, whose support Mr. Cruz rallied to win the Iowa caucuses this month.
.. Hogan Gidley, a former executive director of the South CarolinaRepublican Party, whose roots are in the evangelical community, said the Republican base was angry about sending politicians with impeccable conservative credentials to Washington, but seeing nothing change there.
“All us rank-and-file conservatives have been dictated to from Washington, D.C., for decades, and we’re sick of it,” Mr. Gidley said. “I don’t need a candidate to come from our ranks. I need a candidate who’s not going to lie to me.”