“It’s true you have better hair than I do,” Trump said matter-of-factly. “But I get more pussy than you do.”
But just because Trump is an imperfect candidate doesn’t mean his candidacy can’t be instructive. Trump could teach Republicans in Washington a lot if only they stopped posturing long enough to watch carefully.
.. For decades, party leaders and intellectuals imagined that most Republicans were broadly libertarian on economics and basically neoconservative on foreign policy.
.. Evangelicals have given up trying to elect one of their own. What they’re looking for is a bodyguard, someone to shield them from mounting (and real) threats to their freedom of speech and worship.
How Trump Is Romancing the Christian Right
Evangelical leaders have lost control of their flocks.
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, suggested Evangelicals who are drawn to Trump have been seduced by “the other side of the culture war, that image and celebrity and money and power and social Darwinist ‘winning’ trump the conservation of moral principles and a just society.”
.. Historically, “[Evangelicals] have been told by their leadership that the problem is liberals,” Bean said, “their culturally liberal ways, their cultural Marxism, whatever you want to call it.
.. Trump is more than willing to point out how business leaders are manipulating politicians and selling out average Americans
.. “They didn’t really ever do a good job in insisting on any distinctive Christian character in their leaders. They were usually determined to be good partners in the Republican coalition, which meant they would endorse anyone who was a strong Republican, and they would play along. It started with Reagan: Reagan is a Godly man over Jimmy Carter. But I don’t know of any way Reagan out-Christianed Jimmy Carter.
.. With that nerve severed, Evangelical voters are free to gravitate to whichever candidate is providing the most cogent reflection of their anxieties, and Trump, with his vivid account of the fall of the white American middle class, appears to be that candidate.
Liberty alumni trash Trump endorsement
“For a school that focuses on loving God and loving other people, it’s odd to endorse someone who only seems to love himself and other people who love him.”
.. “To try to equate Christian fruit with creating jobs is laughable,” said Dean Inserra, a 2003 Liberty graduate and lead pastor of City Church Tallahassee, a Southern Baptist congregation in Tallahassee, Fla., with about 1,500 attendees.
.. But several alumni said the endorsement illustrated that Falwell had lost sight of the university’s mission to “build champions for Christ.”
“The goal of Liberty University is not to defeat Democrats,” Inserra said. “A populist nationalism has become the chief religion of the day at Liberty. … This is a tangible example of what it looks like to gain the whole world but lose your soul.”
Donald Trump Divides God’s Voters
Mr. Trump’s standing among evangelicals shows just how little those issues matter to a good many erstwhile culture warriors, at least when picking a president. If he turns out to be their standard-bearer, this once-cohesive movement will have to spend this election season asking itself what it really means.