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Trump's first year in office


Cartmann99

Question

Based on your experiences growing up, is there anything that Trump can do that will lose him the support of evangelicals, or will they make excuses for him because of SCOTUS and the hope of Trump appointing a pro-life Justice(s)?

Thank you!

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13 answers to this question

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By and large, I expect conservative white Evangelicals to make excuses for Trump. I know they are not 100% monolithic and that some have some concerns and discomfort with them, but they will do almost anything to ban abortion. Very often, for ideologically driven believers, the ends justify the means. I would like to say I know how far would be too far for a critical mass of them, but I really don't. I expect most will play the role of Good Germans. 

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Well that's super scary :(   

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Sadly, from what I've seen on social media, Dr. Stroop's answer doesn't surprise me. 

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Unfortunately I don't think there are a lot of grounds for optimism. Here's a piece I didn't write, but which I think is an important read, that will provide some more background on the theocratic movement that's coming to power:

https://www.autostraddle.com/i-was-trained-for-the-culture-wars-in-home-school-awaiting-someone-like-mike-pence-as-a-messiah-367057/

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Thank you, that was an interesting article. I agree that optimism is not really warranted at this time.

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20 minutes ago, cstroop said:

Unfortunately I don't think there are a lot of grounds for optimism. Here's a piece I didn't write, but which I think is an important read, that will provide some more background on the theocratic movement that's coming to power:

https://www.autostraddle.com/i-was-trained-for-the-culture-wars-in-home-school-awaiting-someone-like-mike-pence-as-a-messiah-367057/

Sadly, this individual's experience mirrors mine. In retrospect, I should not have been surprised by the outcome in November, but I was. 

Edit: This quote (from the above linked article): They will not be won over with sit-downs and respectability politics. This kind of dogma cannot be reasoned with; it must be fought against. Trying to convince them to come to the other side is a waste of time unless they’ve already started on that journey themselves. The ones in power, actively harming our lives, are past this point. We can only fight back.

This speaks to me. There was no way in hell that teen, and even young 20s me would have listened to rational argument. It took getting out of my bubble and meeting the people I was fighting to change my mind. Since so many people don't associate outside their bubble, changing minds is .... difficult at best. 

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I still thought we would dodge the bullet in this election too. I knew the Christian Right *could* go fascist, but it's another thing entirely to see it happen so fast. For a while there I hoped Hillary would win and that that would be a step toward the political marginalization of the Christian Right since it went all in for Trump, though, with the GOP in as radical a state as it is, we wouldn't be out of the woods. But nope. The Christian Right went all in for Trump, and now Christofascism is here. 

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I think the GOP was so desperate to be back in power they were willing to overlook a lot of the obvious problems with Trump.   I wonder how long they will let him go unchecked, though.   Ryan and McConnell will let it go until it starts to cause potential re-election issues, but I keep hoping that some of the others are going to get scared and stop letting him have whatever he wants.

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I do wonder what, if anything, will be too far for Republican leaders. The GOP is pretty thoroughly radicalized already. Trump is a symptom. He's also weird, but I think McConnell and Pence and Cruz and many others are just as authoritarian as Trump is, just smoother about it (and more competent). GOP reelection may not be at issue due to gerrymandering and voter suppression; they've stolen disproportionate power (also knowingly benefiting from Russian hacking and Comey's malfeasance). They're not respecting norms of the rule of law, even if you take Trump out of the picture. 

This is a bit tangential, but I have some thoughts on how Evangelical authoritarianism can work with people like Trump or people like Cruz/Pence here:

http://religiondispatches.org/why-trumpvangelicals-dont-need-ted-cruz-conservative-christianitys-authoritarian-streak/

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Before Trump, I think most of our worst nightmares were about Cruz.  No it seems like you just have to fear all of them :(  I don't understand how they can let some of this stuff go on.  Do they not care about their own children/grandchildren or even themselves having a place to live that has safe drinking water, clean air, food. 

So many of Trump's supporters voted against self-interest, which I think became popular due to Sarah Palin/Tea Party and they are impossible to reason with.

 

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It's frustrating and hard to understand. Fundamentalism has a lot of built-in disciplinary mechanisms that stifle development and critical thinking. American Evangelical fundamentalism is also extremely focused on the individual, on personal responsibility, with all kinds of unrecognized double standards coming into play. Systemic thinking and critical self-reflection are well nigh impossible for fundamentalists, so when you raise these systemic issues, it just for the most part does not compute. 

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5 minutes ago, cstroop said:

I do wonder what, if anything, will be too far for Republican leaders. The GOP is pretty thoroughly radicalized already. Trump is a symptom. He's also weird, but I think McConnell and Pence and Cruz and many others are just as authoritarian as Trump is, just smoother about it (and more competent). GOP reelection may not be at issue due to gerrymandering and voter suppression; they've stolen disproportionate power (also knowingly benefiting from Russian hacking and Comey's malfeasance). They're not respecting norms of the rule of law, even if you take Trump out of the picture. 

This is a bit tangential, but I have some thoughts on how Evangelical authoritarianism can work with people like Trump or people like Cruz/Pence here:

http://religiondispatches.org/why-trumpvangelicals-dont-need-ted-cruz-conservative-christianitys-authoritarian-streak/

YES! I think of Trump as a bulldozer being driven by a drunk teenager, but McConnell, Pence, and Ryan are like snakes -- they are smart and they know how to work the system. They smile for the camera and act like they care about people, all the while doing crap behind the scenes to make peoples' lives worse, especially if those people are women, non-Christian, foreign-born, and/or in possession of a skin color other than lily-white. 

Originally, I thought McConnell and Ryan were playing the long con, as Republicans have been very good in doing, biding their time and privately gritting their teeth about Trump, then about six months in, going to the media, acting all high and mighty, saying, "this far and no further." They would then impeach and remove Trump, in favor of Pence, who plays their game their way. Now, I'm not so sure. They can let Trump do all this stupid stuff that is basically a smoke screen for the bad things they are doing, and few, if any, people will notice.

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1 minute ago, GreyhoundFan said:

YES! I think of Trump as a bulldozer being driven by a drunk teenager, but McConnell, Pence, and Ryan are like snakes -- they are smart and they know how to work the system. They smile for the camera and act like they care about people, all the while doing crap behind the scenes to make peoples' lives worse, especially if those people are women, non-Christian, foreign-born, and/or in possession of a skin color other than lily-white. 

Originally, I thought McConnell and Ryan were playing the long con, as Republicans have been very good in doing, biding their time and privately gritting their teeth about Trump, then about six months in, going to the media, acting all high and mighty, saying, "this far and no further." They would then impeach and remove Trump, in favor of Pence, who plays their game their way. Now, I'm not so sure. They can let Trump do all this stupid stuff that is basically a smoke screen for the bad things they are doing, and few, if any, people will notice.

Yeah, Trump seems to be wiling to deliver most of what they want. And I think the party will not want to lose face by impeaching their own man, so I think the impeachment scenario is not likely unless things get absolutely out of control with Trump. 

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