White evangelicals largely see Trump as fighting for their beliefs and advancing their interests, and they feel their side generally has been winning recently on political matters important to them.
It is embarrassing to admit, but before this class, I was completely ignorant when it came to politics. I sat back and did not understand anything related to US politics, but would occasionally chime in and share my views on the current president. I hated when people would say that people who don't vote shouldn’t even have an opinion or share their thoughts, but I’m here now sharing my thoughts about our current president. I might not have voted for the last election when I had the chance to, but now I am more educated and definitely have the intention to vote for this upcoming election.
Before taking this class, I never understood how politics worked, but one thing that really boggled my mind was how on earth did Trump win? My bias is showing right now, but I really thought his crazy and discriminatory comments were empirical to everyone. Each person that I came in contact with always commented on how they thought he was never going to win and that he was an absolute racist. Now that this semester is almost done and that we have experienced enough class readings and lectures, I finally understand the different dynamics that took place for this man to be president. My mind was a bit narrow back then and my exposure to the world outside was limited. First off, I only accounted for what I was hearing, I never accounted for all the various states in the U.S including the southern states. Also, I did not account for how prominent religion played in politics.
In this article, he speaks mainly on what we covered in class regarding evangelical protestants being such a huge part of Trump’s support base. One aspect of the article that I found interesting is that, most Americans do not see Trump as a religious person and have mixed emotions about his morality and if he truly practices what he preaches rather they care more about him standing up for their religious beliefs. One argument that I’ve heard to combat this argument is that it doesn’t matter what Trump does in his own time or his character, what matters more is that he passes laws and stands up for religious beliefs because that will affect the population as a whole.
This article also brings up the point that many protestant Christians and Catholics are loyal republicans and see Trump as a source that will keep Christianity alive in America and restore Christian values in the country. It mentions how they see Christianity declining specifically because of, “more permissive attitudes about sexual behavior and sexuality in popular culture”. This makes sense that many Christians would want a president who has strict views on limiting anything to do with sexual behavior such as abortions and the services provided by organizations like Planned Parenthood that respond and advocate for safe sex behaviors. There are many aspects that played part in Trump’s rise to the presidency that I did not mention, but these are important factors to understand the influence he has in politics. Knowing that the numbers don’t lie and considering the huge support system he has in place and who have been loyal to him throughout the years, should we even be surprised at this point?