Thursday, February 25, 2016

Trump's success is causing chaos to religious right plans for America


Trump

I am NEVER EVER voting for Donald Trump, but I am not surprised how much chaos he is causing to the plans of the religious right.

According to the Huffington Post:

In a recent article for In These Times, Theo Anderson also took a look at the “great puzzle” of evangelical Christians flocking to Trump, “the Republican candidate most out of step with evangelicals on social issues and the most tin-eared regarding religion.” Anderson concludes that Trump’s success reflects many evangelicals’ desire for an “anti-establishment” candidate as well as what he calls Trump’s performance of a prophetic style of politics practiced by conservative radio preachers who encourage their listeners to stand against the corruptions of the world: “Trump’s speeches and social media output are a stream of falsehoods that speak to the certainty - the ‘higher truth’ - that white Christians, and the nation they love, are being betrayed and targeted.”

 . . . Trump’s success among evangelicals is maddening to some of Cruz’s backers. Glenn Beck, who believes God has called Cruz to save America from the abyss, had urged his viewers to fast on Cruz’s behalf before the Nevada caucuses. Beck says he fears that Trump is the embodiment of “The Bubba Effect,” in which a group of people are pushed over the edge into violence by an overbearing government. Beck says that only the election of Ted Cruz can save America from violent revolution, warning that the country will not be able to recover if it elects a socialist, authoritarian, or member of the status quo.

 . . .  Of course, Trump hasn’t rejected the Religious Right policy agenda. In fact he has fully embraced much of it, pledging to defund Planned Parenthood as long as the organization performs abortions. He has supported Senate Republicans’ vow not to consider any Obama Supreme Court nominee and vowed to nominate Supreme Court justices “as close to Scalia as you could find.” He has called the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling “shocking” and suggested Religious Right activists should trust him to put judges on the Court who would “unpass” that ruling and Roe v. Wade. Those kind of pledges may help Trump win conservative evangelical votes, or at least make evangelicals feel more comfortable voting for him in spite of a political and personal record that contravenes the values they say they hold dear. The campaign for the GOP nomination isn’t over, but Religious Right leaders must be wondering how it is that their Chosen One has faltered and seems to be losing ground to the charlatan Trump. In fact, National Review reported on Wednesday that Religious Right leaders who rallied around Cruz are talking amongst themselves about abandoning him for Rubio if Cruz doesn’t do well on “Super Tuesday” next week.

It was bound to happen. For years, religious right groups and leaders sowed fear and mistrust in their followers. To them, almost every event which didn't go their way was THE crisis which would topple America into the abyss. And their supporters drank it all up.

Now the religious right is finding out the hard way that while it may be easy to create mistrust and fear in people, it's another thing to control it. If you don't give them some security from that mistrust and fear, they will seek it somewhere else.

Of course, this is post is not meant to point the finger at the anti-gay industry and go "Ha! Ha!" It's just a commentary that what they spent years sowing may reap negatively for us all.

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