A political columnist wrote that liberals should stop asking how poor whites in Middle America could keep voting against their own economic interests because it's the wrong question. "People don't vote with their wallets," he observed. "They vote for their values." And those values presumably have something to do with more guns, fewer immigrants, and no gays marrying each other.
I'm not so sure that people never vote with their wallets. One sure way to pick up votes is to promise to lower taxes. But if you promise that, you'd better deliver. Just ask George HW Bush, who won after promising no new taxes, then lost re-election when he reneged on that promise.
Then there is the question of the evangelicals. Where did they stash their "Christian values" when they came out overwhelmingly in support of the pussy-grabbing, twice-divorced Donald Trump? It's been suggested that they were just being practical -- that they saw a chance to fill that stolen Supreme Court seat with someone who would enforce their values, and they took it. Perhaps. But the same columnist correctly pointed out that most voters don't really understand the issues, at least not fully. People vote with their emotions, not with their intellect.
I think the evangelical support for Trump comes from something deeper. It's not just a lack of critical thinking, although that's certainly a necessary ingredient among both evangelicals and Trump supporters. But while evangelicals like to spout Scripture, and probably believe that they are trying to live by it, they are fundamentally authoritarians at heart. Giving themselves over to a strong authority figure, whether it's an old bearded man on a cloud or an ancient Hebrew on a cross (both of whom are somehow the same being) -- or an orange con-man from Queens -- defines who they are more than the words they recite from rote every Sunday. This helps to explain why the more outrageous Trump's behavior, the more his base defends him. They are in the thrall of He Who Will Not Be Questioned. If you want to see an example of evangelical-style, authoritarian-worshiping fervor, just watch Sean Hannity.
I'm not so sure that people never vote with their wallets. One sure way to pick up votes is to promise to lower taxes. But if you promise that, you'd better deliver. Just ask George HW Bush, who won after promising no new taxes, then lost re-election when he reneged on that promise.
Then there is the question of the evangelicals. Where did they stash their "Christian values" when they came out overwhelmingly in support of the pussy-grabbing, twice-divorced Donald Trump? It's been suggested that they were just being practical -- that they saw a chance to fill that stolen Supreme Court seat with someone who would enforce their values, and they took it. Perhaps. But the same columnist correctly pointed out that most voters don't really understand the issues, at least not fully. People vote with their emotions, not with their intellect.
I think the evangelical support for Trump comes from something deeper. It's not just a lack of critical thinking, although that's certainly a necessary ingredient among both evangelicals and Trump supporters. But while evangelicals like to spout Scripture, and probably believe that they are trying to live by it, they are fundamentally authoritarians at heart. Giving themselves over to a strong authority figure, whether it's an old bearded man on a cloud or an ancient Hebrew on a cross (both of whom are somehow the same being) -- or an orange con-man from Queens -- defines who they are more than the words they recite from rote every Sunday. This helps to explain why the more outrageous Trump's behavior, the more his base defends him. They are in the thrall of He Who Will Not Be Questioned. If you want to see an example of evangelical-style, authoritarian-worshiping fervor, just watch Sean Hannity.
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