Still Trying To Understand Trumpers

IT IS A QUESTION frequently asked, often analyzed. It has been front and center of American political sociology for nearly a decade, from the time when it first started becoming apparent that a huge perentage of American evangelical Christians support Donald Trump, usually with a fair degree of enthusiasm. The question is, of course, "why"? Why does America's most religious community support such an obviously immoral,criminal politician? The more time which passes, the more data and information we have available concerning their (evangelical Trump supporters) motivations and behavior, and the more talented scholars who join the party, conducting their own research and reaching their own conclusions, the greater our understanding. Their conclusions always seem to have merit. No matter what you choose to believe and say about explaining this phenomenon, there is probably some measure of truth in it. There are many motivations drawing America's most devoutly religious people to Donald Trump. One approach is the historical approach, in which historians take note of the fact that in the late nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties the conservative evangalical community surged in large numbers into the poitical arena. Organiations like "The Moral Majority" chose political conservatism to go with religious fundamentalism, and supported Ronald Reagan, and many Republicas, leading to Trump. But there is something dfferent and special about Trump, about supporting him, and the reasons why. One scholar in particular, Angela Denker, has spent several years approaching the matter from this point of view, by interviewing numerous individuals, seeking to gain understanding on a personal basis, one voter at a time. One of her best books, "Red State Christian", uses this approach. She does much the same in subsequent books and articles. I like this appraoch, although the historical, sociological approach, in which the behavior of large numbers of people are taken into consideration and general trends are discerned and elucidated, ceratinly is paramount in scholarly importance. But I have learned much merely by talking to individual Trump supporters, because so much of it is undeniably revelatory, and, at times, surprising, alarming, even hair raising. Just the other day I heard on the radio a lady being interviewed, an evangelical Christian, who said she supports Trump partly because he is "honest". It took me awhile to get past that. I'm not sure I have gotten past it. Has she been listening to what he says for the past ten years? Or is it simply that her memory is selective? Yes, on occasion, Trump is honest. Sometimse, almost as if by accident, he tells the truth. However,he is, undeniably, most of the time, if not nearly all the time, extremely dishonest, indeed, pathologically dishonest. Even the msot ardent Trump supporter could probably be convinced that George Washington's army did not capture airports, even though Trump said that it did. She could probably most likely, however, never be led to accept the reality of Trump's big election lie, choosing instead to believe it. Obviously, willful self deception is a significant factor. There are others. My view is that most right wing evangelical Christians are racists and homophobes, whose irrational hatred does not end there, but extends to non Christians and other groups as well, especially liberals. Because one thing above all else is apparent to even the most casual observer; the Trump movement is based largely upon grievance, anger, and hatred.