The Christian Right, Sticking With Trump

CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES, especially white evangelical conservative Christians, were overwhelmingly responsible for electing Donald J. Trump, and remain his largest and most loyal support base, amazingly. Amazingly, because for all intents, purposes, appearances and reasons, this would be the least likely demographic to support someone like Trump, considering who someone like Trump really is, does, and stands for, and considering what evangelical Christians supposedly believe and stand for. For that reason alone, among many others, this is my least favorite demographic, personally. An amazingly high percentage of the Christian right voted for Trump, and still support him, which became especially interesting after release of the Access Hollywood tape, about which the Christin right ostensibly gives not a fig. The subordination of women, misogyny inherent in Christian tradition are possible partial explanations. People are who conservative and religious were raised to blindly follow authority, rather than question it. Trump supporters must at some point find a way to deal with his constant pathologically outrageous lies, and they seem to have done so very effectively; by ignoring them, or at least pretending to. This makes summoning the moral courage to reconsider support of Trump, and to reconsider what the teachings of Jesus are, and whether they are compatible with supporting Trump, a difficult undertaking requiring detailed self examination, unnecessary. There is little if any evidence that the Christian right is abandoning Trump, in the face of his decidedly unchristian behavior. They seem determined to sink or swim with their choice, a choice which appears poised to come back and bite them, as the Trump presidency begins to fall apart under the weight of lies, corruption, scandal, investigations, and unpopularity. With regard to the Christian right demographic, its most outstanding characteristic is its age; a high percentage of evangelical conservatives is over fifty, and in their sixties or seventies, and among the younger generations, there is no sign of any sizeable support for extreme politically right wing Christian faith. With each successive generation, membership in this demographic is less. The Christian right is aging out, fading away. In the election of 2020, Trump's base will have shrunk, possibly too much to reelect him, and by 2024 the Christian conservative community will be considerably smaller as the baby boomers begin to die off, and the millennials and their children, much less religious and more progressive, move into positions of social leadership. the bad news is that, for the time being, we are stuck not only with Trump, his craziness, and his insane policies, but that we are also still stuck with the strange, twisted, confused, contradictory demographic which elected him. The good news is that this is inevitably going to change, and the sooner the better.