Politico reports on what some perceive as unrest in the evangelical portion of Trump’s base:
Paul Hardesty didn’t pay much attention to President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Greenville, N.C., last month until a third concerned constituent rang his cell phone.
The residents of Hardesty’s district — he’s a Trump-supporting West Virginia state senator — were calling to complain that Trump was “using the Lord’s name in vain,” as Hardesty recounted.
“The third phone call is when I actually went and watched his speech because each of them sounded distraught,” said Hardesty, who describes himself as a conservative Democrat.
The article goes on to try to suggest this may cost Trump a substantial number of evangelical voters, while noting prominent Evangelical leaders are poo-pooing the notion.
I’m on the side of the evangelical leaders. While a few evangelicals may become so disenchanted as to withhold their votes, the fact of the matter is that the top dog in any organization, regardless of the formal rules, will push the boundaries and flout the rules as a matter of course. It shows he’s the leader, the top dog, the guy calling the shot. And while this Pew Research poll, measuring the tolerance of voters for the checks and balances of our democracy, is limited to Democrats, Republicans, and leaners, it’s not too hard to believe that evangelicals would poll much like their fellow travelers. The poll’s banner says it all. Like most Presidents, he pushes the boundaries, and in his case that includes the boundaries of language of some of his base. All in the name of being the boss.
In the end, the evangelicals may be appalled by the occasional “god damn!” but Trump has been, and will continue, to deliver political goods important to the evangelicals. They’ll continue to clutch the Lover of Lies and Blasphemy to their bosoms in a frenzy over their rewards in the world.
