The Religious Right’s Power Grab: How Outside Activists Became Inside Operatives
By Neil J. Young | October 31, 2016
Since a leaked 2005 Access Hollywood audiotape revealed Donald Trump bragging about how he sexually assaulted women—something he dismissed as “locker room banter”—more than a dozen women have come forward to allege he attacked them in the past. In response, former supporters have denounced him. His poll numbers have tanked. But even as his candidacy continues to provoke outrage, Religious Right leaders—among his most steadfast supporters—have stood by him.
Voicing the obligatory remarks that called Trump’s comments “inappropriate” and “indefensible,” these conservative evangelical backers, including James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Robert Jeffress, and Ralph Reed, still rushed to the defense of his candidacy. “As I have made clear,” the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins told The Washington Post, “my support for Donald Trump in the general election was never based upon shared values rather it was built upon shared concerns.”
Values voters during this election have been quick to sidestep Trump’s spotty personal life and caustic temperament, not to mention his inconsistent positions on important evangelical causes. Instead, Religious Right leaders have offered up a litany of concerns that they say Trump will champion, from anti-abortion measures to sufficiently conservative Supreme Court nominees.
The heart of Trump’s support from the old-guard Religious Right owes to less noble concerns, however. Back in June, when he appeared before a group of 900 influential conservative Christians in New York, Trump did not appeal to them by sharing his religious testimony. Rather, he focused on his favorite topic: power, a word he used more than a dozen times in his remarks. Conservative Christians, Trump explained, had lost their power over the nation, but he would restore them to their proper influence. “We should have the power. We should have the power,” Trump repeated to hearty applause from the crowd.
http://religionandpolitics.org/2016/10/31/the-religious-rights-power-grab-how-outside-activists-became-inside-operatives/
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