One thing definitely proven by Trump being in the White House is in spite of all of their talk about morals, integrity, Christianity, etc., white conservative evangelicals are just as for sale as a lot of other groups peddling their wares in DC.
And they have no problem whoring themselves out. According to a column in Rolling Stone (by way of Raw Story), it wasn't that difficult for Trump to get them on his side. It was just a matter of putting the right amount of 'money on the dresser.'
In a column for Rolling Stone published this Monday, Alex Morris tries to shed some light on this contradiction.
According to Morris, it all started with a September meeting in 2016, six weeks before the election, where an audion recording of the meeting revealed how evangelical leaders handed Trump a mandate that he promised to fulfill.
“He would end the contraception mandate of Obamacare; … he would select only anti-choice judges; … he would do away with the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt entities from endorsing politicians; … he would support prayer in school; … he would oppose any bill that pulled funding from Christian schools that were charged with discrimination; … he would keep transgender people from using the ‘wrong’ bathrooms and locker rooms; … and he would protect Israel, following the biblical pronouncement that nations that do so would be blessed (‘[Obama’s] been the worst thing that’s happened to Israel …”
Despite Trump’s newfound allies in the evangelical movement, he never bothered to put out the image that he was a true believer. But that didn’t matter — it was Trump’s perceived devotion to their cause that had evangelicals sold. As Morris points out, close to 81 percent of white evangelicals cast their ballots for him on election day. Fast forward to 2019, 82 percent of evangelicals would vote for Trump if the election were held today. “Two-thirds believe that he has not damaged the decency of the presidency, 55 percent agree with Sarah Huckabee Sanders that ‘God wanted him to be president,’ and 99 percent oppose impeachment,” Morris writes.
Their eagerness to anoint Trump as some sort of messenger of God shouldn't be all that surprising. Remember how they anointed beauty queen Carrie Prejean as some sort of modern day Queen Esther due to her opposition of marriage equality? That is until the controversy regarding her semi-nude pictures.
One would think that after that and their general loss in the marriage equality fight, conservative evangelicals would be wary of counting on unsavory means or people to gain their goals. Then again, their unity with Trump only signifies how they have no trouble selling out the values they claim to uphold for a little political power.
Only time will tell whether or not this will blow up in their face just like their fight against marriage equality eventually did.
