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Why Ex-Churchgoers Flocked to Trump (Tim Carney in the American Conservative)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-ex-churchgoers-flocked-to-trump/This is fascinating (Tim Carney is a conservative goon but nonetheless can be trusted to cite numbers correctly).
The best way to describe Trumps support in the Republican primarieswhen he was running against the likes of Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasichwould be: white evangelicals who do not go to church.
Geoffrey Layman, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, noticed this during the primaries, writing: Trump does best among evangelicals with one key trait: They dont really go to church.
While writing my forthcoming book, Alienated America, my research assistant Nick Saffran and I crunched some numbers provided by Emily Ekins of the Voter Study Group. We broke down Republican primary voters by church attendance. Among the most frequent attendersthose going more than once a weekTrump got about 32 percent of the vote.
Trump also got a minority of those who simply go once a week. Among those who reported going a few times a year, Trump got about half. He got an easy majority (55 percent) of those Republicans who seldom attend, and a full 62 percent of those who never attend. That is, every step down in church attendance brought a step up in Trump support, and vice versa. The most frequent attenders were half as likely to support Trump as were the least frequent attenders.
Geoffrey Layman, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, noticed this during the primaries, writing: Trump does best among evangelicals with one key trait: They dont really go to church.
While writing my forthcoming book, Alienated America, my research assistant Nick Saffran and I crunched some numbers provided by Emily Ekins of the Voter Study Group. We broke down Republican primary voters by church attendance. Among the most frequent attendersthose going more than once a weekTrump got about 32 percent of the vote.
Trump also got a minority of those who simply go once a week. Among those who reported going a few times a year, Trump got about half. He got an easy majority (55 percent) of those Republicans who seldom attend, and a full 62 percent of those who never attend. That is, every step down in church attendance brought a step up in Trump support, and vice versa. The most frequent attenders were half as likely to support Trump as were the least frequent attenders.
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Why Ex-Churchgoers Flocked to Trump (Tim Carney in the American Conservative) (Original Post)
Recursion
Jan 2019
OP
So why does that appeal more to people who don't attend church than those who do?
Recursion
Jan 2019
#5
pepperbear
(5,648 posts)1. So, the faker the Christian, the more likely they supported trump
Sounds about right
PJMcK
(22,065 posts)2. Hypocritical behavior
Among Trump supporter?! Who would've guessed?
Still, a third of the most frequent church goers were still Trump supporters. Trump's immorality/ amorality should drive them all away. Puzzling.
Scruffy1
(3,257 posts)3. The whole narrative is false.
The "white evangelical" is and always has been a cover for racism. Same for "pro-life". Nice cover, too. It's called a white sheet. Of course the press lets them us it and kowtows to them.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)4. Let's quit pretending religion had anything to do with this
Folks mostly voted for Trump because he swore to kick out the Muslims and the Mexicans, period. End of story.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)5. So why does that appeal more to people who don't attend church than those who do?
Carney makes the same point you are: this isn't a question of religious belief, it's a question of the habit of attending church changing people's views on community and trust.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)6. good point...