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Religion

In reply to the discussion: Breaking Faith [View all]

muriel_volestrangler

(101,295 posts)
9. The article ignores the blindingly obvious answer to why religious cons preferred Cruz to Trump
Sun Mar 19, 2017, 07:52 PM
Mar 2017

in the primary: Cruz is the once-married son of an evangelical preacher, and Trump is the three-times married, Playboy-cover-appearing, Howard-Stern-casual-sex-boasting guy who doesn't know one end of a bible from the other.

So when the churchgoers had the choice of "one of them" or Trump, they preferred the churchgoer. That's the only figure they actually have about what non-churchgoing conservatives like, though.

But that didn't stretch to them thinking about supporting a moderate mainline Protestant like Hillary; evangelicals preferred Trump by 65 points, compared to Romney over Obama 57 points, McCain over Obama 50 points, and Bush over Kerry 57 points. Trump's lack of personal Christian credentials was not a problem when the alternative wasn't a Republican.

Trump's vote by frequency of attendance was - giving the percentage of all voters who were in a category and voted for Trump:
weekly+: 18.5%
monthly: 7.8%
few times a year: 13.6%
never: 6.8%

The non-churchgoing conservatives are a small part of the population. The rise of Trump really isn't down to them. And the more often someone went to church, the more likely they were to pick Trump over Hillary.

Non-churchgoing conservatives flocked to Trump because they're asshole conservatives. Churchgoing conservatives also flocked to Trump because they're asshole conservatives, but they would have preferred an asshole more like themselves. But electing an asshole was the important thing to both groups.

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