So sayeth Donald Trump. Bet you’re all surprised, aren’t you? The Master of Pander is at it again:
Donald Trump told Religious Right activists today that, as president, he will stop refugees from coming to America and will instead focus on the real victims of persecution: American Christians.
Trump, who read the majority of his speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference off a teleprompter, kicked things off by bragging about how well he has “done with the evangelicals and with the religion, generally speaking.”
He went on to talk about the need “to restore faith to its proper mantel in our society” and “respect and defend Christian-Americans” along with the need to reject refugees fleeing war and violence.
[…]
Trump also repeated his vow to appoint conservative judges to the bench, boasting that the judges on his list of potential Supreme Court nominees “are all pro-life.”
People keep saying that it’s all a game, he’s really an atheist, the stuff about Jesus proves he’s atheist, and so on, but I’m not seeing it. Regardless of what he actually believes, he’s courting the true believers, hard, and if he ends up as president, he’ll keep doing that, if it allows him to do what he wants. So, I don’t see where it really matters what he believes. It’s what he’ll do that matters.
will instead focus on the real victims of persecution: American Christians
Not mexican christians, though. Throw them to the lions.
Ohhhhhhhh, tea up the nose.
Yabbut, Mexicans, and other suspiciously unpasty peoples, they don’t count. They aren’t real ‘mericans, so they couldn’t possibly be Christian.
I know someone who supports Trump in spite of all the shitty stuff Trump has made noise about doing after he’s elected. Why? Because the nasty stuff is against the U.S. Constitution, and Trump can’t possibly implement anything unconstitutional.
I… don’t quite follow that, myself…
Cubist, I don’t even know what to say about people who think like that. I, I…just don’t.
I know someone who supports Trump in spite of all the shitty stuff Trump has made noise about doing after he’s elected. Why? Because the nasty stuff is against the U.S. Constitution, and Trump can’t possibly implement anything unconstitutional.
That’s a case study in motivated reasoning. “I’ve already decided, so I’m back-fitting some opinions to wrap around what I’ve already decided, so that it looks like I’ve actually thought about my decision.”
I do feel like the idea that he’s running as a republican and waving Jesus around because that’s how you manipulate people, rather than because he believes any of it, stands up… but yeah, even if he secretly is a democratic atheist (which I don’t think is necessarily implied by his Christiantiy being iffy and his republicanism being based in “they’re easier to fool”) so what? He’s still a sexist racist who shows no sign of conscience, and the idea of him getting into the White House terrifies me, even on the opposite side of the puddle.
I can’t say it’s surprising that he’s running with “the majority who have the entirety of one of the two major political parties pandering almost exclusively to them are oppressed” message, but it’s incredibly scary, and I desperately hope that narrative dies before the inauguration of the next republican US president.
The narrative won’t go away as long as Christians are
(a) a majority and
(b) voters.
But looked at honestly, Trump has by his actions so far come across as more atheist than any candidate in my lifetime, indeed more atheist than I would have believed possible. I would have expected that to be the biggest hurdle to his candidacy and campaign, but it seems not. Can anything stop him?