The Christian right once Trump's writer die is in for a big surprise. The
ex president's recent abortion band critique has them fuming. It's sort of like a
pop star breaking up at their fan club. In a time where the Bible
belt is losing appeal, Donald has been a trend setter, and he seems
to be writing a new script. The Republican Party, once synonymous with pro
life, is trying to sneak out of the abortion limelight, and Trump's departure
might actually be the overture to a Republican movement away from the device of abortion
debate. Buckle up, America. The post Christian right is here, and
Trump's first on this non religious roller coaster, but he most likely won't be
the last. So Welcome to politics in the age of Biblical uncertainty, where
the only commandment is to preserve your party's political power. This story is from
Yahoo Finance by Louise Perry. I'm published in November twentieth, twenty twenty three,
and Infidel I know you really like this story, so I'm going to
pass to you first. Thanks Kelly, And I have to say that one
thing I really enjoy and seeing this is that it does give me hope for
the future, because for over forty years their mantra has been vote for us
and will ban abortion. You know, they riled up people with lies about
abortion, like they're going to happen right up to the moment of birth.
And you know, some even like Mike Johnson saying after birth, whatever that
would mean. But you know, they've used this fear monitoring to collect votes
and it's really worked for But here they are. They've got what they want,
and we see it time and again. They get what they want and
they realize they really just stepped into a steaming pile of shit. You know,
they backed this populous fool because he did what they never wanted. But
you know, with the news filled with people experiencing the consequences of their wrong
headedness, you know, we people's lives literally being put at risk, with
doctors, you know, being afraid to do what's medically necessary because they're afraid
of going to jail. And we hear about twelve year olds being forced to
carry pregnancies the term and that concerns people. Now we have a thirteen year
old with a child that was already living in power. But you know,
these people aren't statistics, and they're not news stories that go away with the
new distraction that catches the public eye. You know, they're not post or
children for a cause. They're the result of laws that really have more to
do about well being and control. You know. Now what we're seeing is
is that a driving force on the other side in places like Ohio, normally
good red territory voting to protect a woman's right to her own body. You
know, in Kentucky and Virginia, we're seeing those same things. And as
much as it hurts me to say this, I do think Trump is right.
The GP does need to get off this train. I saw one of
the strategists say that the Republicans need to figure out a way to talk about
abortion that can win independent voters in the center. This isn't going to go
away because they found pleasing words to say. But their problem, once again
is a back to bad idea, and now it's exploded in their labs.
Now people are more worried about consequence of this extremist extremism. Even in the
red states like Kentucky, we're seeing them there and they're trying to get themselves
out of it. Now. I know that the extremists and the GOP are
playing right in the hands of more progressive voters. The louder they get,
the more motivated. I'm seeing progressive you know, become going to the other
way, you know. But you know, what sounded good to them is
terrible in reality. And you know, while bittersweet we had to consider and
the human cost all this foolishness. I am hopeful that we're going to see
some fundamental change and the Christian Right getting defanged on this issue entirely. It's
working completely against them, and I'm hopeful to see where that goes. Scott,
what were you thinking about this? Yeah, there is change happening.
For one thing in this past, you know, in the twenty twenty two
election, I mean, bodily rights was a wedge issue basically, and so
we have a Supreme Court that struck down guaranteed bodily rights for people that can
become pregnant, and the people didn't like it, and they and it got
them motivated to go to the voting booth. From some Associated Press vote cast
results from that twenty twenty two election, they found that about four and ten
or thirty eight percent of voters said that the Supreme Court decision ending the constitutional
right to an abortion had a major impact on their decision about whether or not
to vote. It got them, it motivated them to go and vote.
And you know, the share citing that decision as a major motivator was highest
among Black women under fifty, Hispanic women under fifty, those who voted for
Democratic congressional candidates, first time voters. So this was used as a get
out the vote kind of event, voters under the age of thirty, and
those that they said that they were angry about that abortion decision. So we
can see that this is an issue that's going to that's going to happen.
It's going to change, you know, the path of this country. And
so while those election results reflect what the voters think about themselves, the anal
suggests that the abortion abortion issue worked to counteract voters the economics concern right as
a spit the word out, Scott spit it out economic concerns, and so
it was able to overcome. Traditionally, the midterm election kind of slides against
whoever the current president is, and so in this case it was it was
a landslide in the other direction. Seee, what do you think, Yeah,
I think it's it's inspiring. I think the GOP has really screwed up
here. They made a Faustian deal and sold the soul of their party to
the devil in the form of Trump, and they're now paying the price.
But there's two halves of the story. There's the half about their reaction to
Row. But there's another stat in there that I found very interesting that said
the best predictor right now voting behaviors is not religion, but age. That
the line was young Republicans are less religious than old Democrats, and that's what
I really keyed in on because it really gives me hope for the next generation.
I credit them. I credit their use of the Internet and social media
is a big, big factor in the decline of popularity of religion in the
United States and around the world. When the Internet first came out, I
thought, oh, great, everyone will have access to the best info and
we can stop passing around myths and urban legends, and it will be the
inn age of an enlightenment. And I could not have been more wrong.
In hindsight, I can see that I was assuming that everyone would be interested
in correcting their own misunderstandings. But what actually happened is everybody ran to the
corners of the Internet to find information that validated their own previously held beliefs.
But this next generation is I think one of the first ones that I've seen.
And I've got a son who's graduating high school now that's been raised constantly
being told in school, taking classes on critical thinking and understanding where claims can
be wrong on the Internet. And they've got better bullshit detectors, I think
than we did, or our parents did. Our parents didn't stand a chance
against the power of the algorithm, right, That's why you get all these
emails from grandma and grandpa about you know, the stolen election and Hunter Biden
and all of that stuff. But I hate to sound like this, but
the young kids today are not knock in that doors. Let's investigate today the
kids today, I sort of I'm reminded of when the Soviet Union fell and
the average citizen had never been exposed to advertising claims before, and they got
their clocks clean. People like Putin and all of the oligarchs made so much
money off the backs of these people who were just suckers waiting to waiting to
give their money to whoever made them feel the best or lie to them the
most. And that's what it was like when our parents, I think,
got online. These kids saw that happen, and they are much more savvy.
So they when they read about Trump, when they read about abortion,
when they read about climate change and how the geo he's doing nothing about that.
When they read about them the GP pushing, pushing, pushing to put
prayer in school and all this stuff instead of solving their real problems, I
think that's really causing them to leave the church. But I wouldn't get complacent.
As religious groups get smaller, only the most fanatical people remain. That's
why when you get cults, you know, they get this US against them
attitude and they can strike out. And that's why the FBI has has said,
hey, Christian nationalism is now a bigger threat to America's safety than any
foreign terror organization. So we've got to remain vigilant. Religion may be a
dying animal, but dying animals can be prone to lash out. So what
are you What are your thoughts? Kelly? Well, my first thought is
this episode sucks for me because I got to keep following you. That's my
first thought. I just ramble all over the place, makes such great points.
It's awesome, and I first off, I wanted to do the actual
Trump quote because we didn't hear it yet. It was I would sit down
with both sides, and I negotiate something and will end up with peace on
that issue for the first time in fifty two years. Is what he actually
said. Now, he didn't actually say that he was going to make any
concessions to the pro choice crowd at all. He just said he was going
to sit down with both sides and try to negotiate. So I don't even
understand why some people have even gotten up in arms about it. You know,
however, I think the last line that I did in the intro was
kind of said it all. The only commandment to the party right now is
what preserves their political power, and they will do anything they can to stay
relevant. I know a let they used the abortion issue as a wedge issue
for decades. I know people that that's the only reason they voted Republican was
because they were pro not choice, anti freedom. They were. That's the
way I always looked thought of as they were ant I didn't want to say
it, but anti freedom. They don't care about They didn't care about anything
else the GOP wanted to do, so they were getting a lot of votes
on this issue. But I always thought that if they passed this, there
would be a lot of young people. As Scott mentioned, there'd be a
lot of women who were voting for Republicans who would have a second view of
what of it when they that right was taken away from them. Even though
they might not say it in public, they still wanted to have that right.
So I'm not really surprised that this is happening. I kind of expected
it to happen at some point. I didn't think Trump would be the one
to make that move though, so that was kind of interesting to me.
Again, I could be totally verbose here, and I don't want to take
up all the time, so I'm going to go ahead and pass it to
Infidel and I've got more to say when it comes back to me same.
You know, it's interesting when you think about the fact that the one thing
you have to say about Trump is he does hear and know sometimes when it's
a losing bed, and he will dump it because he has no ideological attack
patchment to anything. So yes, it's just a matter of okay, we're
going this way. Okay, let's go this way, because it is a
losing bed. They really have shit the bed. They the dog has caught
the car. It's they They never wanted this, they wanted to scream about
it. And it also goes right into what you said, cross examiner about
the as a group gets smaller, you know, the voices get more shrill.
And that's part of what we're seeing with this group that has such a
visceral reaction to him saying I'll sit down with both sides. Because the truth
is is that in politics, sitting down with both sides should be the default
position. That shouldn't be a goal to aspire to. That should be the
absolute minimum. Look, we can sit down and talk, have a beer,
drink some coffee, do whatever. Disagree, But we're the point now
where if you look over at the other group, oh, well what are
you doing? You'll lose your s as the speaker. Are you cheating on
me? Well? What's going on? Do you do you like her better
than me? Is it him? Is that? Is that? What it
is? And that and that really is the type of behavior that we're seeing
here because I think that the truth is is that most people on that side
want to say, you know, let's just shut up, let's try to
let this issue die and let's focus on the new issue. Let's pick another
issue we can divide people and sell people and not succeed on because we don't
really need to succeed. We just need to get people worked up. And
that's what we've seen time and again, and that's what we're seeing here.
People go, what what do you mean? We're not doing abortion anymore,
We're moving on to something new. Because as I keep up, yes there,
I don't like from this band. I like this Classics exactly because they
get up and I vote for a against abortion. That's why I go to
the polls. I don't go for all this other things. Now. The
truth is a lot of them. Yeah, though you know, they could
easily go with the next sell, but we'll have to see about that.
I hope that this issue stays in the forefront because the longer it stays in
the forefront, the more people hear it, and more the people hear the
consequences of it. I think the consequences are we're seeing the prospects of certain
people dim because they've chased the wrong horse that they never wanted to get and
Scott, I'm sure you have a few things to say about this issue.
So what do you got. You know, it's funny that you described this
as something akin to some kind of like dating relationship, like, you know,
are they cheating on each other? What's going is they're trouble in paradise
here, and you know, cause that's really the what we're talking about,
is are they going to stay together? It's such a fascinating little drama.
It's easy for people to, you know, to I admit that I'm attracted.
You know, if there's a headline like something like that, I'll click
on it and I'll look at you know, it's interesting. It's like watching
a car wreck or something. So are they going to get back? Are
they going to stay together? Are they going to break up? I mean,
that's the thing. It's and like I said, it's easy for us
to point fingers and laugh, but I wanted to get it from the horse's
mouth. I was able to find a couple of pieces here. This one
is from a December twenty seventeen piece in The New Yorker, and it's titled
can Evangelicalism Survive? Donald Trump and Roy Moore. This is back when Roy
Moore was running for the Senate, and I think it was Alabama or somewhere
around there. So in the New Yorker, this Presbyterian clergyman so religious,
Timothy Keller's his name. He writes, quote evangelical used to denot and and
I love the phrase. Sorry I keep interrupting myself. I love the phrase
he uses here. Evangelical used to denote people who claim the high moral ground.
Now in popular popular usage, the word is nearly synonymous with hypocrite.
And so it's he's calling him out. He's calling him out. He's saying,
look, look what you're doing. You're wrecking our good name quote unquote
our good name. So that was the religious view of the politics as far
as the end of the relationship. I also found a piece in twenty eight
eighteen issue April twenty eighteen issue of The Atlantic. This one was written from
the political side. This one was from a George Bush speech writer by the
name of Michael Gerson. Now here's the phrase that I liked. Here's the
phrase, Folwell, Graham and others are providing religious cover for moral squalor.
I thought that was so awesome religious cover for moral squalor, winking at trashy
behavior and encouraging the unraveling of social constraints. Instead of defending their conviction,
they're providing preemptive absolution for their political favorites. Evangelicals have proven highly vulnerable to
a message of resentful declinist populism, and so we can see that there is
erosion happening. There is trouble in paradise here from both sides of the relationship.
Right, we heard that We heard the evangelical ministers say that he was
frustrated that the Republican Party is, like I said, taking away their good
name, sapping their honor and virtue out of whatever else they have left.
And we heard from the Republican side of it, and they were being resentful
that the evangelical leaders were providing them a smoke screen to do this kind of
thing for their underhanded manipulations. And so there there is, you know,
there is issues going both ways. And I think that that just points out
that the power of this relationship is back since the seventies and eighties, right
with the with the moral majority. This marriage has gotten them so far,
but we might be seeing the ends of it. I don't know. We'll
hopefully to see, but but I think the it's not righteousness that's holding them
together. It's fear. It's fear. And as soon as as soon as
the as soon as people become less fearful about religion, which is happening,
I mean, that's happening across the world. I think ce you were mentioning
that religion is on the decline here, and so as as religion becomes a
less appealing partner than the political side of it might be, you know,
move on to a to a better, hotter, fear longer seee. What
do you think? I agree? I agree. I think that the outrage
du jour seems to be gender related issues. They've moved on to that to
some degree. As Infidel was talking about the cheating, I was imagining that
famous meme of the guy and the girl walking away and the guy looking back
at the other girl, and that girl would be you know, you know,
negotiating with the left regarding abortion. The Christian right would be looking at
Trump. And I mean, it's just so perfect because that happens time and
time and time again, and your rights, goot, moral majority, this,
this and so many other issues started with getting Reagan elected. Right,
Reagan one of the biggest lying presidents out there, not as big as Trump,
but Reagan sold it whereas nobody believes Trump except his biggest fans. And
they started that strategy of you know what, let's let's let's use fear,
let's use replacement theory, let's use all of these things codified language to get
the evangelicals to be actually politically active, because before then they weren't. Christians
would would if you look at the polls prior to this strategy, you saw
a much more diverse political opinion amongst the highly religious the United States. But
after Reagan, it was spike the needle towards the GOP. And like we
have all said here, you know, be careful what you wish for,
you just might get it. I think whoever said the dog finally caught the
car really summarizes this really well. And I think that they're they're going to
really pay the price, which is why you're going to see them continue to
pound the table about gender issues, about book banning, about let's shut the
government down, and Hunter Biden anything but abortion, how about you, Kelly?
Yeah? And because this is it's not only hurting them in the polls,
it's hurting them in the pocketbook too. I just read just yesterday a
story that said they were not meeting their goals for presidential cycle fundraising, so
they're making They're making a lot less money than they did four years ago,
so it's really really hurting them. Again. It doesn't surprise me that they're
changing on this policy because it's proven to them, proven to them that it's
just a lose lose proposition. It makes me wonder if this is the death
ball to the GOP. Are they going to get past this? I'd like
to find out in the future, and definitely we should all be keeping an
eye on it because what happens when we come down to a one party system
that's going to really suck. If you want to continue this conversation, though,
it's one I think we should continue. Check out our fan run Facebook
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