How Donald Trump divided and conquered the religious righthttp://religionnews.com/2016/08/23/how-donald-trump-divided-and-conquered-the-religious-right/Trevin Wax
August 23, 2016
(RNS) It’s time for me to sit down for a nice meal of crow.
A year ago, I wrote a commentary here at RNS that tried to explain why Donald Trump had gathered some support in the Republican primary from “values voters” and “conservative Christians.”
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The way I saw it back then, Trump’s bombastic tendency to “drive our discourse to the gutter” would weary his Christian supporters and lead evangelicals to turn away from him in favor of other Republican contenders:
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Pass some crow, please.
A year later, many evangelical voters have grown to love the Donald’s roller coaster. Just as Trump divided and conquered the Republican Party, so also he has divided and conquered the religious right, the voting bloc of white conservative Christians that has been a cornerstone of the Republican Party’s outreach for decades.
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Now that the primary season is over, some evangelical leaders are supporting him. Other evangelical leaders are appalled. And evangelical voters have fallen into four major categories.
1. Anti-Clinton voters
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2. Anti-Trump voters
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3. #NeverTrump voters
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4. True Trump supporters
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