Why religious right stays loyal to Trump
Unlike previous GOP presidents, he delivers
Much critical commentary has surrounded some rather tortured defenses of religious right support for President Trump by Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. Widely mocked are the assertions that Trump’s behavior before becoming president doesn’t count, and that he gets a “mulligan” for past indiscretions.
Those mocking the religious right for what looks to others like hypocrisy miss the critical point: A political movement fundamentally is about advancing public policies that align with its preferences. And never has the religious right had such a strong friend and reliable supporter on policy in the White House as Trump. Not Ronald Reagan and not either of the Bushes. From the religious right perspective, those previous Republican presidents might have said the right things on social issues in campaigns, but they ultimately disappointed on policy.
Since the rise of the modern religious right movement in the 1970s, its activists have backed for the presidency conservative pastors (the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Rev. Mike Huckabee) or establishment Republicans who promised to back social conservative policies (Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney). Only the establishment types ever won, but once in office they focused on the economy, foreign policy, fighting wars and fighting terrorism.
Religious conservatives time and again were disappointed. Their past political activism produced a deep disdain for establishment Republicans who said the right things on the campaign trail but always reverted to mainstream agendas while in office.
From the standpoint of religious conservatives, mainstream politicians used them while the news media, Hollywood and public and higher education were all aligned against them — and political correctness was running amok. What they believed to be a “Christian nation,” specially favored by God, was being undermined every- where they looked.
Along comes candidate Donald Trump. He pledged without embarrassment total support for socially conservative positions. He was politically incorrect and proud of it. He not only ran as an anti-establishment Republican, the party establishment itself lined up to try to stop his nomination at every turn. For religious conservatives, that sealed his credibility. If elected, they believed, he would not owe the establishment a thing, and he would not revert to a mainstream GOP agenda and neglect the social issues. He would owe only his loyal supporters who stood with him against the establishment. He thus represented the best chance to advance real policy progress on the social issues agenda.
And Trump has delivered. He fulfilled his pledge to appoint a strong social conservative to the Supreme Court, appointed social conservatives to key posts such as Education secretary, and re-instituted the global “gag rule” prohibiting federal funds from supporting international family planning agencies that provide either abortion-related services or advice. His original travel ban gave a special dispensation for persecuted Christians, and he is creating a conscience and religious freedom office in the Department of Health and Human Services to protect medical professionals who refuse to provide services that violate their religious principles. The list goes on.
A prominent religious right leader, in defending conservative Christians supporting Trump, expressed to me a clear recognition that the president is a deeply flawed character, but then pivoted to the following point: What is more important — the personal character of one man or the effects of his policies on millions of people over the next four or eight years and beyond?
That sums up the religious right support for Trump. Hypocritical? Before answering, ponder whether other political interests have made, or are eagerly willing to make, compromises of their ideals by supporting flawed candidates and elected leaders who can advance their policy agendas.