Clinton’s gender disqualified her and gender dynamics powered Trump’s evangelical appeal

Evidence

Then there was the matter of her gender. John Piper had given a special dispensation to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket, but Hillary Clinton was no Sarah Palin. All policy issues aside, the fact that Clinton was a woman disqualified her in the eyes of many conservative evangelicals. But in the 2016 election, evangelical views of gender didn’t just affect Clinton’s appeal—or lack thereof. Gender was also a key factor in shoring up support for the unconventional, morally challenged Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 563

Categorization

• XREF: Pays off the entire book’s militant masculinity thread — Palin as acceptable woman candidate, Clinton as unacceptable — and foreshadows the Trump pivot.
• DEEPTHINKING: The symmetry — the same gender ideology that disqualifies Clinton simultaneously qualifies Trump despite his moral failures — is the book’s compressed thesis in one paragraph.