Evangelical support for Trump held after court appointments removed the strategic rationale

Evidence

Still, there was the Supreme Court to consider. Certain “character flaws” might be overlooked in the interest of defending religious freedom and protecting the lives of the unborn. Trump would indeed come through on this front as far as evangelicals were concerned. Yet in the weeks and months after the election, after the specter of Hillary Clinton had been vanquished and court appointments secured, few evangelicals seemed willing to critique behaviors they might otherwise have been expected to find repulsive, or at the very least troubling. White evangelical support held steady for the man who redefined the meaning of “presidential.” In the aftermath of the election, it was #NeverTrump evangelicals who ended up on the defensive. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 604

Categorization

• XREF: Evidence against the ‘lesser of two evils / Supreme Court’ pragmatic explanation — matters for contesting the hypocrite-vs-continuity framing. — connects to: The Christian right supports Trump for autocratic power, not shared Christian values — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 169; The movement viewed Trump’s election and Gorsuch as steps to ending abortion — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 148