Invented persecution narratives, not actual threats, mobilize the religious-nationalist voter base.

Evidence

The point of talking up the nonexistent horror of the Johnson Amendment, in fact, is to feed the sense of persecution that is so central to Christian nationalism today. This is why Trump’s and Pence’s promises to neutralize the Johnson Amendment and to “stand up” for “religious freedom” play well to conservative Christian audiences. The narrative that government is stomping all over the rights of Christians and their churches may have little basis in fact, but it is one of the most powerful messages the movement has to drive voters to the polls. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 135

Categorization

• XREF: A concrete mechanism example of manufactured-enemy politics; resonates with the reader’s past material on nativism and manufactured panics. — connects to: Feigned persecution, not actual threat, drives religious voter turnout; White Christian nationalism operates as an adaptable narrative, not fixed beliefs — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 19; Anti-sharia campaigns exploit fabricated fears to gain political support — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 519

Broader Connections

• Feigned persecution, not actual threat, drives religious voter turnout #corroborates (1.00)
• White Christian nationalism operates as an adaptable narrative, not fixed beliefs #expands (0.78) — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 19
• Anti-sharia campaigns exploit fabricated fears to gain political support #corroborates (0.72) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 519