Younger white evangelicals abandoned Bush and the Republican Party far faster than their elders

Evidence

Support for the president dropped most precipitously among younger white evangelicals. In 2002, 87 percent of white evangelicals ages eighteen to twenty-nine approved of the president’s job performance; by August 2007, his approval rating among this group had dropped by 42 percentage points, with most of the decline (25 points) occurring since 2005. Younger evangelicals weren’t just unhappy with the president; since 2005, Republican Party affiliation among this demographic had dropped by 15 percentage points. For leaders of the Christian Right this was cause for alarm. As the end of Bush’s presidency neared, they looked ahead with trepidation. To their dismay, they were presented with two unsatisfactory choices for his successor. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 524

Categorization

• XREF: Launches the succession crisis — an open question the book answers with Trump. Pairs with generational dynamics in the Jane Eyre and Namesake modules on inherited vs chosen identity. — connects to: The Christian Right’s lasting achievement was locking evangelicals to the GOP — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 244; “Evangelical” now functions chiefly as a Republican Party identity label — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 280
• QUESTION: What specifically drove the 25-point post-2005 decline among young evangelicals — Iraq alone, or the wider ‘warrior masculinity’ mismatch with a failing president?
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: The Christian Right’s lasting achievement was locking evangelicals to the GOP — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 244; “Evangelical” now functions chiefly as a Republican Party identity label — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 280

Broader Connections

• The Christian Right’s lasting achievement was locking evangelicals to the GOP #complicates (0.82) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 244