What is the motivation behind different religious groups and their support of Trump

Politics & Elections
1

So varying religions and non-faiths tend to vote differently.

Secularists of all stripes, Jews, Muslims and I get the impression pretty much all non-christans tend to lean dem. If you are a non-christian or a secularist, you lean dem. Muslims were pro-GOP until 9/11.

White Christians tend to lean republican. Non-white Christians tend to lean democrat.

But in this election cycle, christians aren’t voting as one bloc. Evangelicals are as supportive of Trump as any other GOP candidate. Catholics are less supportive of Trump. Mormons are even less supportive.

I made a thread about a different subject where this subject was discussed a bit, but I want to discuss it some more.

According to this article:

Major reasons Mormons are not fond of Trump is:

[ul]
[li]They have a history of being persecuted, and they are bothered by his anti-Muslim beliefs (they know they could be next)[/li][li]Mormons have softer attitudes towards immigrants[/li][li]Mormons take their morals more seriously[/li][li]McMullin is a good alternative[/li][/ul]

I’m not sure what role Romney coming out against Trump plays in all this.

But does this apply to Mormons in general or just Mormons in Utah? I wonder how Mormons in other states will vote.

Trump is losing catholic voters, but I think less than Mormons.

Reasons for that are somewhat similar to the Mormon loss. Catholics are softer on immigration (a lot of catholics are latino and growing), plus Trump got into it with the Pope when the pope criticized his border wall idea.

But what role is geography in all this? Evangelicals support Trump as much as any other republican candidate in the past. Is that geography? Evangelicals tend to be from more deeply red parts of the nation like the south, while catholics tend to live in more purple and blue parts of the nation like the midwest and northeast. Is it the fact that the catholic republicans are more moderate and less loyal to the GOP than southern evangelical republicans, as a result they are more willing to abandon ship when a bad candidate comes up?

I guess the question is why are white evangelicals, white catholics and white mormons voting differently? The evangelicals seem to be voting the same as in the past, the white catholics are less supportive of Trump, the Mormons even less.

2

IME, the vast majority of it boils down to “A vote for Trump is a vote against Hillary. And since Hillary is pro-abortion, and also there will be SCOTUS vacancies, we must vote for Trump.” I have not encountered much complex analysis beyond that.

3

Start with abortion.
Subtract Latinos.
Subtract Catholics who are mad at Trump for feuding with Pope Francis.
Subtract conservative Christians who are personally repulsed by Trump.

Everyone left from the first group winds up supporting Trump.

4

I just watched this segment of Bill Maher and as a Christian, I agree with him entirely. I have no idea why any Christian would support someone like Trump.

It’s just dumbness.

5

It takes a dump truck full of hypocrisy for a Christian conservative to vote for Trump. But they’ll do it because they’re convinced the biggest liar, by far, to ever hold a nomination will keep his word and put up anti-abortion justices. They’re single-issue voters and aren’t thinking about any other damage he may do so long as he stops abortion. Most of them couldn’t describe with even the simplest understanding what his other policy positions would lead to.

6

More than just abortions, I think the Christian fundamentalists in this country is still smarting from losing some recent social issues such as gay marriage. They see themselves under attack. They feel their movement is in jeopardy. Of course the rest of us see increased rights and tolerance as a good thing, but the don’t, they see it as an existential crisis. So they gravitate towards someone who, similar to many of them, say the right things even if he doesn’t live by them.

If Hillary Clinton came out tomorrow and for, let’s say, the next year, talking about how she’s against abortion and want it made illegal, she will get a not insignificant amount of support from these Evangelicals. Trump tells these people what they want to hear, and they excuse his personal behavior easily as they excuse their own contraception use or abortions. Do as I say, not as I do. They want to believe him because the other candidate is not even bothering to pander to them. Maybe some of them feel a sense of entitlement to this country’s “traditional values”, maybe some of them just want to be flattered like narcissists, I don’t know, but I do know Trump does pander to them and they took the bait. Its either the possibility of getting a person who thinks like them, or the certainty of getting someone that doesn’t. 1% is still a chance, so they vote Trump to try to save their movement, their ideology

7

This election is teaching right-wing religious voters to separate their religious beliefs from the character of the candidate (out of necessity, lest they be left with no-one to vote for). This development could have the benefit in the future of less overt religiosity among Republican candidates, but it also means that religious hypocrisy and even bad character will not count against a candidate with his base.

Because right-wing religious voters are convinced that they have received the “word of God” and that everyone who disagrees with them is evil, they believe that any political expedient or tactic is acceptable, as long as it moves the country in the direction that they want. It’s not only about abortion, by the way (although that is the tissue that they hold up the highest) it is about sexual “morality” and also about race. It is about fear of change, and lust for power.

When your life revolves around an irrational and anti-fact belief system, it is not hard to understand how you would be able to believe six impossible things before breakfast, such as that the Democratic candidate is the leader of a world conspiracy or that giving tax breaks to wealthy people is good for the economy.

8

Trump’s 10 commandments are like the regular commandments with LOL attached at the end.

9

Not single-issue at all. After being told it for 35 years, they believe Jesus wants tax cuts.

10

True. And guns. Jesus would have many beautiful guns.

11

As an Orthodox Jew, I can tell you that the community is very divided about who to support. Against Trump is the fact that his personality is so much the opposite of the religious ideal. Against Hillary is the fact that she’d embraced Suha Arafat and supported the Iran nuclear deal, plus the possibility of the Supreme Court getting more liberal.

As with most of the country, we see this election as having to choose who we hate less, and there’s no real religious-group-wide consensus over who that should be.

12

As an Orthodox Jew, that is the only thing you can find against Trump?

How about his sexual predation against women, or his practice of not honoring contractual agreements, or scamming and fleecing those who are simply looking to provide a better life for themselves and their families, or generally being a dishonorable, lying schmuck?

13

Any realistic pro-Israeli Jew should probably re-think that position on the Iranian nuclear deal. That deal probably has made Israel more, not less, secure. And no Israeli pilots had to risk their lives to slow down Iran’s nuclear program.

14

My favorite was in the discussion about how Mormon’s will believe (just about) anything-

“They even let Donny Osmond claim he was a little bit ‘Rock-n-Roll’.”

15

That’s just the thing tho.

[ul]
[li]Some Trump supporters may very well not see any of his shenanigans as such…[/li]
[li]Other Trump supporters see his shit for exactly what it is, but don’t care anyway…[/li][/ul]

But why would any of them trust the sonofabitch? Not suspect him as being the con artist to end all con artists? I can see forgiving his crap (or overlooking it even). I cannot grasp why they would then think he would follow through on any of what passes for his “promises”…

16

Onomatopoeia:

Those are all sub-categories of his personality being so much the opposite of the religious ideal.

BigAppleBucky:

That depends on how much you trust the Iranian government to not immediately resume nuclear weapons development after the 10-year deal period is over, after having carte blanche to spend those years developing ancillary applications (such as ballistic missile technology) that do not technically violate the deal. And that’s assuming they can be trusted to stick to the deal to the letter in the first place.

Also, on how much Israel can trust the U.N. to enforce the deal. You know, the same U. N. that has 22 Arab states and dozens more Muslim-majority states vs one Israel. The same U.N. that comes out with outrageous statements such as that Jerusalem has no historical connection to any faith other than Islam.

17

I can’t speak for orthodox Jews, but I think Jews in general support the democratic candidate at about the same rate as LGBT voters, about 70-75%.

However I would assume a lot of the Jews that are listed as Jews are secular Jews, not orthodox.

18

Frankly, it is my belief that their politics are just more important than their Christianity. That’s the point of creating all this tribalism. They can just force religious justifications to match.

It’s the same reason we have all these “patriotic” people who want to punish those people who kneel in front of the American flag. They never actually bought the ideals. They enjoy the tribalism, and those people aren’t in the tribe.

I think living in a majority Christian nation makes it easy to call yourself a Christian without caring so much about the actual beliefs you’re supposed to have.

19

Wesley Clark:

This is true - overall, American Jews are more liberal and reliably vote Democrat, as they are more likely Conservative, Reform, or some other form of non-Orthodox.

However, during the Reagan era, most Orthodox Jewish voters switched to voting Republican, and while they are a small number nation-wide, this has impacted a lot of elections in New York. Al D’Amato was the first politician to exploit the cultural differences between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, and his political proteges, Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki, made good use of this as well.

20

Because Hillary is a lesbian who has had many abortions! (actual quote)

And because the Bible says a woman cannot lead a man.