The Republicans and evangelicals are to blame for the Trump presidency

We must never forget how Trump won the 2016 election. Yes, there was Russian interference. Yes, the Clinton campaign was poorly run. Yes, there was acrimony and divisiveness on the part of most of the candidates. Yes, there was fake news slathered across the internet and repeated by the media. Yes, millionaires and billionaires gave Trump boatloads of money to run, even though he claimed at his rallies that he was self-funding so no one would own him. But Trump’s biggest boost came from the far-right fundamentalists who decided Trump represented their core Christian values…which is astounding given all the vulgar, unethical, immoral, and downright unchristian things Trump had said and done on the campaign trail. Then again, maybe those who professed Christian values didn’t really have them, but rather were far, far more closely aligned with Trump’s narrow-mindedness and were easy to manipulate.

They actually yelled "Heil Trump!"

         A 2016 collaborative scientific paper by Edward Dutton of the Ulster Institute for Social Research in the UK and Dimitri Van der Linden of the Rotterdam University in the Netherlands spotlights a reason for this. ‘If religion is indeed an evolved domain…an instinct…then it will become heightened at times of stress when people are inclined to act instinctively…” wrote Dutton. Trump’s campaign was built on stressing people out by scaring them with rapist Mexicans, terrorist Muslims, job-stealing Asians, currency-manipulating Chinese, payment-cheating NATO members, outmaneuvering-trade-partners in NAFTA and TPP, free-loading health care recipients, and a crumbling defeated America. It was a perfect vehicle for enlisting the evangelicals. Their instinct to “circle the wagons” from heightened stress over Trump-manufactured pseudo-problems assured him of their vote. Why think things through rationally when you can just instinctively let an authoritarian bigot do the thinking for you?

 According to Pew, Quinnipiac, and NBC/Wall Street Journal polls, over 80% of white evangelicals turned out to vote for Trump, [no less than 85% of white evangelical men] and that made just enough difference. The Republicans are the reason Trump got the nomination as the Republican candidate in the first place. They could have stopped it, or stepped in and changed the course of his candidacy for over a year. But they all chose party over country. They knew of his tampering with the Republican platform before he got the nomination, changing one item - a provision to deny defensive hardware to Ukraine in their fight against Russia. They knew he had numerous failed businesses that put him in financial jeopardy over and over and in debt to dozens of banks around the world. They knew of the countless multi-million dollar lawsuits against him, many that were still in the courts. They knew he had had repeated interactions with known mob and criminal figures. They knew he was an immoral womanizer and a serial sexual predator because he bragged about it on the Howard Stern show, not once but on three occasions, even infamously on the Access Hollywood tape. They knew of his shady dealings with the Russians because he boasted about his interactions with Putin and Russian government officials in several TV and radio interviews. They knew he lied, and that he lied repeatedly. He even doubled down on his lying over easily verifiable stories. The Republicans and evangelicals KNEW all this…yet they voted him in any way. Because of that, we are now suffering through the Trump presidency. Their support is why we have the chaos in the White House and across the land. It will only get worse and spread around the world until Trump is forced out. But there will be blood in the streets when it happens because he now thinks of the presidency as his legitimate right. No one should be allowed to challenge him thanks to the Republicans and evangelicals.

The Republicans and evangelicals are solely responsible for this catastrophic administration, and they must be held accountable. Every decision Trump makes, decisions that harm this country; whether judicial, legislative, environmental, military, diplomatic, or economic, it is on the hands of the Republicans and the evangelicals. If it was within my power, I would ban the evangelicals from ever voting again. They have shown that their religious view negatively impacts their judgment, meaning they cannot be trusted to vote in the interest of the nation any more than a rabid bear can.

                  The clowns applaud their Clown-in-Chief.

          And voters should be reminded of Republican support for Trump in every election from this point forward...no ifs, ands, or buts. Like when the Republicans dig in their heels and insist that the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia won’t slow down the president’s legislative agenda, or passing a huge tax plan that transfers more wealth to the richest one percent of Americans [of which Trump is a member], when they try to gut healthcare and leave millions of Americans with lesser or poorer quality coverage, when they rescind regulations and laws that harm American workers but put more money into the hands of billionaire CEOs in the nation. The GOP is the new Whig Party.

                               Coming soon to theaters everywhere.

Trump is all about the show, the theatrics, the use of gold paint to cover the cheap wooden frame, and nothing more. He is using the presidency to make himself rich again, even as he fails to make America great again. We wouldn't be in this intolerable position if the GOP had not nominated…and evangelicals had not helped elect…this thoroughly unfit man for the office. This must never be forgotten…or forgiven.