Another one? Really? https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1292455607610597377

OK, I'll give it up to @elizabethjdias -- this was one of the better versions of this piece. But I just have to say, it is no mystery at all to me why white rural patriarchal evangelical voters went for Trump. The confusion only comes if you think of that community ...

... as being bound by principles. (After all, Trump defies any principle you could name.) But like the vast majority of communities, it is NOT bound by principles. It is bound by culture & identity. It's a culture/identity that used to be hegemonic in the US, but is declining.

And to hit a familiar theme: to a dominant culture, equality feels like oppression. That sentiment is *all over* this piece. One woman notes that Bibles are not mandatory in schools any more & students are no longer forced to read Bible verses & cites those facts as evidence ...

... of her *loss of religious freedom*. It just couldn't be any clearer: to her, "freedom" means hegemony. It means cultural dominance. If Xtianity is treated as just another religion, w/ no special status, to her that equality amounts to loss of freedom.

These people want a homogenous, white, Christian, conservative America. They sense America is evolving in the direction of true multiethnic, multireligious democracy, & they hate it. Trump promised to defend their dominance. That's the answer to this allegedly great mystery.

I mean, after all, if you're going to start being baffled by the difference between what Jesus preached & how the US evangelical community behaves, you should have gotten confused decades ago! It's an in-group defending its relative power, just like any other group. No mystery.

I will say one other thing, by way of sympathy: it's certainly not unique to this subculture that those in it want to live among people who they trust & understand & who share their basic cultural presumptions. Many ppl - especially those who stay in small towns - want the same.

"They thought about the lives they want for their children, and why they send them to a Christian elementary school. 'We hope our kids eventually find a Christian spouse, and that exposes them to other kids of like-mindedness,' her husband said." Pretty explicit!

This desire for homogeneity, for trust & comfort & shared values, is one of the things that makes true multiethnic, multicultural democracy difficult (which is why no one's ever really done it). It can be tense to live around people you share little culture or understanding with.

There's no way out but through. We're not going to stop & go back. The choices now are multiethnic democracy or revanchist white fascism. The latter might look like "freedom" to evangelicals but I suspect they wouldn't like it much in practice. </fin>

Gotta add this one other perfect bit: "The years of the Obama presidency were confusing to her. She said she heard talk of giving freedoms to gay people and members of minority groups. But to her it felt like her freedoms were being taken away." There it is.

By the by, if you're interested in these dynamics, everything I'm saying above is said much better & with much more extensive reporting by @sarahposner in her great book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X9J1GKF/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1