WHO TO BLAME
(RNS) — White Christians remain an influential force in American culture and politics. Their support, and the support of Hispanic Christians, helped Donald Trump regain the White House.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures as he walks with former first lady Melania Trump at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Bob Smietana
November 6, 2024
(RNS) — While the United States has become more religiously diverse in recent decades, white Christians remain the largest religious segment of the country, making up about 42% of the population, according to data from the Public Religion Research Institute. And for Donald Trump, their support has once again proved key to his victory.
Exit poll data from CNN and other news outlets reported that 72% of white Protestants and 61% of white Catholics said they voted for Trump. Among white voters, 81% of those identified as born-again or evangelical supported Trump, up from 76% in 2020 and similar to the 80% of support Trump received in 2016.
Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said that kind of support is hard to overcome, especially in the Rust Belt swing states that helped seal Trump’s victory.
“It’s hard to overcome the white God gap in a place like Pennsylvania, or Michigan and Wisconsin,” he said.
But Trump also won the Christian vote overall: 58% of all Catholics voted for him and 63% of Protestants, according to the early exit polls. If the early exit poll numbers hold steady, that will prove to be a jump in Catholic support for Trump compared with 2020, when 50% of Catholics voted for him.
Some of that may have to do with an increase in Trump support among Hispanic voters. Almost two-thirds of Hispanic Protestant (64%) and just over half of Hispanic Catholic voters (53%) also supported Trump, according to initial CNN exit polls. In the 2020 election, only about a third of Hispanic Catholics voted for Trump.
Jews (78%), other non-Christians (59%) and those with no religious affiliation (71%) supported Kamala Harris, according to the CNN exit poll.
Robert Jones, PRRI’s president, said more data is needed to understand the Hispanic vote in the 2024 election. But he wonders whether economics played a major role in Hispanic support for Trump, more than religion.
“They don’t feel like their situation has improved over the past four years,” he said.
Jones said Trump was able to send two distinct messages during the campaign — one about being tough on immigration and crime, which appealed to white Christians, and the other about the economy, which appealed to Hispanic Christians.
Burge suspects Hispanic Catholics and Protestants are more conservative on social issues, such as abortion and LGBTQ rights, which may also have played a role in the election.
He wonders if the Harris campaign’s support for abortion rights, in particular, may have backfired with Hispanic Christians.
“That’s a hard message for a moderate Hispanic voter,” he said, adding that while voters in a number of states supported abortion rights, that did not carry over to overall support for Harris. Burge also wonders if inflation and other issues about the economy swung the elections. While Trump is known for causing controversy online, Burge said, many voters are paying more attention to day-to-day concerns.
“All they are thinking is, gas is expensive, bread is expensive, milk is expensive,” he said. “Let’s try something else. That’s the story.”
Both white and Hispanic Christians may also be worried about the changing nature of America and the decline of religion’s power in the culture. While few Americans want the nation to have an official Christian religion, many do see Christianity as important or feel a nostalgia for God and country patriotism, rather than a culture where secular values dominate.
And the swing states that decided the election, such as Wisconsin, are places where white Christians — especially white mainline Protestants and white Catholics who supported Trump — are found in large numbers.
Samuel Perry, a University of Oklahoma sociologist who studies Christian nationalism and other religious trends, wonders if the growth of nondenominational and Pentecostal churches in the United States may have played a role in the 2024 races.
Those churches are often multiethnic, he said, but not because white Christians are joining predominantly Black or Hispanic Christians. Instead, he said, Christians of color are joining majority-white churches that often lean Republican. That can affect their voting patterns, he said.
“Their allegiance is not to their ethnic group, who tend to vote Democrat,” he said. “It’s going to be more of a multiethnic conservative, white-dominated Christianity that unequivocally votes Republican.”
Jones said the 2024 election once again shows the close allegiance between white Christians and the Republican Party and the divided nature of religion in America. Most faith categories in America — Jews, Muslims, Black Protestants, nonreligious Americans and, until 2024, Hispanic Catholics — have supported the Democratic Party. White Christians, on the other hand, remained tied to Republicans.
“They have not moved a centimeter,” said Jones. “And they get out and vote.”
Faith groups resolve to protect migrants, refugees after Trump win
(RNS) — ‘Together, we will transform our grief into a force for change that will build a more just, equitable society that respects the dignity of all people,’ Omar Angel Perez, Faith in Action’s immigrant justice director, said.
Immigrants from Honduras recount their separation from their children at the border during a news conference in 2018 at Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas.
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
November 6, 2024
(RNS) — Former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term prompted faith groups that work with migrants and refugees to reaffirm their commitment to continue their work on Wednesday (Nov. 6), after Trump campaigned on blocking migration and carrying out record deportations.
“Given President-elect Trump’s record on immigration and promises to suspend refugee resettlement, restrict asylum protections, and carry out mass deportations, we know there are serious challenges ahead for the communities we serve,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, in a statement.
On the campaign trail, Trump also promised to end automatic citizenship for immigrants’ children born in the U.S.; end protected legal status for certain groups, including Haitians and Venezuelans; and reinstate a travel ban for people from certain Muslim-majority areas
If Trump carries out his plans, FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, projects that by the start of 2025, about 1 in 12 U.S. residents, and nearly 1 in 3 Latino residents, could be impacted by the mass deportations either because of their legal status or that of someone in the household.
“If the mass deportation articulated throughout the campaign season is implemented, it would tear families, communities, and the American economy apart,” Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit working with refugees, said in a statement. “The solution to the disorder at the border is to prioritize comprehensive immigration reform that updates our antiquated immigration laws while protecting people who need refuge.”
“We will continue to speak truth to power in solidarity with refugees and displaced people seeking safety around the world,” Hetfield said. “We will not be intimidated into silence or inaction,” his organization wrote.
RELATED: Threats to Catholic Charities staffers increase amid far-right anti-migrant campaign
Omar Angel Perez, immigrant justice director for Faith in Action, a social justice organization, said in a statement, “We recognize the fear and uncertainty many are feeling and pray that we can channel that energy into solidarity and resilience.”
“This moment calls us to take immediate action to protect the communities targeted throughout this campaign and during the prior Trump administration,” Perez said. “We remain committed to providing resources, support, and training to empower people to know their rights and stand firm against attempts to undermine their power.”
Matthew Soerens. Photo courtesy of World Relief
Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, pointed to polling by Lifeway Research earlier this year that showed that 71% of evangelicals agree that the U.S. “has a moral responsibility to accept refugees.”
“A majority of Christian voters supported President-elect Trump, according to the exit polls, but it’d be an error to presume that means that most Christians align with everything that he’s said in the campaign related to refugees and immigration,” he said.
Soerens explained that when Christians “realize that most refugees resettled to the U.S. in recent years have been fellow Christians, that they’re admitted lawfully after a thorough vetting process overseas and that many were persecuted particularly because of their faith in Jesus, my experience has been that they want to sustain refugee resettlement.”
“We’ll be doing all we can to encourage President-elect Trump, who has positioned himself as a defender of Christians against persecution, to ensure that the U.S. remains a refuge for those fleeing persecution on account of their faith or for other reasons recognized by U.S. law,” he said.
In a statement, Jesuit Refugee Service said Trump’s 2024 campaign rhetoric and his previous term had harmed “forcibly displaced people.”
Policies in his first term “separated families, set up new hurdles in the asylum process, dramatically reduced the number of refugees the U.S. resettled, introduced a ban on admitting travelers from predominantly Muslim countries, and deprioritized international efforts to address the exploding global refugee population,” the Catholic organization said.
To welcome and serve migrants is “an obligation” for Catholics, the JRS statement said. “How we respond to the tens of millions of people forced to flee their homes is a serious moral, legal, diplomatic, and economic question that impacts all of us,” the organization wrote.
Despite the disproportionate impact that Trump’s proposed immigration policies would have on Latino communities, Trump made significant gains among Latinos compared with previous elections, winning Latino American men’s vote by 10 points.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, attributed Trump’s success to several factors, including a rejection of progressive ideologies, economic concerns and concerns about government overreach.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez in 2013. Courtesy photo
But the evangelical megachurch pastor also said, “While immigration is a nuanced issue within the Latino community, there is a growing sentiment against open-border policies and the provision of resources to illegal immigrants at the perceived expense of American citizens.”
Karen González, a Guatemalan immigrant and author of several books on Christian responses to immigration, called Trump’s victory in the popular vote “especially crushing” in light of his anti-migrant rhetoric. She attributed Trump’s success with Latinos to white supremacy and misogyny within the community.
“We really aspire to be secondary white people, and we think that aligning ourselves with white supremacy is going to save us, and it’s not,” she said.
González was among the faith leaders who said they had not emotionally reckoned with the possibility of a Trump win before the results were announced.
Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, a Catholic organization that supports migrants in El Paso, Texas, and in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, across the U.S.-Mexican border, told RNS, “I was hopeful that we had turned the page because I think (the first Trump term) represents a really challenging time in our country.”
Corbett called for “deep reckoning” in churches and grassroots communities. “There’sthe perception that the (immigration) system is broken, and I think the longer we wait to really fix the situation, you open up the door to political extremism. You open up the door to incendiary rhetoric, to cheap solutions,” he said.
While President Joe Biden’s administration had begun with “some really aspirational rhetoric,” it “left a mixed legacy on immigration,” opening the door to Trump’s “dangerous politics.”
“Faith leaders in particular are going to have to assume a very public voice in defense of the human rights of now a very vulnerable part of our community,” he said.
Corbett expressed concern that Trump might mirror Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s tactics in Operation Lone Star in his push for massive deportations, citing deaths due to high-speed chases on highways and record migrant deaths.
“It’s going to fall to border communities like El Paso to deal with the fallout of what we can expect will be some very broken policies and some very dangerous rhetoric,” Corbett said. “And so I think we have to prepare for that. And that means turning back to our faith, going back to the Gospels, going back to the witness of Jesus, the witness of the saints, martyrs,” he said.
In Global Refuge’s statement, the organization encouraged Americans to support immigrants and refugees, “emphasizing the importance of family unity, humanitarian leadership, and the long-standing benefits of immigrant and refugee contributions to U.S. communities and economies.”
Vignarajah added, “In uncertain times, it is vital to remember that our role as Americans is to help those in need, and in doing so, we advance our own interests as well.”
Perez told RNS before the election that Faith in Action had prepared for a potential Trump win and that the organization would draw on its experience “responding to the attacks on the immigrant community” and mounting protection defense campaigns to prevent deportations.
González recalled working in a legal clinic after Trump’s 2016 election and helping migrants process citizenship and sponsorship applications before he took office. “This is really the time for that sort of practical action of how we can serve our neighbors,” she said.
“Together, we will transform our grief into a force for change that will build a more just, equitable society that respects the dignity of all people,” Perez said.
(RNS) — ‘Together, we will transform our grief into a force for change that will build a more just, equitable society that respects the dignity of all people,’ Omar Angel Perez, Faith in Action’s immigrant justice director, said.
Immigrants from Honduras recount their separation from their children at the border during a news conference in 2018 at Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas.
AP Photo/Matt York
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
November 6, 2024
(RNS) — Former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term prompted faith groups that work with migrants and refugees to reaffirm their commitment to continue their work on Wednesday (Nov. 6), after Trump campaigned on blocking migration and carrying out record deportations.
“Given President-elect Trump’s record on immigration and promises to suspend refugee resettlement, restrict asylum protections, and carry out mass deportations, we know there are serious challenges ahead for the communities we serve,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, in a statement.
On the campaign trail, Trump also promised to end automatic citizenship for immigrants’ children born in the U.S.; end protected legal status for certain groups, including Haitians and Venezuelans; and reinstate a travel ban for people from certain Muslim-majority areas
If Trump carries out his plans, FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, projects that by the start of 2025, about 1 in 12 U.S. residents, and nearly 1 in 3 Latino residents, could be impacted by the mass deportations either because of their legal status or that of someone in the household.
“If the mass deportation articulated throughout the campaign season is implemented, it would tear families, communities, and the American economy apart,” Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit working with refugees, said in a statement. “The solution to the disorder at the border is to prioritize comprehensive immigration reform that updates our antiquated immigration laws while protecting people who need refuge.”
“We will continue to speak truth to power in solidarity with refugees and displaced people seeking safety around the world,” Hetfield said. “We will not be intimidated into silence or inaction,” his organization wrote.
RELATED: Threats to Catholic Charities staffers increase amid far-right anti-migrant campaign
Omar Angel Perez, immigrant justice director for Faith in Action, a social justice organization, said in a statement, “We recognize the fear and uncertainty many are feeling and pray that we can channel that energy into solidarity and resilience.”
“This moment calls us to take immediate action to protect the communities targeted throughout this campaign and during the prior Trump administration,” Perez said. “We remain committed to providing resources, support, and training to empower people to know their rights and stand firm against attempts to undermine their power.”
Matthew Soerens. Photo courtesy of World Relief
Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, pointed to polling by Lifeway Research earlier this year that showed that 71% of evangelicals agree that the U.S. “has a moral responsibility to accept refugees.”
“A majority of Christian voters supported President-elect Trump, according to the exit polls, but it’d be an error to presume that means that most Christians align with everything that he’s said in the campaign related to refugees and immigration,” he said.
Soerens explained that when Christians “realize that most refugees resettled to the U.S. in recent years have been fellow Christians, that they’re admitted lawfully after a thorough vetting process overseas and that many were persecuted particularly because of their faith in Jesus, my experience has been that they want to sustain refugee resettlement.”
“We’ll be doing all we can to encourage President-elect Trump, who has positioned himself as a defender of Christians against persecution, to ensure that the U.S. remains a refuge for those fleeing persecution on account of their faith or for other reasons recognized by U.S. law,” he said.
In a statement, Jesuit Refugee Service said Trump’s 2024 campaign rhetoric and his previous term had harmed “forcibly displaced people.”
Policies in his first term “separated families, set up new hurdles in the asylum process, dramatically reduced the number of refugees the U.S. resettled, introduced a ban on admitting travelers from predominantly Muslim countries, and deprioritized international efforts to address the exploding global refugee population,” the Catholic organization said.
To welcome and serve migrants is “an obligation” for Catholics, the JRS statement said. “How we respond to the tens of millions of people forced to flee their homes is a serious moral, legal, diplomatic, and economic question that impacts all of us,” the organization wrote.
Despite the disproportionate impact that Trump’s proposed immigration policies would have on Latino communities, Trump made significant gains among Latinos compared with previous elections, winning Latino American men’s vote by 10 points.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, attributed Trump’s success to several factors, including a rejection of progressive ideologies, economic concerns and concerns about government overreach.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez in 2013. Courtesy photo
But the evangelical megachurch pastor also said, “While immigration is a nuanced issue within the Latino community, there is a growing sentiment against open-border policies and the provision of resources to illegal immigrants at the perceived expense of American citizens.”
Karen González, a Guatemalan immigrant and author of several books on Christian responses to immigration, called Trump’s victory in the popular vote “especially crushing” in light of his anti-migrant rhetoric. She attributed Trump’s success with Latinos to white supremacy and misogyny within the community.
“We really aspire to be secondary white people, and we think that aligning ourselves with white supremacy is going to save us, and it’s not,” she said.
González was among the faith leaders who said they had not emotionally reckoned with the possibility of a Trump win before the results were announced.
Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, a Catholic organization that supports migrants in El Paso, Texas, and in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, across the U.S.-Mexican border, told RNS, “I was hopeful that we had turned the page because I think (the first Trump term) represents a really challenging time in our country.”
Corbett called for “deep reckoning” in churches and grassroots communities. “There’sthe perception that the (immigration) system is broken, and I think the longer we wait to really fix the situation, you open up the door to political extremism. You open up the door to incendiary rhetoric, to cheap solutions,” he said.
While President Joe Biden’s administration had begun with “some really aspirational rhetoric,” it “left a mixed legacy on immigration,” opening the door to Trump’s “dangerous politics.”
“Faith leaders in particular are going to have to assume a very public voice in defense of the human rights of now a very vulnerable part of our community,” he said.
Corbett expressed concern that Trump might mirror Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s tactics in Operation Lone Star in his push for massive deportations, citing deaths due to high-speed chases on highways and record migrant deaths.
“It’s going to fall to border communities like El Paso to deal with the fallout of what we can expect will be some very broken policies and some very dangerous rhetoric,” Corbett said. “And so I think we have to prepare for that. And that means turning back to our faith, going back to the Gospels, going back to the witness of Jesus, the witness of the saints, martyrs,” he said.
In Global Refuge’s statement, the organization encouraged Americans to support immigrants and refugees, “emphasizing the importance of family unity, humanitarian leadership, and the long-standing benefits of immigrant and refugee contributions to U.S. communities and economies.”
Vignarajah added, “In uncertain times, it is vital to remember that our role as Americans is to help those in need, and in doing so, we advance our own interests as well.”
Perez told RNS before the election that Faith in Action had prepared for a potential Trump win and that the organization would draw on its experience “responding to the attacks on the immigrant community” and mounting protection defense campaigns to prevent deportations.
González recalled working in a legal clinic after Trump’s 2016 election and helping migrants process citizenship and sponsorship applications before he took office. “This is really the time for that sort of practical action of how we can serve our neighbors,” she said.
“Together, we will transform our grief into a force for change that will build a more just, equitable society that respects the dignity of all people,” Perez said.
Five takeaways from the 2024 election
(RNS) — Harris did worse with women, Hispanics and young people than did the Democratic candidates in the last two presidential elections.
(Photo by Sora Shimazaki/Pexels/Creative Commons)
Thomas Reese
November 6, 2024
(RNS) — An editorial writer is someone who comes upon the scene of a disaster and assigns blame. This election season has provided rich fodder for editorial writers of both parties, but especially Democrats.
In such a close election, almost anyone could be blamed or praised for the results. Democrats will look for people to blame; Republicans for people to praise. The exit polls are bad news for Democrats, showing them doing worse with women, Hispanics and young people than they did in the last two presidential elections.
Having followed the American political scene since I was a graduate student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1970s, I know that this process of blame and praise often ignores larger trends that really mattered.
Instead, here are five takeaways that I believe political scientists and historians will be pondering for years in an attempt to make sense out of this election.
First, yes, it was the economy, stupid. From the Great Depression through the 1960s, men without a college education were the backbone of the Democratic Party — so much so that progressive elites, who had lured them into the party, came to take them for granted. Their concerns were not taken seriously, and instead, Democrats constantly talked of the plight of minorities and women, but not of working-class males.
Under President Bill Clinton, free trade and globalization were supposed to make everyone’s life better, but in reality, they only made the lives of the college-educated better. Blue-collar workers were told to retrain for new industries after their jobs were lost, but the programs meant to facilitate this were a joke.
RELATED: Bipartisan stupidity
With the end of factory jobs, the path to the middle class closed for many men, and the healthy neighborhoods and small towns they supported were gutted. It should have surprised no one that these alienated men turned to Donald Trump as their savior. COVID, supply chain disruptions and the Biden administration’s massive spending bills, meant to fix this problem, added inflation to that mix.
Second, nativism, racism and isolationism, which have afflicted America in the past, are by no means dead.
The Republican Party appears to be especially susceptible to these diseases. Richard Nixon had his Southern Strategy to entice Southern whites into the party. He also preyed on the fears of white middle-class Americans with faintly disguised racial tropes.
Wall Street elites, who favored immigration and globalization, thought they could continue to control the party even as it racked up votes by pandering to bigots. But with the rise of Trump, they lost their handle on the party. This is no longer the GOP of Ronald Reagan or the Bushes.
This profoundly changed the political landscape. College-educated Americans who once tended to vote Republican because of economic issues switched to the Democratic Party because they rejected the GOP’s culture wars. Noncollege educated whites became Republican. This was the most significant party realignment since white Southern voters turned Republican at the end of the 1960s.
Third, Kamala Harris attempted to mobilize women with her uncompromising support for abortion, but the strategy did not work. Her edge among women this year (10 percentage points) did not exceed that of Biden (15) or Hillary Clinton (13). Nor did Taylor Swift deliver younger voters (18 to 29 years), who shifted toward Trump in comparison with 2020 and 2016.
Women’s issues are central to the Democratic Party. The teachers’ union, whose members are mostly women, is the party’s most powerful ally. Abortion is nonnegotiable for the party, as are diversity, equity and inclusion. Yet despite doing everything it could to push women away — nominating Trump, a serial abuser of women, demonizing DEI programs and largely retaining its opposition to abortion on the state level — the GOP doesn’t seem to have lost its share of women.
RELATED: In a world where Christ is king, authoritarian leaders can only be antichrists
Fourth, the anti-abortion movement is in disarray without a home, as both political parties have become pro-choice. While anti-abortion forces celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade two years ago, it was a Pyrrhic victory as a majority of voters in almost every state where it was on the ballot voted to protect abortion rights.
For years, the anti-abortion movement ignored the polls and claimed that the American public was opposed to legalized abortion. The polls and the votes on abortion-related referenda show that the public wants abortion to be legal.
Instead of converting the public to their cause, anti-abortion proponents relied on Republican politicians and judges to get their way. Facing electoral losses, Trump and Republican politicians ran away from the issue as quickly as they could.
But Democrats have only doubled down on choice. After Trump forced the GOP to abandon its abortion plank at the party’s convention this summer, Harris showed herself unwilling to say that medical personnel would not be forced to perform an abortion if it violates their faith, even though, as a lawyer, she knows courts will support doctors whose consciences will not allow them to do abortions. (In any case, who in their right mind would want an unwilling doctor to operate on them?)
Fifth, evangelical leaders continue to compromise their Christian beliefs for partisan ends. While most Catholic bishops do not endorse candidates or political parties — and I thank God they don’t — they also fail to point out that LifeSiteNews, Catholic Vote and Catholics for Catholics are political not Catholic organizations.
Too many progressive Democrats, meanwhile, continue to exhibit hostility toward religious Americans — remarkable, given that both Joe Biden and Harris are active Christians themselves.
In late October, when a man yelled “Jesus is Lord” at a Harris rally in Wisconsin, she responded, “You guys are at the wrong rally.”
This was a stupid response. She could have said, “Yes, and Jesus said, ‘Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked.’ He said, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Isn’t it wonderful that we live in a country where everyone can believe and practice their faith in freedom.”
Progressive Democrats don’t know how to talk to Christians, even when Jesus is on their side.
(RNS) — Harris did worse with women, Hispanics and young people than did the Democratic candidates in the last two presidential elections.
(Photo by Sora Shimazaki/Pexels/Creative Commons)
Thomas Reese
November 6, 2024
(RNS) — An editorial writer is someone who comes upon the scene of a disaster and assigns blame. This election season has provided rich fodder for editorial writers of both parties, but especially Democrats.
In such a close election, almost anyone could be blamed or praised for the results. Democrats will look for people to blame; Republicans for people to praise. The exit polls are bad news for Democrats, showing them doing worse with women, Hispanics and young people than they did in the last two presidential elections.
Having followed the American political scene since I was a graduate student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1970s, I know that this process of blame and praise often ignores larger trends that really mattered.
Instead, here are five takeaways that I believe political scientists and historians will be pondering for years in an attempt to make sense out of this election.
First, yes, it was the economy, stupid. From the Great Depression through the 1960s, men without a college education were the backbone of the Democratic Party — so much so that progressive elites, who had lured them into the party, came to take them for granted. Their concerns were not taken seriously, and instead, Democrats constantly talked of the plight of minorities and women, but not of working-class males.
Under President Bill Clinton, free trade and globalization were supposed to make everyone’s life better, but in reality, they only made the lives of the college-educated better. Blue-collar workers were told to retrain for new industries after their jobs were lost, but the programs meant to facilitate this were a joke.
RELATED: Bipartisan stupidity
With the end of factory jobs, the path to the middle class closed for many men, and the healthy neighborhoods and small towns they supported were gutted. It should have surprised no one that these alienated men turned to Donald Trump as their savior. COVID, supply chain disruptions and the Biden administration’s massive spending bills, meant to fix this problem, added inflation to that mix.
Second, nativism, racism and isolationism, which have afflicted America in the past, are by no means dead.
The Republican Party appears to be especially susceptible to these diseases. Richard Nixon had his Southern Strategy to entice Southern whites into the party. He also preyed on the fears of white middle-class Americans with faintly disguised racial tropes.
Wall Street elites, who favored immigration and globalization, thought they could continue to control the party even as it racked up votes by pandering to bigots. But with the rise of Trump, they lost their handle on the party. This is no longer the GOP of Ronald Reagan or the Bushes.
This profoundly changed the political landscape. College-educated Americans who once tended to vote Republican because of economic issues switched to the Democratic Party because they rejected the GOP’s culture wars. Noncollege educated whites became Republican. This was the most significant party realignment since white Southern voters turned Republican at the end of the 1960s.
Third, Kamala Harris attempted to mobilize women with her uncompromising support for abortion, but the strategy did not work. Her edge among women this year (10 percentage points) did not exceed that of Biden (15) or Hillary Clinton (13). Nor did Taylor Swift deliver younger voters (18 to 29 years), who shifted toward Trump in comparison with 2020 and 2016.
Women’s issues are central to the Democratic Party. The teachers’ union, whose members are mostly women, is the party’s most powerful ally. Abortion is nonnegotiable for the party, as are diversity, equity and inclusion. Yet despite doing everything it could to push women away — nominating Trump, a serial abuser of women, demonizing DEI programs and largely retaining its opposition to abortion on the state level — the GOP doesn’t seem to have lost its share of women.
RELATED: In a world where Christ is king, authoritarian leaders can only be antichrists
Fourth, the anti-abortion movement is in disarray without a home, as both political parties have become pro-choice. While anti-abortion forces celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade two years ago, it was a Pyrrhic victory as a majority of voters in almost every state where it was on the ballot voted to protect abortion rights.
For years, the anti-abortion movement ignored the polls and claimed that the American public was opposed to legalized abortion. The polls and the votes on abortion-related referenda show that the public wants abortion to be legal.
Instead of converting the public to their cause, anti-abortion proponents relied on Republican politicians and judges to get their way. Facing electoral losses, Trump and Republican politicians ran away from the issue as quickly as they could.
But Democrats have only doubled down on choice. After Trump forced the GOP to abandon its abortion plank at the party’s convention this summer, Harris showed herself unwilling to say that medical personnel would not be forced to perform an abortion if it violates their faith, even though, as a lawyer, she knows courts will support doctors whose consciences will not allow them to do abortions. (In any case, who in their right mind would want an unwilling doctor to operate on them?)
Fifth, evangelical leaders continue to compromise their Christian beliefs for partisan ends. While most Catholic bishops do not endorse candidates or political parties — and I thank God they don’t — they also fail to point out that LifeSiteNews, Catholic Vote and Catholics for Catholics are political not Catholic organizations.
Too many progressive Democrats, meanwhile, continue to exhibit hostility toward religious Americans — remarkable, given that both Joe Biden and Harris are active Christians themselves.
In late October, when a man yelled “Jesus is Lord” at a Harris rally in Wisconsin, she responded, “You guys are at the wrong rally.”
This was a stupid response. She could have said, “Yes, and Jesus said, ‘Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked.’ He said, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Isn’t it wonderful that we live in a country where everyone can believe and practice their faith in freedom.”
Progressive Democrats don’t know how to talk to Christians, even when Jesus is on their side.
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