We’ve finally turned the corner on Donald Trump and Trumpism, some pundits now proclaim. Following Trump's advocacy of the COVID vaccine, particularly during his interview with Candace Owens, many of Trump’s most loyal lackeys openly opposed the former president. Briefly. Crazy conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for example, went so far as to threaten to expose many of Trump's darkest secrets. Yes, apparently there are even more.
Trumpism Trumps Jones Et Al
The world should see those dark secrets Jones threatens to expose, but it's unlikely the daft radio show host will follow through on his threat. Jones understands the undying loyalty of Trump's base. He knows that pointing out the emperor’s nakedness would only ignite the ire of the Trump masses. Those loyal masses love Alex Jones, but they worship Donald Trump. Were Jones to publicly cross the Messiah, he would be excommunicated from the Trump cult—or worse.
Those analysts who happily herald the erosion of Donald Trump’s power are deluding themselves. They don't understand the evangelical mindset.
Those analysts who happily herald the erosion of Donald Trump’s power are deluding themselves. They don't understand the evangelical mindset. With a few exceptions, white evangelicals have crowned Donald Trump as their savior. I mean this not as hyperbole, but in the truest sense of the word. In a contest between one messiah who called for loving one’s enemies and another messiah who advocates merciless revenge, they chose the latter. While the itinerant Jewish Messiah promoted repentance, white evangelicals chose the new messiah who stated, “Why do I have to repent, why do I have to ask for forgiveness if [I'm] not making mistakes?”
No Repentance
And despite the teachings of the true Messiah about humility and repentance, most white evangelicals are now either too blinded by ambition or too proud to admit they made a mistake in backing a man who truly shares none of the concerns they historically claimed to hold dear. To turn back now would be to admit their utter lack of discernment. And that will not happen.
Better to follow the new messiah in asking, “Why do I have to repent?”
Like most other Americans—and much of the world—America’s white evangelicals saw what happened at the nation’s Capitol building one year ago. And while that violent attempt to stop the ceremonial counting of the electoral college votes and overthrow the government—and the sitting president’s obvious involvement in the riot—horrified most human beings, most white evangelicals found ways to excuse and justify it. Some openly celebrated it. Hordes of them even participated in it. They will never back down.
Watch, for example, this video, which reveals that 53 percent of Republicans believe Trump won the election and should still be president—despite abundant, obvious evidence that he lost. And, while the polling did not reveal what percentage of the 53 percent is white evangelicals, I’m confident in declaring that they make up the majority of that 53 percent.
Trumpism Is Not Going Away
White evangelicals—folks with whom I was intimately associated for decades—are now, collectively, the most stiff-necked, unrepentant, hardened, and deluded assemblage of human beings I can think of. And they have resolutely given themselves over to their new messiah. Alex Jones could reveal that he has evidence that Trump is a pedophile, or that the former president secretly worships Satan, and the messiah’s millions of fanatical faithful would—just as they’ve done so many times before—ignore it or find ways to justify such behavior.
We have not turned the corner on Trumpism. We won’t. Not for a long, long time. Get used to it. Like COVID, Donald Trump and Trumpism will plague this planet for the foreseeable future.