This may come as a shock to many but it was never about Donald Trump.
Many in the media and on the left (redundancy alert) have made the mistake of acting as if all they have to do is demonstrate clearly to Trump supporters that the president isn’t as good a man as Mitt Romney or as good a husband as Barack Obama or perhaps even as religious as Mike Pence and then his voters will abandon him. But the truth is -they won’t. It’s not because because Trump supporters love or lionize Trump as many on the left did Barack Obama. For many, it was never so much a “yes” for Trump as a “no” to…all the encroaching secularizing leftism that has permeated our culture.
Ironically, the more the establishment attempts to otherize Trump the stronger he becomes. Religious people don’t think Trump is Billy Graham. They know that many of his attempts to talk religion have been awkward and even forced. They just want him to respect religious people. They want him to respect religious freedom. Candidate Trump promised to end the HHS Mandate. President Trump did it.
Pro-lifers don’t think Trump’s pro-life credentials have a long history. They just want conservative pro-life justices. Candidate Trump promised to nominate pro-life judges. Beginning with the nomination and confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the seat left vacant by Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court and continuing with the Senate confirming a dozen nominees to fill vacancies on the appeals courts with conservative judges, President Trump delivered.
Candidate Trump promised to stand up to Planned Parenthood and while he hasn’t been able to ban federal funding to the abortion giant,
President Trump did sign legislation that allowed states to remove Title X funding from Planned Parenthood.
For years, pro-lifers have been made promises and what do they have to show for it? Very little. In fact, for a long time, religion was chased to the borders of acceptable culture; out of our schools, non-existent in our entertainment industry, and targeted by many legislators and judges. Trump promised to stand up to all of this. And he’s kept his word. And when you compare that to the spinelessness of most elected Republicans, it’s a startling difference.
In response, we have the media attempting to say he colluded with Russia. Trump supporters don’t believe it. They interview Stormy Daniels who claims to have had a “relationship” with Trump. Everyone I know believes it. But it doesn’t change their support of him. Because, like I said before, it’s not about Trump himself. It’s about electing a politician that doesn’t look down on them, that doesn’t view them as “deplorable,” or someone’s that’s on the wrong side of history and just clinging to their guns and religion.