Yes the genius of Trump was connecting with these people. He's basically a rich guy (which they admire) who in a lot of ways acts like a "deplorable" (he's one of them to a degree), and then he has no ethics, so he can do his used car salesman thing to say what it is they want to hear.

I don't want Hillary to run again, but the quoted statement would be true of anyone who was the target of a 25-year propaganda campaign. Most people's perception of Hillary Clinton is influenced, at least to some degree, by the relentless and irrational misinformation coming from the right wing media since the early 1990s. This includes Republicans, Democrats, and others. No doubt she is a calculating politician (who among them isn't?), but the fact is that the right-wing smear campaign was wildly successful.

Anybody the Democrats put up will be positioned by the Republicans as a lightning rod, even if they have to make s*** up. They could nominate the Pope and he'd be vilified as too liberal for 'merica.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

For the record, I have never been a fan of the Clintons, either one. They never appeared to have any principles other than wanting to be in power. I much preferred Tom Harkin and Bob Kerrey(sp?) in '92.

It didn't take a right wing conspiracy to make me not like them.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

That's funny.

You should hear what just about everyone that comes in contact with her think of her.

She is the reason Trump is president. Bernie would have beat him.

That would have been fascinating!

Well at the very minimum we can probably expect to see more hilarious memes of Melania using Barry Sanders-grade evasion to avoid holding hands with Trump. In this one she uses an ankle-breaking crossover technique.

I think there is certainly some truth to what you've shared. Many people are Christian in name only. The Barna Group has some interesting studies breaking down the Christian population. For their research they divide groups into people who identify as Christian and people who are practicing Christians.

In my experience people felt Trump was the lesser evil of the two candidates. The Republican party loves to talk about ending abortion and having strong family values but at this point it looks like a lot of virtue signaling. Regardless many people are are not going to vote for a pro abortion candidate, who supports the progressive agenda.

I really really wanted him to hang on to the empty sleeve like it had her hand in it.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

In my experience people felt Trump was the lesser evil of the two candidates. The Republican party loves to talk about ending abortion and having strong family values but at this point it looks like a lot of virtue signaling. Regardless many people are are not going to vote for a pro abortion candidate, who supports the progressive agenda.

I think the evangelicals could have made a strong stand and announced they were going to abstain from voting for President because they could not support either candidate and that they would simply vote in the non-Presidential races. Agree or disagree, that would be making a consistent stand.

When Trump did win, they could come out and publicly distance themselves from some of his talking and support the things they agree with. There is nothing wrong with taking a consistent stand on things and the evangelicals have shown they can't do it and that is where they are hypocritical.

What's amazing is that, in any other administration, this story as well as all the others would be all-consuming front page news. But with Trump, we've become numb to any kind of scandal. In the past, a scandal such as this and the others would have rocked the White House, but now it's just one of many stories that is not of that much interest.

As much as I support many of the policies this administration has been able to implement, I'm not sure they're worth the damage he has caused to public discourse and his attacks on our institutions.

Possibly. But what it also means is that no evangelical Trump supporter will ever be able to credibly claim that individual integrity is something they look for or demand in a politician. Many of those who during the Clinton administration claimed that he was unfit for office because of his moral character have proven themselves hypocrites by supporting Trump.

But it's no longer an either/or situation. (Not that it ever was.) Trump won the election, so it's him and his character that we're dealing with. Hillary lost, and she's no longer relevant to the question. And that question isn't why someone voted for Trump. It's why they continue to support him, often to absurd levels.

I agree completely and is something that I cannot understand. I somewhat understand why a friend of mine who has probably never gone to church supports him. I cannot understand why my devout Christian mother-in-law has a pink "Women for Trump" sticker on her car.

Here's what I would like to see -- some condemnation of his behavior, both past and present. Some recognition that he currently is lying, despicable, self-absorbed idiot. You can do that while still support most or even all of his policies. But the silence and quite opposite, the continued unquestioning support, from the evangelical community is telling. And I get that this is a generalization, that there may be a few voices from that community speaking against him, but overall, I believe the generalization is accurate.

I assume from your defense of evangelical support for Trump that you're an evangelical. If that is true, then point us to a few of your comments in the LR that are critical of him and his behavior.

I agree with you but it sounds like you're looking for something specific or large scale. I remember many Christian leaders said they would not vote for Trump. As an individual I am saying the things you mentioned and so are many people that I know. From where I stand the guy appears to be morally bankrupt. That said, I felt the same way about Hillary. I voted Trump hoping he would do something about abortion, reduce spending, and pump the breaks on the progressive agenda. As you can see it's all worked out really well.

Again, I think people viewed Trump as the lesser of two evils. Had they all abstained from voting it would have given Hillary the presidency but it may have a sent a message for the future.

I agree on the voting issue. I think you, and some others, are looking for loud Christian voice saying Trump is morally bankrupt but I don't know where that would come from.

I think you, and some others, are looking for loud Christian voice saying Trump is morally bankrupt but I don't know where that would come from.

There have been a lot of Christians coming out and denouncing the support of Trump. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention spoke out over the payment to the prostitute and the earlier tapes and said Trump's views are inconsistent with those of Christians.

The reason I think evangelicals support Trump because they are a lot like Trump and not very religious. I think many people, myself included, have always thought the evangelical community was very conservative with strong "family values" but that isn't really the case. For example, the number of people who claim to be evangelicals who regularly attend church is about 50% so they actually relate to Trump. Trumps lack of knowledge of what is in the bible and the fact that he doesn't attend church is pretty consistent with those people.

It is scenes like below that really get offensive. And there are many of them, simply Google "evangelical leaders pray with trump". And I understand that 'evangelical' is not one single bloc of people and that these leaders don't represent every evangelical. But the same group that support Trump also won't allow an analogous argument for Muslims when something bad happens.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

It is scenes like below that really get offensive.

But why is this offensive?

For what are they praying?

If you believe that prayer works, why would you not pray for or even with someone you think can benefit from divine intervention?

Honestly, the Trump horse has already left the barn so I don't realistically see them doing or saying much about him at this point. In the interest of basic consistency, however, I'd implore them to simply put a fucking sock in it the next time they feel compelled to spew any sort of indignant bloviating about the Weiners & Frankens of the world somehow exemplifying the moral decay wrought from the Left. Vote for who you want (the royal 'you'; I don't mean you personally here), but spare us the charade that it's about upholding some sort of virtuous moral character or standards. "Family values" my ass...

Is that a fair answer?

He's just taking that as an opportunity to look at hot chicks.