I grew up in small town, North Central Florida. Country. Rural. And pretty Evangelical and these days very Republican. Most of the people I grew up with never left that town. They married there, had kids there, work there. But even though I’m not “one” of them I’m still friends with a lot of them, from childhood days (long standing agreements to not discuss politics or faith.)
And right now, they are all pretty much freaking out over Trump.
And mean freaking out.
We are talking 2 hour long get togethers about who they are going to vote for. We are talking being absolutely totally confused about what to do. We are talking about them literally asking pastors and deacons who to vote for and getting a shrug in return.
Now while they are friends of mine, I do find the cognitive dissonance on this issue really rather amusing.
Vote Trump? But he’s not one of them, and in fact they don’t LIKE him. He’s a fake, a blowhard, and a bully. (Which I find kind of amusing, since a lot of the religious right’s tactics are pretty much the same.)
Write in someone else? This usually is Cruz by the way. But then, would they be wasting their vote?
Not vote? And give HILLARY (they are all freaking out about her by the way. And no, they wouldn’t change their minds on this if it were Bernie, they all think he’s a communist.) more votes? Can’t have that.
I really don’t know what they are going to do. I get the feeling they don’t either, and won’t until they get into the voting booth. Which for them is pretty rare and uncomfortable. You have to remember, Evangelicals pretty much vote in lockstep, and have certainty that they are doing what’s right. Even Romney, being a Mormon (which bothered them some.) wasn’t really an issue. But Trump, they don’t know what in the hell to do about him.
I’m aware that Trump pulled the lion share of evangelicals in some states. I can only speak off what I hear from the ones I know.