*rubs eyes* Jesus H. Christ... For my sins, I read this op-ed so you don't have to. It's a condescending, subtly insulting paean to the working class by a self-flagellating "elite," with no real analysis of race other than a throwaway mention.
The author is a senior editor at First Things, a conservative, ecumenical journal of opinion that can be seen as an intellectual forum for the Christian right. They are, as you might expect, strongly anti-abortion.
This op-ed is part of what will be a wave of similar pieces, meant to shore up support for Trump among Christian conservatives--precisely within the middle classes that Schmitz so disdains--to ensure he has the support needed to nominate an anti-Roe judge to SCOTUS.
All the Christian hypocrisy you all have talked about? Evangelicals, in particular, supporting Trump? This is what it was for. Selling their souls for a Supreme Court seat, to overturn Roe v. Wade. That's all it's ever been about.
This op-ed is simply one battle standard among many, meant to rally any wavering troops. A way of rationalising Trumpism and the man himself to the guilty middle/upper class white, conservative Christians, who remain uneasy about supporting a vulgar and indecent president.
At any rate, the "analysis" here is faulty in all the ways you'd expect. I come from a large Catholic family with many "messy lives." None of us are elites or upper class. No one supports Trump. And Schmitz never accounts for the Evangelical take on Clinton. Was that not "messy?"
Class can serve as a post hoc rationalisation for some Trump supporters ("he's just like us!") Even leaving aside the obvious ways in which the billionaire heir is nothing like them, however, is the fact that their views on past presidents beg serious questions.
Rather insultingly, Schmitz implies that the fact that Trump has children makes him more acceptable to these families than, say, Angela Merkel who does not. Well, how do you explain Trump supporters' take on Obama, then?
But as I said before, this isn't about making sense. This op-ed is about guilt tripping any wavering, middle to upper class Christian conservatives and nothing less.
