It is impossible to understand the current state of the GOP without understanding white evangelicalism.

Yet how many political reporters have that understanding?
"white evangelical Protestants are the only religious group in which a majority (57%) express a preference for a mostly Christian country." -- @PRRIpoll American Values Survey, out today.
On immigration (via @PRRIpoll)
On Islam:

"White evangelical Protestants (75%) are the most likely to agree with the idea that the values of Islam are at odds with American values and ways of life."

prri.org/research/compe…
On Trump (obviously):

"Nearly half of white evangelical Protestants (49%) say that they have become more likely to think of themselves as Republicans over the past five years."

prri.org/research/compe…
"A majority of white evangelical Protestants (60%) and around four in ten white Catholics (40%) and white mainline (non-evangelical) Protestants (37%) believe that the election was stolen from Trump."
On QAnon:

"White evangelical Protestants are most likely to be QAnon believers (23%), followed closely by non-Christian religious Americans (21%) and other Christians (19%)."
On violence:

"White evangelical Protestants (26%) are the religious group most likely to agree that true American patriots might have to resort to violence in order to save our country... The belief that violence could be an option is stronger among those ...
who support Trump "and view changing culture as a threat. Among those who think the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, 39% agree that true American patriots might have to resort to violence in order to save our country."

prri.org/research/compe…
"Just one in five white evangelicals say the Republican Party has been taken over by racists (19%)."

prri.org/research/compe…
Of course covering white evangelicalism and the GOP takes more than understanding these trends. It takes understanding the white evangelical world, which takes a lot of time, immersion, and commitment.

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More from @sarahposner

1 Nov
"By holding that laws that do not mention or target religion may still violate people’s religious rights in certain cases" SCOTUS has sent "message to vaccine resisters: You can challenge the constitutionality of any denial of a request for a religious exemption.
In response, vaccine resisters have kept litigation flowing."

Crucial piece by @weparmet

nytimes.com/2021/10/31/opi…
"More worrisome, a decision by the Supreme Court that rejects its own precedent on vaccine mandates and ignores the distinctions between medical exemptions and religious exemptions will reverberate far beyond the Covid-19 pandemic."
Read 4 tweets
31 Oct
New @washingtonpost investigation:

"Trump was the driving force at every turn as he orchestrated what would become an attempted political coup in the months leading up to Jan. 6, calling his supporters to Washington, encouraging the mob ..."

washingtonpost.com/politics/inter…
"At the Pentagon, leaders had acute fears about widespread violence, and some feared Trump could misuse the National Guard to remain in power, new accounts reveal."

washingtonpost.com/politics/inter…
Reading this new reporting, and it's a miracle there wasn't a mass casualty event.
Read 13 tweets
30 Oct
The news coverage of the "Let's Go Brandon" chant being repeated by a Southwest Airlines pilot brings to mind other Trumpian things that are permeating regular life.
Such as: last night I went to a high school football game in deep blue Montgomery County, Maryland.

Like is (sadly) typical at high school sports events, parents were screaming at the referees, complaining about literally every call.
(I was sitting in the section of the team that was ahead. It was those parents who were screaming. Not all the parents. But some.)
Read 4 tweets
27 Oct
Regarding the GOP lawyer who, as a high school senior in AP English was triggered by Beloved:

White parents claiming books by black authors made them nervous was one of the early organizing events of the religious right, in Kanawha County, WV, in the early 1970s.
E.g., a parent tried to ban Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice as an optional reading in an AP class.

Parents claimed poems by Langston Hughes were "anti-Christian."

Work by James Baldwin was called "anti-white."

Some parents were egged on by the Heritage Foundation.
Despite threats, fires, and bombings, and visits from the Klan, the school district adopted most of the curriculum, with one concession:
Read 5 tweets
8 Oct
*Very* important reporting from @nytpolitics on Mike Farris's role in drafting lawsuits eventually brought by Republican AGs to overturn election results.

A thread: 1/x

Christian Conservative Lawyer Had Secretive Role in Bid to Block Election Result nytimes.com/2021/10/07/us/…
Farris is the president/CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, although he claims here that this work was separate from his role at ADF. Not often you see the president of a huge non-profit with a budget in the tens of millions moonlighting on an issue the non-profit can't touch. 2/x
ADF saw its power and influence grow in multiple ways during Trump's presidency. It had serious influence over policy, its lawyers were appointed to key roles in admin., and Trump's nominees to federal judiciary not only were likeminded, but had real relationships with ADF. 3/x
Read 15 tweets
11 Aug
This is such an important, crucial story that I fear is getting lost amid... everything.

Election workers are fearing for their lives, owing to the GOP fomenting of "fraud" conspiracy theories.

washingtonpost.com/politics/elect…
This is of a piece, along with the menacing of public health officials by people unhinged by the prospect of wearing a piece of cloth on their face to protect themselves and others from a deadly virus.
Read 11 tweets

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