Tho votes were still being counted Tues afternoon & the Modi-led #BJP could still form the govt, it was projected to fall short of its showing in 2014, when #Modi swept to #power on a wave of national #anger over #corruption, or 2019, when buoyed by #nationalist sentiment over a border clash w/ #Pakistan. Such a result would be rare for the politician who has never failed to secure a majority in a 23+yr political career & cultivates an image as a #populist#strongman & a serial winner. #India
Peter Wehner explains to Tim Miller why white evangelicals continue to be red hot for Donald Trump's return to the White House:
"The grievances and resentments and anger are just pulsating on the American right and within evangelical circles. People felt dishonored and disrespected."
"And I think when Donald Trump came along he gave voice to that anger and he said, you know, in 2024, too, 'I'm your vengeance. I'm your retribution.' And that I think emotionally resonated with a lot of people. They're really, really angry. There's a lot of hate out there and they feel like this guy is going to do to them what deserves to be done to them."
Who has "dishonored and disrespected" white evangelicals? When have they been dishonored and disrepected?
When they have informed us that "God" gave this nation into their hands, that they are to control it and the rest of us, and they were told that they are inventing a mythology about the founding of the nation and no religion has the right to dictate laws in a pluralistic secular democracy, were they being disrespected?
Their claims about owning the nation because "God" gave it to them are invalid on the face of it. Anyone, any group, pressing such a claim should be told, in a pluralistic, secular democracy that it's an invalid claim.
This is not disrespect. It's speaking truth.
So the grievances and resentment and anger and hate white evangelicals feel, which make them choose Trump, are unwarranted and unmerited responses.
Above and beyond that, they are deeply inconsistent with claims that one follows Jesus. To brand Christian faith in the US with those words – grievances, resentment, anger, hate — how shameful. How tragic. What a shocking betrayal of the Christian gospels.
And for Donald Trump?!
Perhaps Trump is showing us who white evangelicals have been for a very long time, and what they have been about for a very long time.
Joshua Russell had pleaded guilty to a fed charge of making an interstate #threat against #Hobbs, a Dem who was AZ’s chief #elections officer in 2022 & is now the state’s gov.
…In a doc written by Russell & submitted to the court, Russell described his situation at the time he made the #threats, saying he was depressed & angry & that his drug use fueled his isolation.
“All I did was hide in bed all day scrolling thru #socialmedia & #political forums – looking at blogs or anything that could serve as an outlet for my pent up #anger…,” Russell wrote.
Russell also wrote an apology letter to #Hobbs, saying #socialmedia & news stories had become another #addiction for him, but has since taken courses on #anger management & substance abuse.
“I am truly sorry for my actions. I’m not a violent man, I am a broken man. No one should be the target of such disrespectful behavior,”Russell told Hobbs in the letter.