Posted on 03/07/2016 8:50:19 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Donald Trump does not have a the support of most evangelical voters. It's a myth that falls flat on its face when one looks at Super Tuesday exit polls in the Southern states, a political scientist concluded.
Trump's message is clear, wrote Charles Krauthammer, a Washington Post columnist, describing the Republican presidential frontrunner and billionaire businessman thus: "I may not be one of you. I can't recite or even correctly cite Scripture. But I will patrol the borders of Christendom on your behalf. After all, who do you want out there — a choir boy or a tough guy with a loaded gun and a kick-ass demeanor?"
Krauthammer then goes on to conclude, "Evangelicals answered resoundingly. They went for Trump in a rout."
However, Darren Patrick Guerra, an associate professor of Political Science at Biola University, counters this proposition, using exit polls.
Trump may have carried a plurality of evangelical voters in some states, but polls also show that, on average, 64 percent of evangelicals in all southern states voted for someone other than Trump, Guerra points out in an article in First Things, adding that a majority, 51 percent, voted collectively for either Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida or Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas, and not Trump.
We must note, he continues, that we're only talking about Republican primaries, while many evangelicals are also Democrats or Independents.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Saturday, Rubio said, "If you had told me a year ago that the front-runner at this stage in the Republican campaign would be a supporter of Planned Parenthood, who says he doesn't stand with Israel, who has a long record of supporting government-sponsored health care, I would say, on what planet would that be the Republican front-runner? But it's happened. And I think we have to ask ourselves why we allowed that to happen."
In the exit polls after Super Tuesday, voters in all the southern states, except Oklahoma, were asked, "How much does it matter to you that a candidate shares your religious beliefs?"
Cruz beat Trump in this category by an average of 4 points among those who responded "a great deal," writes Guerra, adding that on average, a majority, 55 percent, of voters who answered "a great deal" voted for either Cruz or Rubio.
Trump, of course, had better support among those who said the religious views of the candidate mattered only "somewhat." and his highest support came from those who said religion did not matter at all. Even in the "somewhat" category, 59 percent did not vote for Trump.
Another question that was asked is, "which candidate qualities mattered most in deciding how you voted today?" Trump is off the charts among voters who said their main concern is "telling it like it is," Guerra writes. Trump received support in some cases up to 80 percent of those voters. But an average of only 13 percent of the voters who said that "shared values" mattered most for them backed Trump. Cruz, on the other hand, averaged 41 percent of "values voters."
This suggests "serious evangelicals" aren't supporting Trump, Guerra concluded.
Cruz appeared on CBS's "Face The Nation" on Saturday after winning the Kansas and Maine caucuses, and said media can expose Trump but they'll do that only later.
"I can't tell you how many media outlets I hear have this great exposé on Donald, on different aspects of his business dealings, or his past, but they said, you know what, we're going to hold it to June or July. We're not going to run it now," he said.
Many have accused the country's liberal media of ignoring Trump's alleged business scandals and past support for liberal policy positions.
Rubio earlier said on CBS News, "If any other candidate in this race had his record, there would be nonstop reporting on it. But, unfortunately, he is being pumped up because many the in the media with a bias know he'll be easy to beat in the general election."
Who IS this author?
The article completely (and probably intentionally) misses the point. Evangelicals were supposed to be Cruz’s base in the South, and instead more went for Trump than Cruz. Trump didn’t have to win a majority of evangelicals to deflate Cruz’s chances in the South.
He doesn’t have a majority of anybody.......
...................... he just has a great many of everybody.
RE: Who IS this author?
It just say on the webpage:
Christian Post Contributor
However, the article is not the author’s opinion if you read it. He REFERS to the opinion of others. So the critique should be address towards those he refers to.
“Who IS this author?”
I imagine that from the name, he’s just one of those “Chistian Indians!” You know Christianity is so prevalent in India these days. I mean even cows are sacred there.
BTTT!
There sure have been a lot of exit polls in southern states supporting this “myth”.
So what?
NO one that I’m aware of ever said he had a “majority.”
He has a “plurality” but more evangelical support than any other candidate, including Cruz.
And all the democrats voting for Trump now will switch back to democrat in the general election. A Trump nomination equals Hillary coughing her way into the Oval Office.
Is this a straw-man?
I wouldn’t vote for Cruz if he was candidating at my church either.
Someone desperate had a deadline, and came up with this meshugas.
“If you had told me a year ago that the front-runner at this stage in the Republican campaign would be a supporter of Planned Parenthood, who says he doesn’t stand with Israel, who has a long record of supporting government-sponsored health care, I would say, on what planet would that be the Republican front-runner?”
______________
This the kind of prevarication and distortion to which I strenuously object and I have heard these types of misstatements from the GOP-e/Rubio and Cruz campaigns.
#1) Trump has said he would support Federal funding for Planned Parenthood IF and ONLY IF THEY STOPPED PERFORMING ABORTIONS. BOTH Cruz and Rubio participated in approving the current Federal budget which FULLY SUPPORTS Federal FUNDING Planned Parenthood w/o reservation.
#2) Trump has been a strong supporter of Israel. He has stated he would attempt to remain neutral in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and has qualified that statement that if the PA did not participate in these negotiations in an honest and truthful manner he would, of course, side w/Israel. That is a fair and logical position/starting point if one is to act as an fair and objective ombudsman between these two extremely divided and contentious parties.
#3) Trump wants to replace Obamacare w/a private system that allows and encourages, rather than restricts, competition across the various state borders; which is a logical and worthy concept if one is trying to cut costs to the consumer. Trump has stated that he does want some type of “safety net” for the small percentage of individuals who truly cannot obtain health insurance due to pre-existing conditions. That is the only part of his proposed health care policy that would require some type of Federal coordination and support.
From Biola University. A well known Evangelical University in La Mirada, Ca.
Daughter graduated from Biola 28 years ago.
Actually, that is a lie. Rubio missed the vote; Cruz voted against it.
"The Florida Republican, who is running for president, was the only 2016 contender to miss the vote, which is the Senate's final vote of the year.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), three other presidential candidates, all voted against the the legislation."
Read more: http://therightscoop.com/breaking-senate-passes-omnibus-spending-bill/#ixzz42EwHD8cl
“Another person wanting a second ‘Jimmy Carter’. “
Yeah, that devout Christian Jimmy Carter worked out so well for us......: )
“meshugas”!
Haven’t heard that word since I last watched “Minority of One”, with Roz Russell, in which I first heard it and learned what it meant! How fun!
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