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MacWilliams sampled 1,800 registered U.S. voters from across the political spectrum in an attempt to understand Trump’s popularity.

“I found that education, income, gender, age, ideology and religiosity had no significant bearing on a Republican voter’s preferred candidate,” he said. “Only two of the variables I looked at were statistically significant: authoritarianism, followed by fear of terrorism, though the former was far more significant than the latter.”

Authoritarians, a group studied by social scientists for decades, inclined sharply toward Trump.

MacWilliams summarized what it means to be authoritarian:

IN A WORLD OVERRUN BY BRIGANDS AND TERRORISTS, AUTHORITARIAN CHRISTIANS PREFER A BAN-BAR-AND-BOMB PRESIDENT, EVEN IF HE’S A SELF-PROMOTING HEATHEN.

“Authoritarians obey. They rally to and follow strong leaders. And they respond aggressively to outsiders, especially when they feel threatened.”

Statistically, MacWilliams found, among those likely to vote in the Republican primary, 49 percent ranked high on the authoritarian scale. That’s more than twice as many as among Democratic voters.......

In the Christian vernacular, it’s a spiritual contest between “the Law” (capital L) and “Grace” (capital G).

Christians who lean toward the Law are all about God’s authority, the Bible’s authority, church leaders’ authority, men’s authority, civil authority. They’re the church’s cops and prosecuting attorneys.

They serve a stern God who lectures dryly from above, brooks no dissent and expects them to flog the daylights out of the dense and disobedient.

They thrive on order. They insist on doing things, whatever those things might be, the way they’ve always been done, whether or not that happens to make sense anymore, just because that’s the way they’ve always done them.

They operate largely from their own fear: fear of God’s wrath, fear of being wrong, fear of outsiders, fear of the public’s jeers.

Compared with them, Grace people, of whom I am happily one, are practically God’s do-gooder public defenders — or God’s loosey-goosey flower-children. (Although I tend toward khakis and a button-down myself.)

Grace people serve a God who is unimaginably merciful, infinitely liberating and surprisingly understanding of every kind of birdbrain.

CAA Flagship wrote: This guy took the sampling and steered it right into the river of religion. I wonder how long it took for him to find something that he could "use" to support his beliefs.

CAA Flagship wrote: This guy took the sampling and steered it right into the river of religion. I wonder how long it took for him to find something that he could "use" to support his beliefs.

kalm wrote:

CAA Flagship wrote: This guy took the sampling and steered it right into the river of religion. I wonder how long it took for him to find something that he could "use" to support his beliefs.

Are you a law type or a grace type?

CAA Flagship wrote:

kalm wrote:
Are you a law type or a grace type?

Law. Why would you not want to live in a land of order?

CAA Flagship wrote: This guy took the sampling and steered it right into the river of religion. I wonder how long it took for him to find something that he could "use" to support his beliefs.

Chizzang wrote:

CAA Flagship wrote: Law. Why would you not want to live in a land of order?

And yet - you wonder how long it took him to get the information that supports that perspective...
You do cheer me up Flaggy

JohnStOnge wrote:As I said, there is a thread of similarity between the Trump phenomenon and the Hitler phenomenon. I'm talking about independent of the Christianity subtleties. I'm talking about the general authoritarianism thing.

Make Germany Great Again!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnpTWKKWQ1o[/youtube]

CID1990 wrote:I love these "I have you little people all figured out" articles

It's the attitude in this article that has people going for Trump

kalm wrote:

CID1990 wrote:I love these "I have you little people all figured out" articles

It's the attitude in this article that has people going for Trump

Yeah! Intellectualism, nuance, and grace are for pussies!

(and liberals!)

kalm wrote:

CID1990 wrote:I love these "I have you little people all figured out" articles

It's the attitude in this article that has people going for Trump

Yeah! Intellectualism, nuance, and grace are for pussies and that Black chick who defended her racist rant by saying she will be more nuanced next time!

(and liberals!)

Cluck U wrote:

kalm wrote:
Yeah! Intellectualism, nuance, and grace are for pussies and that Black chick who defended her racist rant by saying she will be more nuanced next time, and white wine and sailing!

(and liberals!)

FIFY

kalm wrote:

Cluck U wrote:
FIFY

andy7171 wrote:

JohnStOnge wrote:As I said, there is a thread of similarity between the Trump phenomenon and the Hitler phenomenon. I'm talking about independent of the Christianity subtleties. I'm talking about the general authoritarianism thing.

Make Germany Great Again!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnpTWKKWQ1o[/youtube]

JFC. Trump is popular because he isn't a mealy mouthed politician. And he calls them out for what they are. Nothing more nothing less. He ain't starting a **** world war. We're already in one.