Althouse: "I have this odd admiration for Evangelical voters. The pretty much sold out their ideals concerning personal morality..."

March 9, 2020

"I have this odd admiration for Evangelical voters. The pretty much sold out their ideals concerning personal morality..."

"... and supported Trump all the way. In return they received Supreme Courts justices they like, a rollback of LGBT rights, a wide expansion of government support for religion, etc.. It was a deal with the devil but for now it is paying big dividends for them. Most of the progressives I know would be horrified by such a 'sellout.' Over at The Nation all sorts of progressives are saying they will sit out the election rather than vote for Biden. Their personal moral purity counts more than winning. It is the same thing that cost Clinton in 2016. It is my biggest worry about 2020."

That's the highest-rated comment (by far) on a NYT column by David Leonhardt, "The Simple Reason the Left Won’t Stop Losing/Progressives need to care more about winning."

242 comments:

«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 242 of 242

Gk1 said...: It's called "religious conscience". Like say, forcing Quakers and Mennonites to fight in the Vietnam war. Should they have been put in jail for "flouting the law"?

But the good news there is a new sheriff in town. HUZZAH!

https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/department-of-justice-joins-little-sisters-in-asking-supreme-court-to-protect-religious-conscience/; 3/9/20, 5:52 PM
Jim at said...: Like I said, you are free to point out which of the statements at the website are inaccurate.

Click on that link? And get hot-linked to some tentacle pRon?

Nah.; 3/9/20, 6:03 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/9/20, 6:05 PM
Birkel said...: I must apologize.
Freder Frederson's support for NAMBLA was not well-known.
I regret the error.; 3/9/20, 6:09 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: From Freder's link:

"•Service in the Military Services is open to all persons who can meet the high
standards for military service and readiness without special accommodations.

• All Service members and applicants for accession to the Military Services
must be treated with dignity and respect. No person, solely on the basis of his
or her gender identity, will be:

o Denied accession into the Military Services;

o Involuntarily separated or discharged from the Military Services;

o Denied reenlistment or continuation of service in the Military
Services; or

o Subjected to adverse action or mistreatment.

• Except where a provision of policy has granted an exception, transgender
Service members or applicants for accession to the Military Services must be
subject to the same standards as all other persons."

Geeeez! What agony! Trump is a Nazi!; 3/9/20, 6:11 PM
Browndog said...: So...

Inga says all the normal people are having a meltdown.

Turns out the only having a meltdown is a resident lib.

Almost as if everything a lib says is the opposite of the truth.; 3/9/20, 6:12 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: If somewhere in that legalese it says - 'pay for your own damn penis removal', I'd be Ok with that.
But I'm a hater.; 3/9/20, 6:13 PM
Nichevo said...: Freder Frederson said...
Running to mommy? I thought the Irish didn't squeal.

I am not running to mommy. I am trying to make sure that I am not libeled.

Libel statutes are improbably applicable to pseudonymous blogging. If so, Chuck is in line well ahead of you.

I can and do take a lot of shit on this site, but accusing me, or anyone else, of child molestation, is a step too far.

Oh, I don't see why that's such a red line for you. On the continuum from divorce through miscegenation, abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, polyamory, bestiality, pedophilia, coprophilia, necrophilia, whatever...where is your "thus far and no farther?" Where would you ever break from the Party?

All, all I've seen is you of the left, crawling all over yourselves and each other to swear fealty to whoever is the D standard-bearer, trying to advance your candidate without saying anything too mean about the rivals. You hate all the other candidates but you'll back them to the hilt until they quit and back the guy you hate, then you'll love him, because the Party tells you to.

If Joe Biden promised a $400 trillion bill to extract the pituitary glands of teenagers to provide eternal life for Congressmen, your only concerns would be 1) that Republicans don't get the treatments, and 2) minority teenagers aren't disproportionately brain-sucked.

You and Birkel (and also Michael K.) are fucking assholes.

Oh, I don't like you either, but I have no hand in the fight over whether or not you like little boys. In fact I'll throw you a bone: I suppose that you don't, in fact, like little boys. Birkel, Mike K and anyone else are just having you on.

However, if Biden or Sanders liked little boys, you'd accept it because you hate PDT THAT MUCH. I'll own THAT. And you're free to deny it, if you will.; 3/9/20, 6:18 PM
narciso said...: when there was that nambla supporter in the education department, kevin Jennings,; 3/9/20, 6:19 PM
brylun said...: Hey Drago, according to Wikipedia, Bart Stupak is now a lobbyist for a large international law firm, Venable, LLC.

I'm sure he's making huge amounts more money than as a Congressman.

And Jeff Flake, hasn't he been hired by CNN or something?

There is big money in selling out your constituents.; 3/9/20, 6:25 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Most government whores go on to lucrative government whore Lobbying jobs.

Unless you're Joe Biden's family - then you just get easy high paying over-seas jobs in Ukrainian energy.

Tom Daschle(D) - remember him? He is officially a lobbyist now

The former Democratic leader resisted registering under a loophole that now bears his name.; 3/9/20, 6:30 PM
Drago said...: brylun: "There is big money in selling out your constituents."

Paul Ryan is on that list as well.; 3/9/20, 6:31 PM
n.n said...: The heart and soul of the transgender spectrum... Pro-Choice religion is perfectly captured in the rarified bands of their Rainbow symbolism, separate and politically congruent ("=").; 3/9/20, 6:32 PM
Gk1 said...: Someone should do a "Where are they now?" segment on all of the "red" democrats who signed their own death warrant voting for Obamacare? They can do a new installment this season for those democrats who voted for impeachment.

Is this why folks think Nancy Pelosi is such a great Majority leader because she routinely marches her party into the no man's land of the Somme? I guess you have to have really honed political skills to willingly go into the minority every 8 years.; 3/9/20, 6:40 PM
Rick said...: Someone should do a "Where are they now?" segment on all of the "red" democrats who signed their own death warrant voting for Obamacare?

They're all working for Healthcare NGOs or in Academia, and they're all making more than they did as politicians. When you control the government coffers you can afford sinecures for those who advance the cause.; 3/9/20, 6:45 PM
mockturtle said...: Birkel declares: Freder Frederson's support for NAMBLA was not well-known.

But it is now! ;-); 3/9/20, 6:48 PM
Nichevo said...: I should say, Freder, that I have no reason not to expect you to support NAMBLA. It is a legal, legitimate organization (I imagine?), and surely, an open mind like yours doesn't have to agree with an organization's goals in order to support their right to exist and function.

So just because you may or may not be a NAMBLA member,supporter or client, doesn't mean that you do or do not like little boys.; 3/9/20, 6:57 PM
Original Mike said...: I looked at Freder's document and I am hard pressed to see the bigotry. Perhaps I missed it.; 3/9/20, 7:10 PM
wbfjrr2 said...: I’d say the poster Althouse quoted is an imbecile.

Number 1 issue for evangelicals is sanctity of life vs abortion post birth by “progressives. Ant Trump is pro life.

I also haven’t seen any rollback of lgbtq rights under Trump, the racist, anti-Semite, xenophobic Hitler. If he were as bad as the left says, homosexuals would be dead now, as the real Hitler decreed.

We live in the real world, progressives invent their own fantasy world.; 3/9/20, 7:15 PM
Phil 314 said...: I’m an Evangelical. In ‘16 I voted for neither. BUT from an evangelical perspective:

-abortion is important and now we have federal judges and Supreme Court judges won’t invent Constitutional rationale for abortion rights on a federal level.
-churches should have the ability to hire people who hold to the church’s beliefs
- church’s who provide public, non-sectarian services should not be “discriminated against” because they are a church.

And finally how many evangelicals heard this and thought “this is what they REALLY believe”

-asked by CNN's Don Lemon if he thought "religious institutions like colleges, churches, charities, should they lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage?”
"Yes," O'Rourke replied, adding that "there can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us."

And finally evangelicals felt they shouldn’t be forced to “bake that cake!”; 3/9/20, 7:26 PM
Original Mike said...: It is a good faith question. What is the specific roll-back of LGBT rights?; 3/9/20, 7:28 PM
n.n said...: forced to “bake that cake!”

Endorsement, not service.; 3/9/20, 8:02 PM
Birkel said...: So much stupid was packed into such a little man.
Freder Frederson is amazing.

When did you say you are tabling for NAMBLA?; 3/9/20, 8:14 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: As usual, none of you Christians in Name Only (Chrinos?) has a clue what you're talking about. Everyone knew George W. Bush ran on "restoring honor and dignity" to the White House or whatever. Evangelicals did in the past have and exercised a veto power on the Republican with the loosest personal ethics, so this is different.; 3/9/20, 8:18 PM
FullMoon said...: It is illustrative that my FB feed is choked with bay area friends afraid to leave their homes and blaming the Orange Bad Man for not stopping the coronavirus by (fill in the blank) yet downtown streets are caked with feces, dropped needles and used latex gloves and general all around trash.

Oh, sure, but you won't find any plastic straws cluttering up the landscape, so there is that.; 3/9/20, 8:38 PM
Achilles said...: Freder Frederson said...
Attacking the Little Sister's of the Poor in court is a badge of honor to them.

So bringing a lawsuit against an organization that is flouting the law is attacking them?

The lawsuit was brought by the administration that wrote the law specifically to force Little sisters of the Poor to pay for abortions.

And the point is the Trump administration has done nothing like this the LGBQXYZ people.

Not one law. Not one administrative action. Not one lawsuit. Nothing.

But a member of NAMBLA wouldn't understand the difference.; 3/9/20, 8:39 PM
Michael K said...: Ritmo making no sense, as usual; 3/9/20, 8:43 PM
I Callahan said...: I suspect that certain sub-groups among current Trump supporters will manage to get all het up for the next Romney the GOPe throws up, should the GOPe ever manage to get its act together as l'Age Trump recedes in the rear-view mirror.

I don’t think it’ll be as many as you might think. I know I won’t be part of that group. I’ll stay home and never vote GOP again if the standard bearer is ever another Romney, Kasich or McCain again.; 3/9/20, 8:47 PM
mockturtle said...: Progs are digging themselves into a very deep hole from which they are unlikely to extricate themselves.; 3/9/20, 9:10 PM
Paul Snively said...: Michael McNeil: And remember what Paul said: I'm the worst sinner of them all.

Well, at least I've got that going for me.; 3/9/20, 9:41 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: No one knows how to avoid making sense as much as Michael K. He's babbled away at least a dozen senile, comatose comments on this thread just today.

I see that not working really suits you, Old Grand Pappy Bastard Boy.; 3/9/20, 9:47 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: The people that believe that Trump and Putin make secret agreements when out of the public eye accuse the Trump administration of being paranoid (see, for example, Krugman's latest column, https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2020/03/07/Paul-Krugman-Paranoid-politics-goes-viral/stories/202003070003).
These people believe that their paranoia is based on objective evidence.; 3/9/20, 11:28 PM
Chuck said...: Birkel said...
Freder Frederson is indignant that we mock his well-known NAMBLA support?

What a lot of Trumpist thugs you entertain on your blog's comments pages, Athouse. If there were but a few of these kinds of things, and you condemned them, I'd give you a pass. But no; you let these things go as a matter of course. And you've got Meade more or less encouraging them if the offending comments/commenters are supportive of Trump.

Just disgraceful.; 3/10/20, 8:00 AM
TrespassersW said...: Chuck said...
What a lot of Trumpist thugs you entertain on your blog's comments pages, Athouse. If there were but a few of these kinds of things, and you condemned them, I'd give you a pass. But no; you let these things go as a matter of course. And you've got Meade more or less encouraging them if the offending comments/commenters are supportive of Trump.

Just disgraceful.

Nobody makes you come here.

Or do they?; 3/10/20, 8:35 AM
Silly Calabrese said...: Be less moral! An evergreen ideal for lefties.; 3/10/20, 9:32 AM
Silly Calabrese said...: 'What a lot of Trumpist thugs you entertain on your blog's comments pages, Athouse. If there were but a few of these kinds of things, and you condemned them, I'd give you a pass. But no; you let these things go as a matter of course. And you've got Meade more or less encouraging them if the offending comments/commenters are supportive of Trump.

Just disgraceful.'

Rude, misogynist, bullying and peremptory. What a nice man Chuck must be.; 3/10/20, 9:37 AM
pdn said...: Inga: "Everyday, on every thread we hear “Leftists this and leftists that and how how terrible and bad they are”, do you folks really think that no one has the right to criticize the right?"

Yes, on every thread the left is criticized --- but in every published article or opinion piece evangelicals, trump voters, conservatives are not just criticized but slandered as racist, homophobic, bigoted Nazi's who are morally bereft of any consideration. There is published slander that they are neanderthal, uneducated, deplorables. The only outlet to push back is in the "threads". Even Trump can only really push back on twitter - the published articles and opinion pieces are about 98% negative Trump.

Think about that.; 3/10/20, 2:19 PM
Greg the class traitor said...: I've yet to see anyone take on head on the point that seems most obvious to me:

Which is that the leftists here are lying.

Bill Clinton was a "feminist President". He used women and then tossed them away like Kleenex, but that was ok, because he appointed abortion supporters to the Supreme Court.

Ted Kennedy? Even worse, but he was a "liberal lion", because he voted the Left way on issues.

As far as we can tell, Trump isn't getting blow jobs from interns in the Oval Office. He isn't creating waitress sandwiches on boats. He isn't going around pissing on all of Christianity in private.

Has he had affairs in the past? Why yes, he has. but, so far as we can tell, he isn't doing so now.

Which puts him and his supporters head and shoulders above the Democrats.

And Trump's actually doing what he told his voters he'd do. Including getting Mexico to "pay for the wall" (the current "wall" is the entire country of Mexico, blocking those Central American invaders, blocking them at their southern border).; 3/10/20, 8:28 PM
Greg the class traitor said...: What's happening on the Democrat side is not "we won't vote for you because you're scum who violate our values" (1: Democrat voters don't HAVE any values, just a lust for power. 2: See Bill Clinton & Ted Kennedy).

What's happening is "progressive" voters are saying "you don't support enough of what we want for us to be willing to vote for you."

And that's a perfectly reasonable position to take; 3/10/20, 8:32 PM
Rusty said...: "No, what was on that form was that they were a religious organization and had a religious objection to providing contraception."
Then you understand why they couldn't sign it.; 3/10/20, 9:01 PM
Greg the class traitor said...: Inga: "Everyday, on every thread we hear “Leftists this and leftists that and how how terrible and bad they are”, do you folks really think that no one has the right to criticize the right?"

Of course you can criticize us.

Then we can point out that your criticism is utter garbage, that you do worse all the time and celebrate it, and that as such you should properly be ignored.

Free speech, it's for everyone; 3/11/20, 9:24 AM
Greg the class traitor said...: Freder Frederson lied...
No, what was on that form was that they were a religious organization and had a religious objection to providing contraception.

No. What was on the form was a statement that they (the religious organization) wanted the Insurance company (that they were paying) to provide "coverage" that violated their moral principles.

here's a very simple and straightforward concept, Freder. I realize you are a bit slow, but with effort even you can understand this:

If you want a benefit that a certain employer won't provide, your recourse is to find a different employer, one that will provide it.

Using the power of the gov't to force the employer to provide that benefit is NOT a legitimate option.; 3/11/20, 9:29 AM