The ballroom of the Washington Hilton hotel in the US capital assembled the vast majority of Republican Party primary candidates for the 2024 presidential election over the course of two days. It is the first time Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Tim Scott , Asa Hutchinson, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, Francis Suárez and Larry Elder competed as contestants at the same event. They attended the annual meeting of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, an influential evangelical group themed “Path to Majority.”
The session began on Friday with bilingual religious songs, in English and Spanish, before the national anthem was even sung. After the oath of flag and prayers from a minister, the vast majority of Republican candidates marched in a day of politics and religion. Donald Trump’s main rivals seek to expose his moral values and are certainly hoping that powerful evangelical voters will see the contrast with the former president and his scandals.
However, Trump remains the king: his mention on Friday was enough to elicit the greatest applause from those present. Instead, Chris Christie, the only one who dared openly criticize him, only got boos. “I’m running because you let us down,” Christie said. “He let us down because he is not willing to take responsibility for his mistakes, his shortcomings and his actions. This isn’t leadership. This is a leadership failure. And you can boo all you want, but that’s it,” he added. A woman near the stage yelled, “We want Trump,” and several others began, “Trump! Trump! Trump!”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie this Friday during the Faith and Freedom act. Jose Luis Magana (AP)
The former president was reserved for the outstanding intervention of the “Patriot Gala” with which the congress ended this Saturday. Trump enjoyed it. For more than an hour he made those present laugh, applaud, stand up and speak his name, despite his style, peculiar to an evangelical audience. “One Saturday night and we’re here for religion,” he joked, presenting himself as his great ally: “No president has fought for Christians as much as I have,” he said. And while those present kept shouting his name (“We want Trump!”), he said, “Did you treat all the candidates like that?” Not really, I saw one being booed.
That someone with the morals – or lack thereof – of Donald Trump’s is the darling of evangelical Christians is one of the seeming paradoxes of American politics. The evangelical vote was already decisive for his entry into the White House in the 2016 presidential election. The former president is forgiven for almost everything. His evangelical followers admit that he pokes fun at his rivals (even calling DeSantis a prude), that he has been convicted of abuse, that he bullies and mistreats women, that he has been accused of crimes… “Every accusation to me is like a badge.” Courage,” he said this Saturday, presenting himself as a martyr: “I’m responsible for you.” “I’m the only one he credits and improves his numbers to [en las encuestas]” added.
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Kristin Kobes du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne. How white evangelicals corrupted a faith and divided a nation, he examined the 2016 phenomenon. “How could conservatives with ‘family values’ support a man who violated every single principle they claimed to adhere to? he wonders. According to her, this support was “not a deviation”. “Rather, it was the culmination of the combative masculinity of evangelicalism, an ideology that enshrines patriarchal authority and condones ruthless displays of power,” he writes.
“In 2016, many observers were stunned by evangelicals’ apparent betrayal of their own values. “In reality, evangelicals did not vote despite their beliefs, but rather spurred on by them,” explains Kobes du Mez in his book, which draws a parallel between Trump and actor John Wayne, “an icon of American masculinity for generations of conservatives.” ‘ and over time became an ‘icon of Christian masculinity’ with his ‘rudeness and boastfulness’.
John Wayne “did not live a moral life by the standards of traditional Christian virtues,” but “to many evangelicals he symbolized a different set of virtues, a nostalgic nostalgia for a ‘Christian America,’ a return to ‘traditional’ gender roles.” Affirmation of a Patriarchal (White) Society”. “Like Wayne, the heroes who best embodied combative Christian masculinity were relieved of the responsibility of clinging to traditional Christian virtues,” he writes. “For many evangelicals, these warrior heroes would ultimately define not Christian manhood but Christianity itself,” he concludes.
Trump spoke for more than an hour and a half this Saturday, painting an apocalyptic picture of the United States, lashing out at President Joe Biden and “the crazy radical left,” and reaffirming his alleged commitment to Christian principles and promising simple solutions to complex problems. “Together we are warriors in a just crusade to stop arsonists, atheists, globalists and Marxists,” he said.
He has spent fifteen minutes defending himself against the latest allegation, making misleading arguments that he has the right to possess the secret documents at his villa in Mar-a-Lago that he is accused of illegally storing. Although he flooded the audience with lies, manipulations and half-truths that presented almost a parallel world, he enchanted the audience with his dialectic magic and received by far the biggest applause at the congress.
Ralph Reed, founder and president of Faith and Liberty, seemed willing to justify himself. “They accuse us of paying homage to the personality of the former president. But this is the truth about us, what drives us and why we are here today and involved in the civic field. We are part of a cult of a single personality. There’s only one person we love. It is the person of Jesus Christ,” he said at the beginning of the conference. And, looking at all the candidates he has been able to attract to his Congress, he added: “While we welcome you and we desperately want change in our country, we are not looking for a savior because we already have one.” I want to that we begin this conference with a prayer to this Savior.”
Participants at the Faith and Freedom event in Washington will sing the national anthem to open Friday’s session. In the foreground at right is Ralph Reed, President of the organization. Jose Luis Magana (AP)
The speeches are inscribed in the current of Christian nationalism, which upholds the belief that the United States is God’s chosen nation, that politics and religion should not be separated, and that the Bible is not only supreme authority on personal life, but also the best instruction manual for governing. Almost all of the candidates made creeds, and even the non-Christian billionaire of Indian descent, Vivek Ramaswamy, affirmed at least the first of his premises that “God is real.”
Ron DeSantis, Trump’s main rival in the primary, quoted God more than half a dozen times, defended a society where rights come from God, not the government, and launched the war on the “cultural Marxism” that he believes is the world dominates country. He reiterated his messages against transgender people, against Disney, against the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, for banning books in schools he sees as sexualized children, and for the “culture of life,” alluding to the recent anti-abortion law that was signed in Florida.
The date of the convention coincided with the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling repealing abortion as a constitutional right nationwide and sending the relevant rule to the states. The anniversary was a reason to celebrate for all participants. “Thank God for the verdict,” said Senator Tim Scott, a very religious man. “I’m literally a product of the pro-life movement because my parents met at a pro-life march,” said Miami Mayor Francis Suárez, one of the latest to jump on the primary train . “Faith in Jesus Christ is the center of my life,” he added.
Former Vice President Mike Pence during his speech. SHAWN THEW (EFE)
Mike Pence, who was vice president under Trump, found abortion a way to distance himself from Trump among evangelical voters. “Every Republican presidential candidate should support banning abortions at 15 weeks as a national minimum standard,” he said Friday. In Spain, the term law allows free abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. “We must not rest and we must not give up until we have restored the sanctity of life to the heart of US legislation in every state of this country,” he added.
Without mentioning Trump but referring to him, the former vice president cautioned against those who argue that “nothing should be done at the federal level” since the Supreme Court has returned the abortion issue to the states. “Others will say that continuing to fight for life could lead to too strict state legislation. Some have even gone so far as to have Roe v. Blame Wade for it [la sentencia que establecía el derecho al aborto] of electoral losses,” he added.
The Democrats, led by Joe Biden, are using abortion in their campaigns, and Trump believes it is hurting them. “It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations,” the former president wrote on his social network Truth in January, partially justifying the Republican Party’s poor voting results in the November 2022 election. “It was the ‘abortion issue,’ which has been mishandled by many Republicans, particularly those who have been adamant that there are no exceptions, even for rape, incest or the life of the mother, and has lost many voters,” he added .
While Trump’s position is not the position evangelical voters prefer, remember that it was he who appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court that made possible the ruling that overturned abortion rights. The former president has taken it upon himself to be remembered forever and has proclaimed himself the “most life-loving” president in the history of the United States. Evangelical Christian voters continue to place their trust in him.
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie this Friday during the Faith and Freedom act. Jose Luis Magana (AP)
Participants at the Faith and Freedom event in Washington will sing the national anthem to open Friday’s session. In the foreground at right is Ralph Reed, President of the organization. Jose Luis Magana (AP)
Former Vice President Mike Pence during his speech. SHAWN THEW (EFE)