I commented on it, and I want to expand my comment here:As always, I learned many things reading @ebruenig’s exploration of why most Texas evangelicals back Trump so fiercely. This paragraph stood out. https://t.co/htyvqqC6ka pic.twitter.com/sUV4WIqx3L— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 18, 2019
The gist of Bruenig's paragraph is many evangelicals see Trump as their defender against the evils besieging them.
I'm reminded of the Westerns which were popular in my youth. One of the themes was epitomized in the movie Shane. A similar theme was in the TV series Have Gun, Will Travel.
The plot of Shane, and many of HGWT's plots, have townspeople who are civilizing the West but whose very virtues render them helpless and inept in dealing with the pure evil of gunslingers (at one time Indians, but by my adolescence they were white). They need a gunslinger of their own, someone with a pure heart (or at least a heart better than those of his opponents) but clouded past, to defend them and defeat evil. The opponents are numerous and wily, not above stooping to the lowest of tricks and hurting the innocent.
I can't see Trump as either Ladd or Boone, the stars of the shows, but Drezner/Bruenig do help me to understand some evangelicals.
No comments:
Post a Comment