How do we reconcile the Rust Belt with the Bible Belt?
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  How do we reconcile the Rust Belt with the Bible Belt?
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Author Topic: How do we reconcile the Rust Belt with the Bible Belt?  (Read 856 times)
WindowPhil
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« on: June 12, 2021, 09:32:16 AM »

Alternative title 1: How do we make sense of the Rust Belt, MAGA, “Bomb the s**t outta them.”, and the Bible Belt?

Alternative Title 2: "How religious is the average Rust Belt MAGA stereotype voter?"

The current narrative is that there's an awakening of MAGA types in conservative politics, how those MAGA types are associated with the rust belt, Ohio is trending red. Etc. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

You had Trump run in 2016 where he said he would “Bomb the s**t outta them.” (them referring to ISIS) and received massive cheers. You also had Trump win 81% of white evangelicals in that same year.

A large association the GOP has is that it's the party of Conservative Christians. But these Rust Belters aren't very Conservative Christian to my knowledge. I've seen some people in Minnesota with signs in their yard that said "Trump 2020: No More Bulls**t" (except there were no asterisks). I couldn't imagine Jerry Falwell or someone from rural Alabama having a sign in their front yard that has an uncensored swear word on it.

Looking at this whole thing makes many questions come to mind for me.
 
*How religious is the typical MAGA rust belt stereotype?

*Is the Rust Belt trending evangelical and could it become a second bible belt?

*Could the great lakes become the new bible belt if the south becomes more diverse and less fundamentalist and shifts Dem like what happened with Georgia in 2020?

*Will the Republican party become like how the Democrats were, with a distinct "Northern Trump Wing" that doesn't attend church much and swears with pride and a "Southern Falwell Wing" that's attached to the Christian right?

I suppose my big question though, is "What's going on, and where are we heading?". Because these appear to be two polar opposite groups of people making an alliance, and I want to know what the deal is and how that alliance would work if that's what's happening. Or if it's not happening, what is actually happening.
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Agonized-Statism
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« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2021, 01:15:13 PM »
« Edited: June 12, 2021, 01:23:07 PM by Antarctic-Statism »

You're overthinking this. Simply, religiosity will decline in the GOP as it has been nationwide, and the religious right will keep shrinking into a small part of a broader alliance of traditionalists. If the millennial and gen z right-wing is any indication, "maintaining white civilization" (however they choose to phrase it) will be the primary ethos of conservatives, with "maintaining a Christian nation" taking a backseat. The Bible Belt itself will shrink with Sun Belt growth and nothing will replace it as the Republicans' center of gravity shifts northward.

This, of course, is barring some unforeseen religious revival, which I find unlikely unless people's existential security is threatened in a big way (much bigger than COVID) and we're knocked back to a subsistence economy. Don't get me wrong, spirituality will always be around, but so long as we're not threatened with violence for questioning conventional wisdom it'll be hard for religious institutions to hold their grip.
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darklordoftech
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« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2021, 01:15:56 PM »

I’m under the impression that Trump’s attempts to reward his evangelical supporters were part of what cost him Pennysilvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
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Padfoot
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« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2021, 10:12:11 PM »

Its white Christian nationalism, plain and simple.  The alliance is born out of racist grievance politics.
 The Bible Belt is a bunch of hypocrites.  They don't give a sh**t about the morals, its about who is in control and gets to define American culture.  And the north isn't becoming more religious, it's becoming more openly racist which has lead to a natural alliance with white people in the south who have mostly never stopped being openly racist. 
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H. Ross Peron
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« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2021, 02:34:53 AM »

Its white Christian nationalism, plain and simple.  The alliance is born out of racist grievance politics.
 The Bible Belt is a bunch of hypocrites.  They don't give a sh**t about the morals, its about who is in control and gets to define American culture.  And the north isn't becoming more religious, it's becoming more openly racist which has lead to a natural alliance with white people in the south who have mostly never stopped being openly racist. 

This is a post that barely has anything to do with the topic at hand and little more than a rant to confirm your ideological priors. It's laughable, for instance, to say the North is more openly racist than it was 30 years ago.
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Tartarus Sauce
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« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2021, 09:18:35 AM »
« Edited: June 14, 2021, 09:21:58 AM by Tartarus Sauce »

Its white Christian nationalism, plain and simple.  The alliance is born out of racist grievance politics.
 The Bible Belt is a bunch of hypocrites.  They don't give a sh**t about the morals, its about who is in control and gets to define American culture.  And the north isn't becoming more religious, it's becoming more openly racist which has lead to a natural alliance with white people in the south who have mostly never stopped being openly racist.  

This is a post that barely has anything to do with the topic at hand and little more than a rant to confirm your ideological priors. It's laughable, for instance, to say the North is more openly racist than it was 30 years ago.

He is correct, on the other hand, about the fact that the unifying force of the party is Christian nationalism and white grievance politics. It's why these two segments of MAGAworld are really part of the same political umbrella that are nowhere near as contradictory as the OP made them out to be. They share a similar bedrock identity of obsessing over the symbolism and trappings of American cultural Christianity and harboring massive, overlapping grievances against cultural outsiders. Rustbelt MAGA and Bible Belt MAGA are really two peas of the same pod.
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WindowPhil
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« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2021, 10:13:09 AM »

Its white Christian nationalism, plain and simple.  The alliance is born out of racist grievance politics.
 The Bible Belt is a bunch of hypocrites.  They don't give a sh**t about the morals, its about who is in control and gets to define American culture.  And the north isn't becoming more religious, it's becoming more openly racist which has lead to a natural alliance with white people in the south who have mostly never stopped being openly racist.  

This is a post that barely has anything to do with the topic at hand and little more than a rant to confirm your ideological priors. It's laughable, for instance, to say the North is more openly racist than it was 30 years ago.

He is correct, on the other hand, about the fact that the unifying force of the party is Christian nationalism and white grievance politics. It's why these two segments of MAGAworld are really part of the same political umbrella that are nowhere near as contradictory as the OP made them out to be. They share a similar bedrock identity of obsessing over the symbolism and trappings of American cultural Christianity and harboring massive, overlapping grievances against cultural outsiders. Rustbelt MAGA and Bible Belt MAGA are really two peas of the same pod.

As America gets more secular, I can see the bible belt MAGA types amalgamating into politics how you describe.

Similarity, young more "woke" evangelicals will join the ranks of the left in demanding society address racial justice and male privilege. Even if they keep their mouths shut about abortion and LGBT issues.
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Padfoot
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« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2021, 11:21:54 PM »

Its white Christian nationalism, plain and simple.  The alliance is born out of racist grievance politics.
 The Bible Belt is a bunch of hypocrites.  They don't give a sh**t about the morals, its about who is in control and gets to define American culture.  And the north isn't becoming more religious, it's becoming more openly racist which has lead to a natural alliance with white people in the south who have mostly never stopped being openly racist. 

This is a post that barely has anything to do with the topic at hand and little more than a rant to confirm your ideological priors. It's laughable, for instance, to say the North is more openly racist than it was 30 years ago.

I'm curious as to where you live because this has definitely been my experience as a person who has lived in Ohio my entire life.  I've seen multiple family members flip this switch since the "birther" movement began.  People are turning off filters that they used to employ to hide or tamp down their racism because Trump made it OK to be publicly racist.

And my post is very much on topic.  OP literally asked how to reconcile the Rust Belt with the Bible Belt and the answer is, as I said, white Christian nationalism and racist grievance politics.  A big part of understanding that is the acknowledgement that the Bible Belt cares more about maintaining political power than it does about actual Biblical values.  If Evangelical voters actually cared about Biblical values they wouldn't continue electing morally bankrupt leaders like Trump.  What they really care about is maintaining power so they elect whatever strongmen promise to help them maintain that power.  The South has been that way since Reconstruction.

Generally speaking, people in the North/Rust Belt have always tried to be less direct with their racism because they don't actually believe they are racist in the first place.  These are the people who used to start sentences with "I'm not a racist but ..."  or "I have a black co-worker who is great but ..." People were afraid of being publicly labeled as racists so they tried to conceal it.  But when Trump came along he essentially ended the this sort of "polite racism" and now those same people will just flat out tell you that blacks, Muslims, China, immigrants, etc. are ruining the country for hard working whites like them.  They talk about things like "reverse racism" and try to claim that white people have it way worse than minorities because diversity efforts are causing more qualified white people to be rejected for jobs in favor of less qualified racial minorities.
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Non Swing Voter
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« Reply #8 on: June 18, 2021, 01:39:59 AM »

First: Ohio is barely the North. 

Second: The north isn't becoming more racist, that's absurd. 

Third: Trump supporters weren't unified by racism, etc.  They were more unified by feeling forgotten (which Trump exploited, because he's a sociopath).  A lot of rust belt people who felt left behind economically combined with a lot of southerners who have felt left behind culturally for a long time.  I have a lot more sympathy for rust belt people who just want to have a decent job than the latter group. 

There is some truth to the idea that the current GOP is more culturally unified than the Democratic Party as it's smaller and overwhelmingly white.  But it's not a complete monolith. 
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All Along The Watchtower
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« Reply #9 on: June 20, 2021, 02:35:21 PM »

First: Ohio is barely the North.  . 

wtf.
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Del Tachi
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« Reply #10 on: June 20, 2021, 03:10:19 PM »

Second: The north isn't becoming more racist, that's absurd. 

This is also absurd
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