How do we reconcile the Rust Belt with the Bible Belt?

[WindowPhil]

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.

[WindowPhil]

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.