Pence and the “Christian Right”: Election a “Win-Win”

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x0013489549-51961-2NBC reports: “Ted Cruz Hits the Trail With Mike Pence.”

FREDERICK CLARKSON, frederick.clarkson[at]gmail.com, @FredClarkson
Clarkson is senior fellow at Political Research Associates, a progressive, social justice think tank in Somerville, Mass. He is the author or editor of several books and hundreds of articles over three decades. He is the author most recently of “Dominionism Rising: A Theocratic Movement Hiding in Plain Sight,” which appears in the Fall issue of The Public Eye quarterly.

He said today: “The election of 2016 will be a win/win for the Christian Right. If Trump wins, they will be viewed as kingmakers — especially since polls have shown that evangelical Christians have been his most loyal backers. If Clinton wins, the Christian Right will go into resistance mode in much the way they did when Bill Clinton was president. It will mean vast fundraising opportunities as they contend against a woman they view as more evil than her husband. The movement will grow, demonstrating that it can win, even in losing.

“Some pundits claim that the Christian Right is dead, dying or deeply diminished. But that claim is no more true now than it was the many times we have heard it over the past three decades.”

“The Christian Right has changed its methods in ways that are often less visible than the pioneering activities of the larger-than-life figures Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. But their legacy lives on. For example, many contemporary Christian Right leaders were able to justify support for Donald Trump because he was able to articulate their message about religious liberty, despite his dubious record on the issues of abortion and traditional marriage.

“Some of the best evidence of the success of the Christian Right is that no matter who wins the presidency, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is still a sitting member of the U.S. Senate from a major state and one of the best known pols in the country. And Mike Pence is either the Vice President; or if his ticket loses, is a party leader and joins Cruz as a contender for the GOP nomination for president in 2020.”