A King Cyrus President

How Donald Trump’s Presidency Reasserts Conservative Christians’ Right to Hegemony

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11230682
AutoresRebecca Barrett-Fox (Arkansas State University, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume42
Fascículo4
Páginas502-522
Data de publicação2018-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHumanity & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0160-5976 • E-ISSN: 2372-9708
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0160597618802644
OpenAlexW2894784468
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas14
Referências citadas20

Religious right leaders and voters in the United States supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election for the same reason that all blocs vote as they do: They believed that the candidate offered them the best opportunity to protect and extend their power and create their preferred government. The puzzle of their support, then, is less why they chose Trump and more how they navigated the process of inserting Trump into their story of themselves as a “moral” majority. This self-understanding promotes and exploits feelings of entitlement, fear, resentment, and the desire to dominate to encourage political action. Because Trump’s speeches affirm these feelings, religious right voters were open to writing a plot twist in their story, casting Trump as a King Cyrus figure, as their champion if not a coreligionist. This article analyzes appeals to and expressions of entitlement, fear, resentment, and the desire to dominate from more than 60 sermons, speeches, and books by religious right authors, Donald Trump, and Trump surrogates. Using open coding, it identifies themes in how these emotions are recognized, affirmed, and invoked by speakers, focusing on Trump’s Cyrus effect

Champion · Economics · Entitlement (fair division · Feeling · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Presidential election · Presidential system · Resentment · Sociology · Sympathy · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Social Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence