Who would have thought Trump's candidacy would help me see what I couldn't see before?

[nashvillegoldenflash]

When I first moved to Tennessee from Ohio in 1984, I took pride in living in the most conservative and the most Christian region of the country. As a states rights supporter, I have always held the federal government should be given as little power as possible. Although I still strongly believe in limited government, my pride in the South has diminished with recent events. Never did I believe a New York liberal with New York values would win the South.

So this makes me re-examine my conservative roots. I grew up watching Firing Line, since I was 14 years old. Every week, it was William F. Buckley who inspired me to be interested in politics and taught me that a civil debate can be as powerful as the sword. Today the National Review, founded by William F. Buckley, provides the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement and is the impetus of liberty and freedom. With all the false conservative commentators supporting Trump, I now realize I need to return to my conservative roots and embrace the true conservative voices of the National Review.

I also recognize any place that chooses nationalism over conservatism is not a place where I want to live. When you look for reasons why Trump is supported in the South, you see he is strongest among Republicans who are less affluent and less educated. His very best voters are self-identified Republicans who nonetheless are registered as Democrats. It’s a coalition that’s concentrated in the South, Appalachia, and the industrial North.

It's no surprise Trump's strongest support comes from West Virginia and the majority of counties that Trump won in Ohio were the ones along the Ohio River that border West Virginia and Kentucky.

So the reality is I really don't have as much in common with the South as I do Ohio. That is why I've made the decision to return to Ohio when my wife is old enough to retire in about four and a half years. I'm not looking forward to the long cold winters, but I feel at peace with this decision. Who would have thought Trump's candidacy would help me see what I couldn't see before?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/u...st-supporters-a-certain-kind-of-democrat.html

http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/ohio

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/tar-heel-family-illustrates-why-trump-appeals-to-the-south/

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

Love you Flash, but you are misreading all of this. If your looking for a place that makes you comfortable because folk think like you, you will never find it. Never forget we live in a fallen world. People are looking for the "wrong" savior. I have lived in the South, I have lived out West and in the Northeast - people really aren't different.

As far as the less educated, could you blame them? They were told life would get better. Imagine living in coal country now and your being told by Clinton that we are going to kill your livelihood - out loud. Then they recognize all the illegal labor in the country that they are competing with for other jobs. I think this is much more nuanced. While you can fault them for their ignorance, can you really blame them? They have been lied to for votes for the last 50 years.

So, if this is your decision, I wish you all the best.

 

[nashvillegoldenflash]

From Steve Deace Facebook:

What happened to Trump last night in Utah should've happened to him all over the Bible Belt. A people saw a con man who was anathema to the values taught in their churches and soundly rejected him.

I'm well aware of the differences between Mormon and evangelical theology, am on the evangelical side of the debate, and I haven't been shy about discussing those differences with Mormon friends of mine.

However, if evangelicals in the Bible Belt are so far gone in their discernment they can't see the obvious that Mormons could, time to set our bricks aside and look at our own glass house first. For we have far more systemic problems in our own ranks than debating the integrity of Joseph Smith's teachings, given we have so little spiritual integrity ourselves.

Whatever you think of Mormon theology, and I don't share its views, whether it was Prop 8 in CA or taking on Trump Cult in several states, the Mormon people have run to the front lines of fights too many so-called Bible-based Christians ran and hid from.

https://www.facebook.com/stevedeace/?fref=nf

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

Christ saves you from your sin, he did not die to save you from the culture.