Christian National (or Christofascism, whichever term you prefer) has very little to do with Christianity as a religion. Best I can tell, it’s a means to an end. It will borrow ideas, justifications, and recruit followers from Christianity, but in the US, this seems to be the main mythology the Trump cult is basing itself around (and it seems that most fascist movements have a “mythology” of fake facts they are grounded in).
So while “Christianity” isn’t upfront most of the time, certain issues and ideas - probably most everything from the right’s “culture war” are basically Christian national ideas, and by osmosis, a ton of Christians seem to be absorbing these positions by default.
The people most swayed by Christian Nationalism appear to be non-religious (or non church affiliated) conservatives. It’s all just familiar enough and an amalgamation of ideas they’ve already been conditioned (by various media consumption) to believe.
But for a lot of more active Christians, I’ve seen a spectrum of attitudes. The number of them that adore Trump seems lower than the previous group, but a lot of them will vote for him because 1) he’s the Republican candidate and Democrats are icky 2) they may be a 1 or 2 issue voter, 3) because an authority figure they trust is telling them to.
I’ve been trying to figure out the link between Trump and why portions of the religious right is completely obsessed with him, and a lot of it is still a mystery to me.
Also, I recently watched this and found it really informative:
I think there’s a few reasons.
People are tuned into propaganda. I get exposed to it once in a while and it’s abhorrent. Arguing, yelling, and just a deluge of lies. It pretends to be important. It pretends to be news. But really, it’s more like 1984’s 2 minutes of hate diluted down and stretch out so people can get their fill whenever they want (or for older people, just consume it constantly).
For many less politically-involved people, they are still emotionally and culturally tied to their political “team”. For many, it’s easier to just go along with the shifts in the party than to change identity.
People are lazy/busy/uninterested. People generally don’t want to learn about economics, history, politics, sociology, psychology, etc. This leaves a huge hole for someone like Trump to say and do the things he’s been doing without his uneducated base calling BS. I took 2 100-level economics electives long ago for my degree and saw right through his tariff lies because this stuff isn’t that complicated.
Messaging. The right-wing messaging is mostly half-truths and all-out lies, but they are incredibly effective at getting their messaging out and believed. A lot of it is just repetition, repetition, repetition. The left really needs to get their shit together. I’m not looking for propaganda like the right is doing, but the Dems started loosing so badly because the right would grab an issue like a rabid Chihuahua and just not let go. Benghazi is a perfect example. Fix the messaging – keep is simple and just repeat it forever.