The religious right won and lost on Election Day in the following three ways.
1. The Religious Right Has Lost Control of the Abortion Issue
While Donald Trump was sliding to victory on election day, so were the vast majority of abortion rights ballot measures. Seven states enacted new rights protections including Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, and New York. Three did not, but of those three, the South Dakota measure was not supported by national abortion rights groups and Florida missed by only 2%, leaving only Nebraska with a clean win for the religious right—though it did not enshrine the draconian six-week bans in other states. At least at 12 weeks, which Nebraskans chose, the person should know they’re pregnant!
This is bad news for the religious right, because the right to abortion has taken on a life of its own. The success of the abortion rights measures in deep red, purple, and blue states in a mere two years tells us that this movement is organic. To add insult to injury to the pro-lifers, these new rights are often more capacious than Roe v. Wade, because the conservative Justices had permitted the right to be whittled down over the years. There is no reason to think that there won’t be more pro-abortion measures in the future. The deaths and sterilizations of girls and women getting inadequate care due to the bans will continue to drive a wedge against them.
The religious right put Trump on a hot seat regarding abortion, which he did not love, but he did know how to play. Trump just said that he would veto a federal ban and the issue was over for him now the states have it. That was the right answer to get re-elected though, of course, not what the religious right wants to hear. It is now in his interest for abortion to spin off into its own universe, and his interest rules. Let’s face it, he hates being a loser.
With Trump’s betrayal of the religious right’s core issue, they are looking a little silly for beatifying him. He used them until they were inconvenient, like everyone else in his orbit. I do wonder if they are now asking their God for a little insight into whether he really is their modern-day savior. Perhaps they are not in doubt, because he did deliver other wins for them.
2. The Demonization of the “Other” Is Alive and Well
There is a long history of religions demonizing others as a show of power and force. Let’s not forget America’s beginnings featured the Salem Witch Trials. It sure isn’t Jesus’s love approach, but he’s easy to forget when you hold power. The religious right fought like hell to prevent gay marriage because they didn’t believe in it. I will never forget hearing a leader of the movement declare to a gathering that the coup de grace of the same-sex marriage movement would be to reinforce the “ick factor.” Well, it didn’t work, but they continue to fight to exclude LGBT people from their spaces. In 303 Creative v. Elenis, a case with fabricated facts to manufacture standing, the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority granted the religious right’s wish to exclude gay couples from their businesses. They have also obtained the power to exclude LGBTQ individuals from their workplaces through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act’s nullification of Title VII. Groups like Moms for Liberty fight to keep them out of schools in books, because again, the goal is to build a world where the ones who disagree with their beliefs can’t bother them. They are way beyond seeking religious liberty. Instead, they want the right to impose their Christian Nationalist faith on everyone else. It’s all about them, as I discuss here.
Setting aside abortion, Trump is delivering.
The most effective demonization during the 2024 election, of course, was the Trump campaign’s commercial about transgender individuals that gained traction to the point it was played again and again in one NFL game after another for the bros, who clearly chose Trump. In the background, you could just hear the religious right and their political puppets like relentless hammering of trans for the “sin” of changing their birth gender.
In all my years of studying and writing about religion, I have learned that the antidote to religious bad actors is to respond with the truth. The Harris campaign’s failure to respond to those commercials with the fact that the policy they slammed was actually a product of the Trump administration is unfathomable to me. Regardless, transgender athletes in sports is not an easy issue, and good minds are debating how to deal with it, but Trump was able to distill it into a commercial playing on hate with the image of a full-grown man playing on a girl’s basketball team. The religious right won that round.
3. The Trump Campaign Did Not Feature the Religious Right’s Active Threats to Children, Which Might Have Soured Many on Trump
There are very serious threats to children coming from the religious right, with efforts to scale back compulsory education, vaccination mandates, and to roll back child labor laws as I discussed here. They seek parental rights without responsibility for harm to their children. While Trump had a discussion at Moms for Liberty, the campaign didn’t highlight the compulsory education and child labor law threats, which should have worried many parents across the country.
Trump did fawn all over rabid-anti-vaxxer RFK Jr., after he dropped his campaign, but only mentioned that he might control vaccine and medical care access very late in the campaign. The religious right’s power grab from science may well triumph with him as a health czar in Trump’s orb as mentioned here.
As we enter the chaotic bubble of another Trump administration, it is imperative that we watch the religious right’s agenda and understand that the religious right is composed of conservative evangelicals and conservative Catholics. One of the most dangerous threats to democracy is Opus Dei, a Catholic cult that has close ties to the infamous Leonard Leo, among many others on the right as I discuss here. The agenda and actions of the religious right need to be followed, examined, and judged by the press and all Americans to prevent the creeping theocracy they seek, where all other believers become outsiders.
