Politico: Most Republicans Support Declaring United States a Christian Nation

The real world and the internet are two different things.

In the real world, defense of White identity has always been strongly associated with defense of Christianity in the United States, especially with Protestantism, which is a relationship that stretches back deep into the colonial era when Protestant settlers began to think of themselves as White people. There is a clear positive relationship across virtually all polls between religiosity and White identity. Historically, the states with the strongest traditions of drawing sharp racial distinctions in the South and parts of the Midwest have been dominated by White evangelical Protestants.

On the internet though, the conventional wisdom in certain corners of the White Nationalist movement is that White identity is strongly associated with atheism and paganism when all the polling shows that the opposite is true. The most secular Whites are far more liberal across all issues including race. According to these people, the biggest threat to the White race is Christian nationalists like Andrew Torba.

Politico:

“Christian nationalism, a belief that the United States was founded as a white, Christian nation and that there is no separation between church and state, is gaining steam on the right.

Prominent Republican politicians have made the themes critical to their message to voters in the run up to the 2022 midterm elections. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, has argued that America is a Christian nation and that the separation of church and state is a “myth.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia hard-liner, declared: “We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian Nationalists.” Amid a backlash, she doubled down and announced she would start selling “Christian Nationalist” shirts. Now Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seems to be flirting with Christian nationalist rhetoric, as well. …

Not surprisingly, much of the support for declaring the U.S. a Christian nation comes from Republicans who identify themselves as Evangelical or born-again Christians: Seventy-eight percent of this group support the move compared to 48 percent of other Republicans. Among Democrats, a slight majority of those identifying themselves as Evangelical or born-again Christians also backed such a declaration (52 percent), compared to just 8 percent of other Democrats. …

Our polling found that white grievance is highly correlated with support for a Christian nation. White respondents who say that members of their race have faced more discrimination than others are most likely to embrace a Christian America. Roughly 59 percent of all Americans who say white people have been discriminated against a lot more in the past five years favor declaring the U.S. a Christian nation, compared to 38 percent of all Americans. White Republicans who said white people have been more discriminated against also favored a Christian nation (65 percent) by a slightly larger percentage than all Republicans (63 percent). …”

Unfortunately, 59% of all Americans who say “White people have been discriminated a lot more in the past five years” support Christian nationalism. Support for Christian nationalism is strongly associated with resentment over anti-White discrimination. Both are strongly associated with White evangelical Protestants who live in small towns and rural areas in the South and Midwest.

As a rule of thumb, you should consider what Richard Spencer and Mark Brahmin believe to be true and assume the opposite is true. White evangelical Protestant populists and conservatives in the Republican base are the strongest supporters of White identity. Christian nationalism isn’t a threat to White identity. It is a far more popular draw to millions of people than Apollonian neoliberalism.