Jennifer Rubin Says it Well

from the Washington Post, September 13, 2024

by Jennifer Rubin

Two revealing surveys of religious groups in the United States 

What caught my eye The last survey from the Public Religion Research Institute tells us there is a large group of authoritarian-inclined Americans who are overrepresented among Republicans and White evangelical Christians. Republicans are about 2½ times more likely than Democrats to agree with measures of political violence: that “patriots may have to resort to violence to save our country” (27 percent vs. 8 percent); that “everyday Americans will need to ensure the rightful leader takes office, even if it requires taking violent actions” (24 percent vs. 10 percent); and that “armed citizens are needed as poll watchers” (24 percent vs. 10 percent),” the pollsters found in a survey of 5,000 Americans. Using the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (RWAS), a questionnaire developed to measure authoritarian-inclined ideologies, the study also found, “Two-thirds of Republicans score high (67 percent),” compared with 35 percent of independents, and 28 percent of Democrats. Republicans who hold favorable views of Trump are 36 percentage points more likely to score high on the RWAS than those with unfavorable views of Trump (75 percent vs. 39 percent). Similarly, White evangelical Protestants are the religious group most likely to score high on the RWAS (64 percent), followed by smaller majorities of Hispanic Protestants (54 percent) and White Catholics (54 percent).” Whether authoritarian personalities are inclined to certain religious sects or those sects already foster this disposition is unknown. What we do know is that a high percentage of Americans who favor Christian nationalism are authoritarians. (Christians who believe “the final battle between good and evil is upon us” are strongly linked to support for authoritarianism and Christian nationalism.) That makes their attachment to authoritarianism essentially an article of faith, not something they are willing to rationally reconsider. And that, in turn, poses a threat to our pluralistic democracy in which religious and racial supremacy are unacceptable. Just as many Southern Christian churches reinforced and bolstered proslavery ideology, some modern White Christian sects appear to cement fascination with a hierarchical, racist and anti-democratic view of American politics. That makes it more essential than ever that all other Americans (who do outnumber White Christian authoritarians) band together to defend tolerance, civil liberties and the rule of law. At the other end of the political spectrum, Jewish Americans remain as attached to the Democratic Party as they have ever been, despite the MAGA movement’s attempts to lure them by defending Israel’s hyper-ideological, right-wing governing coalition. A new poll from the Jewish Democratic Council of America, a partisan group that supports Democratic candidates, found that Vice President Kamala Harris leads former president Donald Trump among Jewish Americans by a margin of 72 percent to 25 percent, even higher than President Joe Biden’s level of support in 2020. Trump’s antisemitic insults (e.g., agreeing that second gentleman Doug Emhoff is a “crappy Jew”; saying Jews who don’t support him should have their heads “examined”) have not gone unnoticed. “Nearly all — 91 percent — of Jewish voters are concerned about antisemitism in the United States, and Jewish voters trust Kamala Harris more than Donald Trump to fight antisemitism by nearly a three-to-one margin (60 percent vs. 23 percent),” the survey found. “80 percent of Jewish voters disagree with Donald Trump’s repeated insults targeting millions of Jewish Americans, and 84 percent of those voters think his insults are antisemitic.” Historically, Jewish Americans have leaned Democratic, citing the party’s support for social justice, unions, immigration, civil rights, access to abortion and other progressive causes. Naturally, Trump’s animosity toward all of those issues, coupled with his blatant antisemitism, have turned off the vast majority of Jews. America’s support for religious freedom has allowed a wide array of faiths to flourish in the United States. When a significant number of Americans reject pluralism and insist on White Christian domination, our democracy is at risk. Uniting America might require efforts of communal outreach and interfaith reconciliation that go far beyond politics.