1. But I believe the majority of the 45% are simply people who have always voted Republican, not MAGA necessarily.
2. Evangelicals have always been around and always will be. That’s not changing. The “world has passed us by and I’m angry” types — that’s a little bit newer, or different than it was. The way I’d put it — social media has made them quite keenly aware of their “failings” or, better put, the success of others.
3. You’re right that an obviously Godless man has unified Evangelicals is odd. Of course, IMO, Evangelicals are looking for easy answers to complicated questions. That’s why they embrace what they do (or why it’s easy for grifters to sell them the answers). Trump taps the same vibe.
4. All populist movements in the US have eventually died out, or are killed. Again that’s because those in power historically are centrists, and centrism benefits the rich. If certain Southern states gradually go blue due to in-migration as the West has, under the EC, the GOP won’t be able to get a presidential candidate elected without changing its platform/rhetoric, and MAGA gets effectively defunded because it’s not a winning message. That religious shysterism has spilled into the political arena can’t make grifting pastors that happy — do you want MAGA buying Trump gear or giving the money to you? God will take back what is His, I assure you, and religion will be the opiate (and profit center) it once was as opposed to politics.
