RINO Killer
Posted on 01/02/2016 7:30:04 AM PST by Isara
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This is precisely what Donald Trump, national GOP front-runner but second place in Iowa, told an Iowa crowd this week while stumping for votes.
Just remember this -- you gotta remember, in all fairness, to the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba, okay? Just remember that ... just remember.
...We will not dedicate time, space or energy to parsing those words in ways that might offer some alternative meaning than the one most evident and likely, which would be this: Donald Trump thought it would advance his political aims if voters in Iowa were reminded that Ted Cruz is a Cuban (technically half-Cuban) and/or cast doubt on whether Cruz is a true evangelical.
This comes from the the ever-useful section of campaign play books that say tell voters why your competition is "not like us."
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First, Donald Trump's knowledge of the Cuban religious diaspora is, apparently, limited and outdated.
In Cuba right now, Protestant and Protestant Evangelical churches are experiencing rapid membership growth. In the United States, Latino-Americans with ancestral and direct links to many different Latin American countries, including Cuba, are driving some of the only growth in many Protestant denominations. Latino evangelicals represent the fastest-growing religious group in the United States. Some are Cuban-American evangelicals.
To be clear, the majority of American Latinos are Catholic. But the share who are Catholic slid from 67 percent in 2006 to 59 percent in 2013....
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Finally, Ted Cruz is a self-identified evangelical and the son of an evangelical -- and many would say extremely conservative -- Cuban-American pastor. We have no more reason or authority to doubt that than Donald Trump's declarations that he is a life-long practicing Christian, even if he cannot name a Bible verse. That is between Trump and his God.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Trumpsters will embrace this tactic. They’re already calling Cruz a dominionist.
Its funny, an adulterer who owns gambling businesses and donated to lefties is questioning Cruz’s faith.
Sure he means harm by it. He's smart enough to know Cruz is pulling in heavy evangelical support, so he wants to create a wedge between Cruz and evangelicals, just as a number of pro-Trump folks here do all the time, making base and vile attacks on Cruz'a character a regular part of these discussions.
Those sorts of attacks don't work on politicians like Hillary, because her demographic doesn't really care how bad she is, morally, or what she believes theologically. But the Cruz evangelicals do care about such things, and Cruz's plan to substantially increase evangelical participation relies on him being able to establish and maintain trust with evangelicals.
So Trump or one of his advisors has probably identified there is a certain percentage of evangelical votes he could peel off if he made them worry Cruz was not an authentic evangelical, and what better way to do that but by innuendo that real evangelicals don't come from Catholic/communist countries. If so, the objective would be to sow suspicion, and weaken his appeal to as many evangelicals as possible.
My own belief is this is not a workable strategy for Trump. The number of evangelicals who would be put off by this would be more than offset by Trump-backing evangelicals who see this as slimy behavior and lose some confidence in Trump's own proclamations of evangelical values. Put another way, for Trump, this is a loser's strategy, and whoever advised him to use it should be fired. I'd pay good money to see that. "You're fired." :)
Peace,
SR
Save this
They’ll protect the nominees Christian religion NEVER. Whoever it is
Thanks for the confirmation! A picture is always worth a thousand words!
“This election is not about electing a preacher. Reagan was no big religious guy either. He won twice and did a hell of a lot for America.”
Exactly! Trump may not be “deeply religious,” but that doesn’t disqualify him from being an exceptional leader. As a matter of fact, we are in trouble the world over from “deeply religious” people, and it isn’t just the muslims. Most of the wars going on today are at their core, religious in nature.
His dad, Rafael Cruz, apparently was Catholic until 1975, when he became a born again evangelical as a result of doing a bible study with some colleagues. Full story here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Bienvenido_Cruz
I have seen elsewhere that Cruz made a profession of faith and was baptized when he was eight years old, again. Cruz was born in 1970, so he was five years old when his father was born again.
Long story short, personal stories are always more complicated and interesting than the statistics surrounding them. Trying to denigrate Cruz’s evangelical credentials because of his parent’s country of origin is playing to crass prejudice, and doesn’t help Trump with thoughtful evangelicals.
Peace,
SR
The Progressive lion killer?
Yes, Cruz is like the Energizer bunny; he campaigns hard and he campaigns smart.
I believe he’ll do well in Michigan, and in a lot of places where he’s being dismissed.
Who are the non-Muslim "deeply religious" people who are problems for the world? Are you saying there are radical Christians who pose a threat?
I continue to marvel at some of the positions held by "conservative" Trump fans.
“You’ll get a few dozen posts here from Trumpettes to the effect that “It’s a Donald thing. You wouldn’t understand.””
++++
I can’t seem to find any, could you point out a few?
The fact that you’ve got to reach back that far is telling.
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Interesting sentiments considering you quote Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams on your “About Page.” Wasn’t it you that used to admonish us to “Remember the River Raisin”?
Perhaps you should take some of your own advice.
Are you kidding me?! Have you never heard this?"
Hank
The level of willing, conscious disconnect of some Donald Trump supporters here is really amazing.
It’s more than clear that their guy is no friend of conservatives or conservatism and is taking a open-hand slap at the best Constitutional conservative Christian candidate the Republican Party has fielded in God only knows how long.
But since people tend to double down when they’re caught out, they just whistle past the graveyard.
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I know exactly what you mean! Kind of like the way you Cruz supporters completely ignore and make excuses for Cruz’s support for H1B Visas and TPP.
Cruz is a sitting U.S. Senator; Donald Trump has been a private citizen. Get it?
You have got that right! It is a testimony to the sheer cultural power of the MSM beyond biased "news." It has people putting the cart before the horse without even realizing it. They mistakenly think Trump is famous for the same reason Tom Hanks or Michael Phelps is famous -- actors and sports stars excel at what they do, which is in and for the public eye, and as a consequence, become famous.
Businessmen billionaires can be totally anonymous in their success. Few have ever heard of Donald Bren or would recognize his face, yet he is in fact four times a better business real estate mogul than Donald Trump.
An actor who could perform four times better than Tom Hanks, or swim four times faster than Michael Phelps, would be as famous.
It is absolutely fundamentally profound that the only reason Trump is famous for being "a winner" is because he sought it. On the other hand, the ONLY reason Hanks and Phelps are famous is because fame was a consequence of doing their jobs extremely well.
The conscious disconnect of Trump supporters revolves around that fundamental truth. They have bought his "personal brand" without even recognizing their action.
Trump sure does not know how to take on Cruz. Every time he swings, he misses.
Hey Donald, talk about the PACs funding Cruz!!!!! What are they after in return for their money?
I’m catholic so I’m not knocking the catholic church. What I am saying is trump is just pointing out not too many evangelicals in Cuba. So Cruz’s father got born again or whatever but their family is not likely generationally evagelical.
I don’t have a dog in this particular fight. As long as they are not a commie lovin Muslim I don’t Care.
That’s odd. Ever heard of Billy Graham, the evangelist? He identifies as Baptist.
That was the general election when Romney had no other competition. These crowds are during a primary where there are (or were, as Perry, Walker, Jindal, Graham, Pataki and soon to be Huckabee have dropped out. Nice try, thanks for playing, though!
RINO Killer
The interview was at a Christian venue. It’s a pretty straight forward question and not difficult to answer.
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