'They can never win': Conservative columnist unloads on Trump's racist evangelical base

Donald Trump's presidency has cracked apart the Republican coalition and exposed the white nationalist underpinnings of the hardcore evangelical movement, according to one conservative columnist.

Social policy, including abortion and same-sex marriage, no longer motivates the most conservative voters as much as race-related issues such as limiting immigration, preservation of Confederate history and opposition to racial justice movements, argues Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin.

"So what, then, do these voters want?" Rubin writes. "Many essentially see politics as a great battle between White, Christian America and the multiracial, religiously diverse reality of 21st century America. They want someone to help them win that existential fight. Government is there not to produce legislative fixes to real-world problems but to engage their enemies on behalf of White Christianity."

"The fixation with defining the United States as a White Christian nation is on full display nightly on Fox News, where replacement theory — not abortion or gay rights — drives so much more of the conversation," she adds.

Rubin cites a raft of polling statistics to show a strong correlation between reactionary racism and Trump support, and warns that those votes want government to enforce the domination of white Christians over other Americans.

"That's why they support politicians who demonize Black Lives Matter, demand that corporations meekly accept voter suppression, express outrage over a publisher's decision about Dr. Seuss titles or fixate on saying 'Merry Christmas,'" Rubin writes. "It's also why insurrectionists marauded through the Capitol on Jan. 6 bearing Confederate flags and wearing T-shirts mocking the Holocaust. They keep telling us who they are and what they want, but well-meaning Americans and the media often refuse to accept that their fellow Americans' motives are so antithetical to American values."

"The fixation on race and Christian nationalism has serious ramifications for American political life," she adds. "First, White evangelical Christians are fighting an impossible crusade against demographic inevitability (their minority status is what has fueled the MAGA movement). Because they can never win (at least in a democracy with free and accurate elections), their political venom will not abate."