Published November 14, 2024
Donald Trump’s victory is a triumph for a broad-church style of Republicanism. The party has room for people of all races, backgrounds and, crucially, religions.
The GOP is often stereotyped as dominated by white evangelical Protestants. It certainly seemed that way, as candidates from Pat Robertson in 1988 to Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016 loudly proclaimed their piety. George W. Bush was perhaps the most successful of that breed: His evangelical Christianity was softer in tone than others’ but central to his appeal. The man who cited Jesus Christ as his favorite “political philosopher” in a primary debate clearly saw domestic and foreign policy through the lens of his faith.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
