This article from the Washington Post does provides critical insights into the religious right in America and into the machinations of Donald Trump.

Having lived in the Sunbelt and lived and worked amongst many people, including the religious right, I came to understand their motivations and modus operandi when my then wife and I were attempting to adopt a baby having had no success in producing one ourselves.

Many of them are sincere, well-meaning people, but a good many of them can be swayed by carefully packaged arguments spoken in that specially cadenced delivery which televangelists use to mesmerize their congregations and which motivators like the late Zig Ziglar (he started life as a Baptist preacher) also used.

Donald Trump is a good salesperson, he is well versed in NLP and the use of hypnotic language patterns and from his hand gestures one can clearly see that he follows a tradition of greed, success and avarice which is as far away from Judeo Christian philosophy as it is possible to be.

The poorer members of the Christian right form its majority and they seek salvation from the economic chaos, caused by the banking crisis and President Obama’s incompetence, malevolence and contempt. Trump tells them what they want to hear; they dream of improved finances and jobs, so they think to themselves, “We are not electing a God fearing man but we believe in second chances so lets give this man a shot, after all he does have money and cannot be bought”.

John Gelmini