The American Christian right and the Alt-right (Alternative right) served a major part in the victory of Donald Trump in the United States presidential election in 2016. This post gives an overview of these political movements that, although they differ from each other in many ways, still stand for the same president.
The American Christian right has existed throughout the twentieth century and is alive and well in 2018. The Christian right is a coalition of evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics who support infusing U.S. politics and legislation with what they define as Christian morals and traditional family values based on biblical teachings. The political movement became significant in the 1960s when the New Christian right started campaigning for mandatory school prayer in public schools, which the Supreme Court had ruled to be unlawful in the 1962 case of Engel vs. Vitale. The Christian right started organizing massive grassroots movements for school prayer, which created a strong base for local political activism and has been helpful in promoting contemporary issues, such as anti-abortion. This grassroots movement was also the base for the victory of President Donald Trump, as he got as much as 81% of all the evangelical Christian votes in the 2016 presidential election.
The Alt-right differs a lot from the Christian right, as it is not in any way a traditional political movement. The Alt-right is a loose coalition of Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and internet trolls, which has vague political goals mainly concerning white supremacy, the victory of Donald Trump, and the resistance of liberal politics and political correctness. The movement’s leader is Richard Spencer, who is the founder of altright.com, and who spoke for white supremacy and the presidency of Donald Trump. Later on, after the election of President Trump, both Spencer and Trump have condemned each other as Spencer has been let down by Trump’s policies and Trump has been forced to take a stance against white supremacists. Regardless of that, it is indisputable that the Alt-right had a big impact on the election of President Trump and during the elections, Trump was willing to receive this white supremacist support.
The issues that President Trump brought up in his campaign, such as abortion, same-sex marriage, immigration and race, are issues that both the Christian right and the Alt-right address. What made Trump’s candidacy and victory so special, was how he managed to combine these groups, traditional Christian conservatives and Alt-right white supremacists, as the groups were able to choose the issues they found important. The Christian right was willing to accept Trump’s immoral behavior and racists statements because Trump was campaigning for issues they found important, such as pro-life stance and conservative morals. On the other hand, the Alt-right, which is not interested in religion, still stood behind Trump as he brought up issues concerning immigration and race using politically incorrect language. This unusual collaboration of different political goals contributed to the election of Donald Trump.