“As ridiculous as it may be, many Americans, and certainly many Trump supporters, especially white evangelicals, have a sort of world-historical mission driven mythology and mindset that, in their own mind, reaches back to and carries forward (appropriates) an odd mix of Old Testament authority and New Testament apostolicism (although twisted into the new gospel of wealth a la Joel Osteen and John Hagee, et. al), mixed with a “wild west” sense of manifest destiny, which is informed by Hollywood (John Wayne types) and studio wrestling, along with a strong dose of John Locke libertarianism and Ayn Rand capitalism, which helps to accommodate the confederate flag and racial superiority (I suppose because for them “the West” is white through and through), all culminating in a unique syncretism of “American Exceptionalism”…all of which helps to explain some of the darlings of the mindset, such as Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, the Q-Anon crowd, and, of course, the world-historical “Chosen One” savior Donald Trump.”~James Snyder
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