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A minority, and a shrinking demographic.
I also object strenuously to the use of the term "RINO" to characterize the GOP establishment. Because there's nothing "in name only" about them. Indeed, it's quite clear to me that — regardless of what GOP voters may want or think the party stands for — they are the Republican Party. Being a "RINO" "sellout" Outer Party fake-opposition is what the Republican Party is, what it has been for a long time. It's populist outsiders like Trump — and the sizable fraction of voters who support them — who are really Republicans "in name only."
Which is why we're going to lose. They can and will simply "trample over" all of us, and there's nothing we can do about it.
"But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."
I've been told repeatedly that Christians are not promised worldly political victory, but that they will be handed over to be persecuted, that they will be killed, and that they will be hated by all (see Matthew 24:9). That the right must understand that, per Tolkien, history will only ever be "a long defeat" and that the only victory to be had is in the next life, by sticking to our values unwaveringly even unto torture and martyrdom; that one should indeed willingly embrace said martyrdom like so many saints of old.
Back at the old place, Hlynka argued that it was precisely this embrace of "principled defeat" in this life for the sake of the next that defines "right wing" and separates it from the left, and thus only those who believe in an afterlife can be on the right; and that, regardless of their political positions, atheists are all automatically "left wing" by definition.
There's no "if" about it.
Yes, I agree with that. That is what's going to happen. It's inevitable, and there's nothing anybody can do to stop it.
Death is the only escape.
Are you Christian?
No, but most of the "normie Republicans" I know are (at least in a nominal "Christmas and Easter" sense). And I'm repeating the arguments some of them give (over and over) for why it's better for Republicans to "stick to our values" and keep losing than to "descend to our enemy's level" by retaliating tit-for-tat. They like to quote Mark 8:36 a lot.
I, personally, am one of those atheist right-wingers that Hlynka claimed doesn't exist.
I wouldn’t know. I think it was Michelle Obama who lamented to Barack that the left was too committed to going high when the right went low. Now the situation is perceived to be reversed. It seems there is something in both tents that suggests principles. I’ve never heard about them. I don’t think they exist.
It is fully possible for a muscular Christian narrative to assert itself alongside the tit-for-tat plays of the right.
Michelle's comments were funny at the time, given that the contemporary Democratic/media strategy was to regularly accuse or insinuate opposition to the Obama administration was based on racism, even as the Obama administration employed political machine politics at the national level. It was very consistent with assuming a posture of moral superiority while simultaneously going low.
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I'll second at least the sentiment that RINO is almost always wrong as an appelative. (And am sympathetic to much of the rest.)
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For some reason, your reference to Toilken makes me think of the fall of Gondlin. Yesterday felt like that to me.
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This is an interesting idea, and it's the best and most coherent version of the Hlynkian thesis that I've seen. (I don't recall ever seeing this exact formulation in any of his own posts, at any rate - if you have a link I'd appreciate it.)
Afraid not; it was years ago and over on Reddit (which I find terrible to try to search).
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