Readers: this blog is set in the future (sometime after the year 2020). Each entry assumes there has been a 5th revolution in the US — the Revenge Revolution. More about the Revenge Revolution and author, Entry #1. List and general description of entries to date.

Note: most entries are formatted as conversations. Characters appear in a number of entries, with many entries building on previous conversations. Profile of characters (see link at top of page). You’ll catch on quickly. Thanks for your time and interest…and comments.

Scene: Jordan’s office, Washington, DC

Gelly:  “Greenie called and she and JC want to stop by a few minutes this morning.”

Jordan:  “OK with me.  Anything in particular they want to talk about?”

Gelly:  “All she said was Lincoln.”

Jordan:  “You mean like Abe Lincoln or the car?”

Gelly:  “As far as I know, Lincoln as in president.”

Jordan (short time later):  “Well, well, well.  The dynamic duo has arrived.  Nice to see you guys.  And what brings you here…other than to see me, of course.”

Greenie:  “And he’s so modest.  Go ahead, JC, your idea is what prompted the visit.”

JC:  “I was helping Greenie edit her articles about the Revenge Revolution.  What seemed to need more explanation was why evangelical Christians kept supporting Trump.  Continued evangelical support caused some real frustration…and in fact anger…with more moderate voters who were trying to address the country’s real problems.”

Greenie:  “Neither of us had a reasonable answer at first about sustained support for Trump by evangelicals.  Here’s a guy whose behavior was the antithesis of what the evangelicals claimed they stood for.  Yet they kept supporting Trump.  Why?”

Jordan:  “Evangelicals must not have thought having multiple affairs constituted adultery.  C’mon, only one of those affairs, as far as we know, was with a high-profile porn star.  What’s the issue?”

JC:  “And a couple of those affairs were only after his wife gave birth and was home with the baby.  I mean no good evangelical should be upset about that kind of behavior, right?”

Greenie:  “Jordan, see what we mean?  Repeated adultery, constant lying, publicly ridiculing people who had sacrificed a lot to work in his administration, mistreatment of women…and on and on.  Yet, the evangelicals kept supporting him.  Why?”

JC:  “Look, we understand…or at least acknowledge…that some people might have voted for Trump because they couldn’t imagine anyone who was running for president could be that inept.”

Greenie:  “But when evangelicals continued to support Trump after 12-15 months in office, we had no clue why.”

JC:  “No clue until we thought back to our days in grammar school in Illinois.  That was our ‘ah ha’ moment.”

Greenie:  “Good old Lincoln came to mind.  And one of his famous quotes.”

JC:  “You can fool some of the people all the time.”

Jordan:  “What about the rest of the quote?  You left out the part about fooling all the people some of the time.”

Greenie:  “Well, we really couldn’t find any time during his presidency where Trump came even marginally close to fooling all the people, even some of the time.  So we focused on trying to understand why he was able to fool some of the people all the time.”

JC:  “If you go back and look at the data, most all evangelicals appeared to be fooled all the time.”

Jordan:  “But why do you think evangelicals were so easily fooled?”

Greenie:  “You want the politically incorrect answer?”

Jordan:  “Where are you headed with this?”

Greenie:  “We concluded that evangelicals, like fundamentalists in many religions, bought into a religious concept they believed to be true.”

Jordan:  “Keep talking.”

Greenie:  “Think about it.  Evangelicals view their religious beliefs as the absolute truth.  They are down two, over four.  That’s it.  We’re right.  You’re wrong.  End of discussion.”

JC:  “Have you ever heard evangelicals question the fundamental tenets of Christianity?”

Jordan:  “Not really.”

Greenie:  “Neither have we.  So here’s a group that buys into a concept for which there appears to be little, if any, supporting data.  Once bought in, they think this concept is the absolute truth and cannot be questioned.”

Jordan:  “Aren’t fundamentalists of other religions similar in their buy-in and absolutism?  Think of the Ultra-Orthodox Jews.”

JC:  “We agree.  But this conversation is about the US and not Israel.  In the US, evangelical Christian’s make-up a very large voting block and the Ultra-Orthodox Jews as a voting bloc are at best a rounding error.”

Greenie:  “What we have in the US is this large chunk of the population that responds like bobble heads to some religious leaders.  The religious leaders tell them what to do and they all nod their heads.  We told you this was a politically incorrect answer.”

Jordan:  “It’s as if the group was brainwashed.”

JC:  “How else does one explain why evangelicals continued to support Trump?  Think about all the actions he took as president…forget his personal behavior.  Most of those actions were contrary to evangelicals’ supposed beliefs.  Yet, they continued to support him.”

Greenie:  “I still marvel that the vast majority of evangelicals thought Obama was not a Christian.  There was long-standing and overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  Most evangelicals must have been so brainwashed they would believe anything religious leaders told them.”

Jordan:  “Let’s not forget evangelicals believing the absolute truths of the religious leaders of Fox News.  OK, now how do you intend to write-up this politically incorrect analysis?”

JC:  “That’s why we’re here.”

Greenie:  “We need some guidance, please.”

(Continued)