By Terry Manning
I had a falling out with a friend several years back who declared she was voting for the first time in decades to support then-candidate Donald Trump.
I have long said I don’t dispute anyone’s right to vote for whomever they choose, but I had to ask her, “Why him? Why now?”
“It’s too important,” she answered, referring to the idea Trump would support efforts to roll back abortion rights, specifically by nominating conservative justices to fill expected vacancies on the Supreme Court.
My reply? “Stay on the sidelines.” The last thing I thought the election needed was an influx of single-issue voters who had opted out of keeping themselves informed on other issues that were — and are — just as or more important than abortion.
Trump won, of course, and lived up to the expectation my friend and millions of others had that he would usher in a new age of social conservatism on the high court. (Never mind that the nominees said under oath to Congress they would respect legal precedent in upholding Roe v Wade.)
I was reminded of my friend when I saw a recent story about the scandal-plagued former president showing remarkable resilience in polls taken with Iowa voters who identified as evangelicals and/or first-time caucus voters.
NBC News data analyst Steve Kornacki showed support among evangelicals actually increased from 2016. Trump came in second to Sen. Ted Cruz then and only barely beat out Florida’s Marco Rubio in earning 22 percent of the evangelical vote. A December 2023 poll taken by NBC News, the Des Moines Register and Mediacom showed Trump enjoying a whopping 51 percent of the evangelical vote in the state.
I won’t waste time offering commentary on people who describe themselves as religious voting to empower the most amoral national leader this country has had in more than a century; they can answer for themselves at the pearly gates.
The same poll showed first-time voters equally enthusiastic about the former president and in numbers that eclipse those of evangelicals. Up from 30 percent in 2016, 63 percent of first-time voters support Trump. That’s 50-plus percentage points more then runner-up Ron DeSantis at 12 percent.
And again, I have to ask, “Why him? Why now?”
Abortion rights have been rolled back tremendously, to darn-near colonial levels in many states. (I mean, really, Texas? Are you okay with private citizens being able to snitch on their neighbors who might choose to go out of state for a private medical procedure they’re denied in your state? With forcing pregnant women to carry dying or dead fetuses with no consideration for the mothers’ health or future fertility? Sheesh.)
So what’s left to woo first-timers to the voting booth?
Trump has openly refused to pledge he won’t try to overthrow the federal government if he loses the next general election. We know what happened last time he rallied supporters to his cause, and yet there are those who would return him to a position where he could do the same or worse than last time.
Even South Carolina’s own former governor Nikki Haley laid out what a second term in office for Trump would be like, saying in last week’s Iowa debate, “His way is not my way. I don’t have time for vengeance. I don’t have vendettas. I don’t take things personally. For me, it’s very much about no drama, no whining, and getting results …”
Vengeance, drama and vendettas are exactly what Trump has promised if he’s re-elected. Heck, he’s promised them even if he isn’t re-elected.
If you’re one of those people who always says, “I don’t like talking about politics” or “both sides are the same” or some other willful ignorance, I respect your right to sit this one out. I encourage it, actually.
Don’t jump back in the voting pool just to stain it yellow for everyone else.
Terry E. Manning is a Clemson graduate and worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.
