Former CNN contributor Reza Aslan is in the media again decrying Donald Trump and his voter base of “radicalized extremists.” One would think that Aslan would tone down his personal brand of anti-Trump rhetoric, considering it got him removed from CNN. But Aslan sees the Trump presidency and its cult-like following as a dire situation for America, one that warrants fierce dissent from the left.
In an interview with Salon this week, Reza Aslan discussed the dynamics behind White Americans’ support for Trump. Why would a group who considered themselves “value voters,” throw out said values in order to support a morally bankrupt president of the United States?
Aslan began by noting the recent shift in American demographics, arguing that white Christian Americans, around for the previous two hundred years, have been losing ground to an influx of minority groups. While this is great for immigrants and people of color, Aslan stated that this is terrifying for white America, presuming this as the main motivator for the inauguration of Trump.
Aslan claimed that it was this looming demographic threat that resulted in the “rabid, radicalized, violent group of white nationalists and extremists” that make up Trump’s base. Their racial fears provided the motivation to support Trump, who Aslan described as a “racist, sexist, lecherous, pathologically-lying fascist.”
He argued that an unsavory racist such as Trump would be the perfect candidate for disenfranchised evangelicals to put their xenophobic anger behind. Oh and the fact that he was rich was not a bad perk either.
Aslan stated that white evangelical's obsession with wealth was the other factor that brought them in line with Trump. Speaking for Christians across the nation, he referenced the “prosperity Gospel” that often inspires many of their actions. The concept is that material prosperity is a “sign of God’s blessings and favor.” Of course, Aslan posits this shallow interpretation as one of the main motivators of modern evangelicals.
He claimed, “Trump never had to prove his spiritual bonafides the way every other republican nominee has had to before, because all he had to do is say ‘I’m rich,’ and that’s the end of it.” Ah yes, rich, white racists run the USA. Reza Aslan did his best to boil it all down to a neat little package that any progressive would hate.
So, evangelicals threw out their normally strict moral code for the election of a man “with no shame whatsoever,” so that their agenda could be ramrodded through America by a rich man, who could also get revenge against those irksome immigrants. It’s safe to say that Reza Aslan really despises Trump and his base. He told Salon that he believes Trump to be “an enemy of the state,” and should be treated and criticized as such. Any respect for the presidential office be damned.
If the Trump problem is not dealt with, Aslan maintained that “the country is one 9/11 -style terror attack from the end of the American experiment as we know it.”
So the ever-sane and collected Reza Aslan thinks America could become “a Christian version of Saudi Arabia or a Christian version of Iran.” You know, one in which Christ’s message is used to propagate a tyrannical police state. Take it from a UC Riverside creative writing professor: it could happen sooner than we all think!
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that CNN got it right for their removal of Aslan. The guy is obviously too angry at Trump and it has turned him into a racist hater of white Americans, who twists modern Christianity into a cult-like practice bent on the destruction of the country. If democracy is in danger, it’s because of unhinged commentators like him, who grow rabid at the thought of people disobeying liberal orthodoxy.
