It should come as no surprise that some folk on the Religious Right are more than happy to handwave aside Donald Trump's released remarks about sexual predation. They've been making excuses for backing him since he came on the scene and started climbing in the polls, even in the face of repeated rudeness, aggression, narcissism, and lying.
Take Ralph Reed, one-time head of the "Christian Coalition," and present head of Donald Trump's "religious advisory board":
"I've listened to the tape. My view is that people of faith are voting for president on issues like who will defend and protect unborn life, defund Planned Parenthood, grow the economy and create jobs, oppose the Iran nuclear deal. I think a 10-year-old tape of a private conversation with a TV talk show host ranks pretty low on their hierarchy of their concerns."
And he may be right. Polling shows 80% of white evangelicals support Trump.
And there's even a pragmatic aspect of this that can be justified. If those issues are the most important things for you, then Trump's private, or even public, behavior should rank pretty low.
The problem is, the Religious Right, since its founding, has hammered away on the idea of "character." On the urgent need for candidates to be people of faith, to lead moral and upright lives. Character was the foundation of moral leadership.
Ralph Reed was right in the forefront of that. He was an active commentator during the Bill Clinton scandals in the early mid-late 90s, decrying along with the rest of his crew the lack of "character" that Bill Clinton had, and that's why they opposed him.
But it's twenty years later, and character is less important than defunding Planned Parenthood. Donald Trump being a sexual predator is trivial compared to his promise to kibosh the Iran nuclear deal. The ends justify the means, just the way Jesus taught. Except that he didn't.
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36)
And what shall it profit a movement if they gain all their policy positions, but lose their own soul in doing so?
(FWIW, while there are a number of other voices in this article echoing Reed, there are other social conservatives quoted who aren't as realpolitik as he is.)
Head of Trump’s religious advisory board dismisses vulgar remarks
The head of Donald Trump’s religious advisory board on Friday shrugged off incendiary comments made by the GOP presidential nominee a decade ago in which he bragged about being able to grope women.
I think that some Clinton voters feel the same.
+Lauchlin MacGregor yep, I see the same thing going on the Dem side.