I have seen it grow in 2016 (yes tied to Trump’s win) and some of it is quite distressing. After 2016 individuals who were disheartened could either try to understand why people voted for Trump or they could engage in a campaign of stigmatizing those who did. It is pretty clear the direction that most went with those options. And I think it is counterproductive to engage in that campaign in the long term.
So look at it this way. There are three groups of white evangelicals as it concerns Trump.
First the Trump sycophants. They will support Trump no matter what. The data I have seen is that they tend to be less likely to attend church and are more cultural Christians than intrinsic Christians.
Second are those who do not like all that Trump will do but will vote for him nonetheless. Maybe it is abortion. Maybe it is immigration. Maybe they just vote for the Republican no matter what. But even if they must hold their nose they will vote for Trump.
Third, are the people who are conservative but will not vote for Trump.
Okay so if you want to decrease the number of people who vote for Trump then clearly your target audience is group 2. They are the ones with concerns but may be persuadable. And we know how to persuade others. Build rapport. Find common ground. Accurately understand their concerns. You know how not to persuade. Try to stigmatize them.
When people feel threatened they tend to circle the wagons. The dozens of academic books pointing to white evangelicals as what is wrong in society as well as the dozens if not hundreds of articles doing the same thing is more, not less, likely to drive them into Trump’s arms Beyond being unfair stereotyping, the efforts to locate white evangelicals as the sole problem is just stupid.
These people know that a double standard is being applied to them. Lots of other groups are more politically active than white evangelicals yet books are not being written about them. Those groups want to do what white evangelicals want to do – shape the government to their own liking. It is perfectly okay to think that those groups have better political agendas. But if we are worried about political groups imposing their will, then we should worry about everyone should we not? And please do not try to say that progressives and non-Christians are not trying to shape the actions of others, because there are too many examples of that in their political agendas as well.
I do not like the overgeneralized stereotyping of any group. What I have seen with the attitudes towards white evangelicals is no different. There are better ways to make changes in society such as respectfully engaging others. But I know that it is easier to just attack and stigmatize even those that is counterproductive. I think this clarifies my point.