Someone pointed out the dramatic difference in voting records for different branches of Christians and I can’t unsee it. It is widely documented that white Evangelicals vote overwhelmingly Republican while similarly charismatic Christians that are black vote overwhelmingly Democrat. We could go down a rabbit hole if we started to list more and more Christian groups and their voting habits but this is meant as an example and not the real topic at hand: exclusion, whether it be by separating ones self or by considering a person or group “other.”
I have seen writing and even experienced it first hand that among Evangelicals and similar groups, when people step outside of certain accepted beliefs they are simply written off as being deceived. Maybe deceived by the media, or by spiritual forces, or other bad & misguided influences in their life- but deceived none the less. There is no possibility that the criticism is warranted; there is a right way to see things and any deviation leaves one outside of our group.
It seems like it should be odd to say that the same thing exists in politics too, but this is an accepted phenomena in American life. When one deviates from specific items on a platform they can be shunned. For many, there is no “big tent where many views are welcome.” This can be seen when pro-life feminists are told they aren’t welcome at feminist events, it can be when Jewish activists are told not to demonstrate with Jewish related symbols because it might be offensive. But it is especially noticeable in how Donald Trump’s Republican party seems to keep pruning itself of life long Republicans who speak out. We hear accusations of FAKE NEWS! and a media-wide liberal agenda, but what about the life long Republicans that exist on these many media outlets? David Frum, Peter Wehner, David French, and many more- they spent years working in Republican administrations, writing for conservative and Christian outlets, and advocating for conservatism. They can be found in mainstream media sources like The New York Times, Time, C-SPAN, The Atlantic, and many more outlets but the outlets are considered liberal, and now the authors aren’t even considered “true” conservatives because they stand against Donald Trump.
We can now add Mitt Romney to the list. A Republican presidential nominee not long ago. A man whose faith and integrity have rarely been questioned, but to vote against Trump invites Republicans by the thousands to dismiss him, exclude him, and even vilify him.
The purpose of this article is not to vilify Christians or Republicans, the purpose to highlight the No True Scotsman fallacy when we see it. People can be conservative and vote against Republicans, people can be Christians and vote for a pro-Choice candidate. And there are plenty more examples that I’m sure we could list. Don’t fall in to the fallacy, look to learn from people with a different point of view.
