The nature of the enemy

The right-wing response to Trump's endless successive outrages since taking office has followed a pattern.  A few individuals raise objections, while the majority go along, ignoring or minimizing the vileness of whatever Trump did or said, or making excuses for it, or simply pretending nothing abnormal was happening.  That go-along response has been especially marked among the Christian Right base.  So long as Trump continues to demonstrate fidelity to the sacred causes of protecting discrimination against gay people and forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, he can attack labor and environmental protections, insult veterans, call Nazis "fine people", pick fights with allies, coddle dictators, and start trade wars with almost every other major country on Earth, and they stand by him.

But surely the latest atrocity -- incarceration of migrant children, even toddlers and babies, separate from their parents at the border -- ratchets up the horror to a whole new level.  We've heard the terrified children's cries.  We've heard officials acting in our name mocking them in their misery.  We know of an "information hotline" calculated to scare off relatives seeking information about missing children.  Disturbing, painful, and horrifying images have begun to appear.  Trump's underlings have cited the Bible to defend the policy.  Surely this should be a bridge too far, even for the "base"?

To start with, it's foolish to expect Christian "pro-family" groups to speak out.  As used by these people, the phrase "pro-family" is code for "God hates fags".  That's all it is.  It should no more be taken literally than words like "people's" and "democratic" in the official names of communist countries.

And to be fair, a few religious leaders normally supportive of Trump have spoken out against the policy.  But what about the rank and file?

One of my go-to sites for conservative religious views, Church Militant, did put up a post about the family-separation issue and one Catholic bishop's opposition to it.  As I write this, the post has 478 comments.  As best I can tell, only three people among the commenters object to the policy, with the rest fervently supporting it (and calling the dissidents names).  Some sample comments:

These kids are very contended right now in these detention centers -- big plasma tv screens, clean sheets on clean beds, three square meals a day.

Lots of these aren't even families. They're human trafficking in child sex slaves. That's the point of separation.

The children of the immigrants are being helped in an HHS facility, temporarily, where they are fed, clothed, given somewhere to sleep and have all kinds of games to play. They are probably being treated better there than in their own countries..... I think that all priests, Bishops and Cardinals who vote Demoncrap should be excommunicated! All those ignorant Catholic laity who vote for the party of death need to be taught what that party stands for. They do the work of Satan!

[In response to me:] Mr. Infidel: Child sex trafficking is a major problem internationally to include on our boarders. This is nothing but child slavery for the worst reasons. The child slavers cross our boarder illegally and if caught then claim that their slaves are actually their children. As the foreign nationals entered the USA illegally our government rightly exasperates children from adults until parentage can be confirmed. I am at a loos as to why you and the Bishops condemn U.S. citizens who oppose child sex trafficking by slavers?

I also found this one revealing:

That is why it was so offensive, impertinent and inappropriate for the Pope to question Trump's Christianity during the campaign when Trump promised to build "walls" instead of "bridges" as the pope suggested. Associating "bridges" with "true" Christianity.

This is a (presumably) devout Catholic insulting the Pope for daring to criticize Trump.  That's how deep this cultism goes.  Comment threads on other right-wing sites have been similar -- here's one at RedState with 56 comments, almost all defending Trump.  These Christian conservatives will believe whatever they need to in order to continue supporting their idol.  Some secular right-wingers have joined in.

There's some evidence that this issue is splitting the right more than earlier Trump actions have -- a poll shows 35% of Republicans opposing the policy.  But that still leaves 55% them supportive and the other 10% presumably unwilling to criticize.

We really shouldn't be surprised.  This is who they are.  These are the people in the "fuck your feelings" T-shirts, gloating about "making the libturds cry".  But now we know, better than we did before, that they're deadly serious about being evil.