Trump supporters are intelligent and energetic people of integrity

A doctor recently said to me that it’s hard to find individuals with intelligence, energy and integrity. My answer to him was that there are. The over 63 million who voted to make Donald J. Trump the President of the United States.

There are those who characterize Trump supporters as racist, hateful, bigoted. That’s not the truth.

Let’s look at why Trump supporters are intelligent and energetic people of integrity.

Perhaps the best example is the response to Hurricane Harvey. Texas is a state in which Donald Trump won 36 out of the 38 electors. Trump won the state by over 8 percent. Texas is Trump country. Texas is part of fly over America.

What exactly is fly over America?

Fly over America is that part of America between the big metropolitan areas of New York City and Los Angeles, California. It is where working class Americans live, work and play. It was the part of America that Hillary Clinton ignored. It was the part of America that Donald Trump embraced and the part that embraced Donald Trump. It is that part of America that wanted to restore respect for the country in a positive and loving way.

Intelligence versus Education

Intelligence is defined as “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.” Education is “the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.”

In July 2014 The Street listed the 10 “smartest” and 10 “dumbest” states in the country based on the percentage of the population with at least a bachelor’s degree or higher. The assumption is that having a bachelor’s degree or higher makes one “smart.” Those states without a high percentage of people with a bachelor’s degree, or higher, are classified as “dumb.”

When you look at The Street list and the 2016 Presidential election results, Hillary Clinton won all ten of the “smart” states – Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado and Massachusetts. Mrs. Clinton won one of the top ten dumbest states – Nevada.

Looking at the 2016 Presidential election results Donald J. Trump won nine of the top ten “dumb” states  – Tennessee, Oklahoma, Indiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia. Donald Trump won the election. Of the remaining 30 states Donald Trump won 21 of the states that were classified by The Street as neither smart or dumb.

Smart is defined as having an bachelor’s degree or higher but that doesn’t make a person intelligent, e.g. a person having the ability to apply knowledge and skills. Intelligence is also defined as “the collection of information of political value.”

It is fly over Americans who are educating themselves and creating congregations, communities, organizations and a movement which elected Donald J. Trump president. An election that went against those who are deemed smart. The smart states lost. The intelligent people won.

Human Energy is what Makes America Great

Energy is defined as “the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity.”

Human capabilities are boundless and the best of America comes out when the people are tested. The recent devastation in Texas is an example of the the boundless energy of the American people. The American people always respond to love, charity and helping those in need. This video tells the story better than any words we can write.

Physical strength and mental toughness were shown in Houston. Rolling up ones sleeves and rebuilding that which God’s nature has, by its power, taken away. This example of many coming together as one nation under God is what makes America great, a shining city on a hill. It was truly inspiring.

Integrity is key to a fulfilled life

Integrity is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”

Rod Dreher in his book The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation wrote:

The church, then, is both Ark and Wellspring – and Christians must live in both realities. God gave us the Ark of the church to keep us from drowning in the raging flood. But He also gave us the church as a place to drown our old selves symbolically in the water of baptism, and to grow in new life, nourished by the never-ending torrent of His grace. You cannot live the Benedict Option without seeing both visions simultaneously.

Those who see both visions will be people of integrity. It’s not about us, its about Him. Living as a Christian in a post-Christian nation requires integrity and much much more. America witnessed hundreds if not thousands of arks, the Texas Navy, being pulled on trailers headed toward Houston. Each of those arks was to keep the people of Texas from drowning in the raging flood both physically and spiritually.

Dreher in his book bears his soul and his concerns for the future of his family, community and the nation. Dreher writes in the preface to his book:

In my 2006 book Crunchy Cons, which explored a countercultural, traditionalist conservative sensibility, I brought up the work of philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, who declared that Western civilization has lost its moorings. The time was coming, said MacIntyre, when men and women of virtue would understand that continued full participation in mainstream society was not possible for those who wanted to live a life of traditional virtue. These people would find new ways to live in community, he said, just as Saint Benedict, the sixth-century father of Western monasticism, responded to the collapse of Roman civilization by founding a monastic order.

Life requires a religious orthodoxy that sustains one through the tough times, like Houston, Texas. Houston gives us hope that God is alive and well and He is working in mysterious ways.

RELATED ARTICLE: Texas Samaritans Are Evidence that Good People Still Exist

---