Can an atheist play the Trump card? Short answer; Yes: ask Cardinal George Pell (not about atheism or Trump, but about his interpretation of Matthew 19: 14)¹. Atheists are against supernaturalist deceitfulness but, being human, not above deception. Which is why atheism is not enough: it’s how you behave, not what you disdain, that marks your contribution – if any – to society. Take Trump’s tweets about people he considers warrant disparagement². An atheist-for-Trump in 2024 is someone who wants more of the same: gangsterism, sexism, homophobia, Kellyanne-ism, populism, Banner-Miller-ism, conservative extremism, racialism, mind-boggling Gerrymandering, egregious Evangelism, political graft, financial grift; in short, open antagonism towards the open society. If there is, anywhere out there, an atheist-for-Trump, such a person will have to successfully account for a helluva lot more than the twelve affronts to civil decency just listed. Such a person would have to show how an atheist can overlook the contribution of Christian Nationalist fundamentalism to the character-building of a significant Trumpian portion of what passes as Congressional pillars of society³.

Biden vs. Boebert? It’s not their core-shared religious belief that’s the problem; it’s the demand one makes that all citizens must live their lives according to the religious beliefs of a rabid few. I cannot imagine an atheist prepared to live in the America Lauren Boebert is actively seeking to bring about; a hymn-singing, Biblical-literalist, child-indoctrinating, ultra-nationalistic, gun-toting, abortion-banning, vote-tampering, science-demeaning, refugee-refusing, gay-bashing, election-rigging, tolerance-denying, Muslim-hating, book-burning, frankly racist America. But hey; nuances apart, we live in a crazy, ‘Fauchi-ouchy’ world, in which a Louie Gohmert, a Matt Gaetz, a Robert Aderholt and a Tommy Tuberville manifestly can garner votes sufficient for elected office: a world in which a self-confessed pussy-grabber can bag the highest office in the land and be supported by most persons named on this page. So who am I to deny the possibility of an atheist-for-Trump in that world? Fortunately for me, critical rationalism has priority over atheism: it rids us of all the above bigotries in one fell swoop. Not all atheists are critical rationalists. But a totalitarian supernaturalist is ipso facto not a critical rationalist. Josh Hawley makes my point. The question is not whether professing atheism guarantees level-headedness; it doesn’t. It is rather whether professing anything Trump stands for is compatible with level-headedness; it isn’t! Ask Amy Kremer; the more she talks, the more you’ll learn about rationality, the hard way. Don’t ask ‘Cancun’ Cruz; the more he talks, the less you’ll know – period!

1. The late Cardinal may (or may not) have been guilty of child abuse. He is guilty of the abuse of reason. “Can science explain the purpose of the universe?” is a misbegotten Pellian question that imposes a purpose whose unmet burden of proof must be met before the question need be entertained. Reason is abused by anyone who knows this yet asks the (presumed no-brainer) question anyway. At issue here is the fact that we are all capable of being inconsistent. Atheism is a big tent, and atheists are not ipso facto immune from inconsistency. Vigilance is part of self-criticism, not of atheism.
   
2. “…low I.Q. Crazy…”; “…bleeding badly from a face-lift”; “…women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye – or perhaps another body part”; “…as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass”; “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?”; “…that ugly fat face of hers…”; “Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely”; “…blood coming out of her, wherever”.
   
3. Try the baker’s dozen of Allen, Babin, Carl, Desjarlais, Gosar, Hyde-Smith, Jordan, Kennedy, Loudermilk, Marshall, Scott, Taylor Greene and Walberg on a cursory whip through of the alphabet; leaving out several equally shaky ‘pillars’ (and not so much as mentioning those who, like Jew -ish George Santos, are clearly of medical concern).