Yes, I can see that. I’m imagining, trying to empathize: If I’d made “a bad comment” at some point and felt I’d been permanently banished from lefty circles, I might try to find a home in a centrist or right-leaning circle. And (if I were Christian) maybe that seeking of community would carry a Christian meaning for me about forgiveness. I might also fear rejection by “elitists” — that is, perhaps I don’t believe I need to be “forgiven” for saying something “bad,” but instead I observe that I am “different” from these other people who are snobby toward me just because I am concerned with different topics from a different perspective or because I use different vocabulary, and I’m annoyed at them for being snobs about their ideology when their college was more expensive than mine.

It still baffles me, though, why anyone would pick the most unethical guy in the room (Trump) to be the face of a movement. Especially when he *is* a New York elite and *isn’t* in the slightest concerned with Christian forgiveness. The theory seems to break down a bit there, or it needs something extra to explain that.