Are religious right leaders Dobson, Falwell and Reed “cheap dates” — or worse?

BuzzFeed political reporter McKay Coppins offers some insight into the history of Donald Trump’s overtures to Christian right leaders.

Trump’s 2011 conversion to social conservatism immediately caught the attention of evangelical powerbroker Ralph Reed, and the two became fast friends. They spoke frequently that year as Trump flirted with a presidential bid, and according to two sources close to the businessman, Reed privately agreed to run Trump’s campaign if he decided to enter the 2012 race. The alliance would have made for a head-scratching headline if it had ever come to fruition, and likely would have drawn accusations of opportunism.

Read the whole article.

It’s clear that Trump and the Religious Right started their courtship long before he launched his presidential campaign last summer.

But even Trump is surely shocked at how easy it has been to fool the most gullible constituency in all of politics. After all this time, he still has no idea about what specific policy and legal issues matter to conservative evangelical leaders. And many of them don’t even care.

Ralph Reed drawing accusations of political opportunism?! What else is new?

You’ve heard the old saying, “The Christian right is the cheapest date in American politics.” I’ve always thought liberals were being crude and hyperbolic when they trotted out prostitution metaphors. “Cheap date” seemed apt enough.

Not anymore.

Dobson, Falwell, Reed etc aren’t on a “cheap date” with Trump. They’re very close to political whoredom.