Answered from Pivot Extra: America at 250 — with Heather Cox Richardson · Pivot · 2026-10-18
Heather Cox Richardson traced it to a strand of American history running back to the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century: the belief that ordinary people with a hotline to God know better than people who went to Harvard. She said that belief has never before been placed at the top of government, that it overlaps with Trump's ideas about some people being better than others, and that it helps explain evangelical loyalty to him.
Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Pivot (2026-10-18). Read the whole episode summary →