Just chaos and culture war. That’s about it. Philip Bump digs down a little to find out what really animates them. And it’s not surprising: One of the central refrains of Donald Trump’s campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — a refrain focused, justifiably, on a general election rematch against President Biden — is that the economy was more robust during his tenure in the White House. Trump and his allies make this argument constantly, one that largely focuses on inflation and that almost necessarily includes an asterisk that excepts the months of the coronavirus pandemic. But any person asked to evaluate the central themes of this race would very quickly identify the economy as a central part of Republican support for the former president. As it is, it seems, until a competing priority is presented: the need to “preserve American culture and way of life.” Then, the reality emerges. On Wednesday, PRRI released the results of its annual American Values survey, a look at broad themes in American political and religious thought. It included a number of questions aimed at evaluating how Americans thought political power should be deployed and the motivations for doing so. Among them was a question that got at the dichotomy above. Respondents were asked if they preferred a presidential candidate who was best at managing the economy or one who was best at being able to “protect and preserve American culture and the American way of life.” It’s a pretty explicit question in differentiating between…