As he was being sentenced to prison for his role in the January 6 insurrection, Cleveland Meredith, who was armed and threatening to murder Nancy Pelosi, protested to the court, “That’s not who I really am.”
Really? Then I wonder who is sitting in his cell. (Assuming the Supreme Court hasn’t sprung him yet.)
School children and other innocents are mown down by guns that are as easily purchased as toys. Politicians, social media and the pseudo-news media spew lies, promote conspiracy theories and capitalize on racial and religious prejudice without restraints. White supremacists violently storm the Capital in a blatant political coup attempt at the bidding of a sociopathic would be dictator while Republican legislators protect and facilitate them and the Supreme Court, that he refers to, correctly as “my Court,” declares him a king with no legal accountability for the coup he engineered or anything else he has done or may do.
But we keep saying, “that’s not who we are.” We are a “good, Christian” nation.
As if “good” and “Christian” are synonymous.
As President Biden said in the wake of the Buffalo massacre, “it’s time to take a look into the mirror.”
He wasn’t just talking about gun violence. Our crazy gun laws are inextricably linked with other negative aspects of our national character many of which are interwoven with what underlies Christian nationalism.
I’m glad the president acknowledged the connection between gun violence and extreme White Christian nationalism in that speech.
I’m especially glad that, for once, he didn’t say, “that’s not who we are.” He and a lot of other people would be wise to continue to hold that mirror up to the face of a nation that, despite all evidence, continues to pretend we are not who we are.
The reality of demographic change is pushing against the delusional thinking that permits White extremists to regard their world view as the immutable God-given truth and their dominant role in society as a God-given right. But this is not limited to the lunatic fringe. A huge segment of the population who were indoctrinated in Christianity and a sanitized version of our history and who benefit from the White Christian dominated system are unalarmed at Trump and his MAGA mob.
As demographics change the dominance of this privileged group is now threatened. They, being merely animals of the human variety, do what any animal would do to protect their territory. Fight or flight.
First there was flight. To segregated suburbs, to private schools and to home schooling and, more recently, to a shared belief system built on disinformation and fantastical theories. This group, whom Hillary Clinton accurately but ill-advisedly dubbed the “deplorables” are not some fringe group. Along with less extremist sympathizers they comprise at least 40 percent of our population. The same percentage that solidly support Trump and endorse the ultra-right Republican agenda. This 40 percent or so surrounds and tolerates a core group largely comprised of anti-gay, anti-black, anti-Asian, anti-semitic, anti-Islamist, pro-gun, Bible waving but religiously ignorant, poorly educated, fair skinned Christians that has always been indisputably in control of the country, its institutions, economy, policies and mythology. Social progressivism threatens their dominance. Cornered and terrified, they turn and bare their fangs.
They fight on the internet. They fight in the news media. But worst of all, they fight in government by imposing minority rule on Congress through relentless obstruction. None other than the Speaker of the House believes, let’s call it what it is, labors under the grandiose delusion, that God literally speaks to him and anointed him to his role, and that the Bible supersedes the Constitution as the authority on establishing our laws. They have at their backs the Frankenstein monster of a Supreme Court that they brought to life by underhanded political maneuvers. Several members of the Court, what is supposed to be an unbiased body, are blatant Christian nationalists themselves, corrupt and wielding their power in unchristian ways twist the Constitution to suit their personal, biased agenda.
The specter of Robert E. Lee smiles benevolently upon them all. After a 157 year long truce they are finishing the fight he started and may well emerge victorious. Gun violence is but one aspect of their aggression, but an especially tragic one. The battlefields of today’s war are not fields and woods, but supermarkets and schools. The victims are not soldiers, but innocent civilians and children.
What care they? They carried out their duty to the dead by thinking and praying, didn’t they? They are winning and that’s all that matters. They may well take over November 5. From there they would go on to bring about the end of democracy in America. Non-White voters will be prevented from voting. If liberals win elections they will be overturned. Trump has made it clear he would do what autocratic leaders do all over the world. He will subdue peaceful protestors by force and imprison his critics and opponents. He will muzzle the free press and defang federal regulatory agencies and the entire federal bureaucracy. Through these measures, he and his supporters will bring today’s multiethnic majority to heel and establish theocratic, oligarchical rule. For a preview of what’s to come look at what happened in Venezuela. Maduro ain’t goin’ nowhere despite his election loss, is he?
Against the intent of the Founders, government continues to promote and codify religion within our laws. “National Day of Prayer,” Congressional prayer breakfasts, religious invocations to begin national events and meetings, the required “God bless America” to end every speech. These practices breech the supposed wall between church and state. We see an America that was just beginning to emerge from three centuries of White Christian domination being cast, once, again in the image of religious bigots and run according to their rules. Rules that will ultimately tear down democracy.
This large segment of the population are determined to keep control by whatever means necessary. This is exactly who they are, and, if we do not find a path toward squelching this dangerous movement soon, and forcefully, we will all be, de-facto, who they are.
An Author's Inner Mind 