What is happening to the America that we swore allegiance to every day in public school? what happened to the America that was “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”? How did we get a rogue Supreme Court that recklessly demolishes women’s rights, the separation of church and state, gun control, public safety, and efforts by government to prevent climate disasters? Who kidnapped the conservative Republican Party that believed in stability and tradition? From whence came the people who scorn the commonweal and ridicule Constitutional norms?
Former state legislator Jeanne Dietsch has an answer. Connect the dots by looking at what has happened to New Hampshire. The coup failed in Washington, D.C. on January 6, she writes. But it is moving forward in New Hampshire, with many of the same characters and all of the same goals.
If you read one post today, read this.
She writes:
During the last few weeks, US House leaders documented the nearly successful January 6 coup piece by piece, before our eyes. That personal power grab failed. Meanwhile, the steps clinching takeover of our government by radical reactionaries have nearly triumphed. A plan decades in the making. A plan nearly invisible to the ordinary public.
I can barely believe myself how this story weaves from Kansas to Concord to DC to the fields of southern Michigan over the course of six decades. It starts in Witchita. Koch Industries is the largest privately held company in the US, with over $115 billion in revenues, mostly fossil-fuel related. For many years, two of the founders’ sons, Charles and David Koch, each owned 42% of the company.
The younger, David, studied in the engineering department of MIT for 5 years, simultaneous with young John H. Sununu. Both finished their Master’s degrees in 1963.
1980: THE KOCHS SET THEIR GOALS
Seventeen years later, David Koch ran for Vice President of the US on the Libertarian ticket. The campaign was largely funded by Koch interests. The Libertarian platform of 1980, shown below, may look disturbingly familiar to those following news today.
Open her post to read the Koch Libertarian platform of 1980.
Libertarians demanded the abolition of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public schools, aid to children, the Post Office, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and more.
The infrastructure for achieving that platform was founded two years later. It was called the Federalist Society. It was a plan by a “small but influential group of law professors, lawyers, and judges.” Its goal?
To train members of their professions to believe in “originalism.” Originalists “strictly construe” the Constitution as they believed the Framers designed it way back in 1787. This matched David Koch’s 1980 platform. It would leave corporations free to do whatever profited them most without regard for social costs or regulations. Older Federalist Society members used their influence to advance their followers to higher judgeships.
SUNUNU FAMILY ROLES
Meanwhile, John Sununu became governor of New Hampshire, then Chief of Staff for President George W. Bush. In that role, John thwarted a plan for the US to join the international conference to address climate change in 1989. Actions like this, that benefitted Koch and the rest of the fossil-fuel industry, would become a hallmark of the Sununu family.
In 1993, an executive of Charles and David’s Koch Industries Michigan subsidiary, Guardian Industries, became a founding trustee of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy [JBC] in NH. Its mission was to advance many of the policies listed on David Koch’s platform of 1980. John Sununu, and later his son James, would chair the JBC board through today. Another of Sununu’s sons, Michael, would become a vocal climate denier and industry consultant. Still another, Senator John E. Sununu, would oppose the Climate Stewardship Act of 2003. But the Sununus were not coup leaders, just complicit.
BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE COUP
But let’s jump back to the Federalist Society. Its mission was succeeding. They were stacking the lower courts.?..Those justices hired young lawyers as clerks. From 1996-97, Thomas employed a Federalist Society clerk named John Eastman.
Twenty-three years later, Eastman would meet secretly with President Donald Trump. He would convince him that Vice President Pence could refuse to accept electoral college ballots on January 6. But back in 1999, Eastman became a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute. “The mission of the Claremont Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life.”
Now we’re almost at the secret clubhouse of the coup. The Claremont Institute was run by a fellow regressive named Larry Arnn.(Photo below) In late 1999, Arnn was in the process of replacing the president of Hillsdale College because of a scandal that made national news. Hillsdale promotes conservative family values. Yet its leader was having an affair with his daughter-in-law. She committed suicide. Hillsdale was the central hub for Libertarian radicals so they needed a strong leader to pull them out of the mud.
Please read the rest of this fascinating post. There is one blatant error: she refers to “Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer” as Koch justices, but Breyer was a liberal justice appointed by Clinton. She must have meant the crackpot Alito.
I think an analysis of how much corruption has influenced all that seems to be going wrong in the US would make for interesting reading. Vera Gottlieb – Switzerland
The Western world has been run by the worst forms of humanity for too long. The status quo is maintained by perpetuating the big lie. Eamon McKinney – (Strategic Culture)
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Yes, it is vital to connect the dots. The Koch brothers and their ilk know that in a society with few if any regulations on power and its abuse they win. Their key strategy is in the realm of ideas. To win they need to change how the general population makes sense of the world. In a world of inevitable scarcity and inequity, it’s everyone our for themselves and no one can be trusted. They’ve managed to promote that ideological mission in countless ways. They are winning and the rest of us are losing. The battle is to figure out how to reassert an opposing set of human values. All the talk about extremes of left and right notwithstanding, it does run through ceding any core values in language or laws in the name of bipartisanship or meeting in the middle. That said, the language we use to talk about universal human rights needs to be clear and rhetoric free so is doesn’t require explanation to those not already on our side.
Arthur Camins On “Morning Joe” this morning, Joe Scarborough made a comparative point about Great Britain and the United States. In GB, the whole country is making a big deal over Boris Johnson attending a party during a covid shutdown. They have been hounding him for months over it. Whereas, here in the United States, . . . need I say. . . .
Perhaps we should ask: What’s the difference? (besides Murdoch, Fox News, the NRA, Koch, Mitch McConnell, hard-right religion, and the Supreme Court)? CBK
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
Who is responsible for and behind the coup attempt in Washington DC on January 6, 2021? No, it’s not Traitor Trump. He’s too dumb to have organized the foundation that led to January 6.
The answer is Charles and David Koch and Koch industries. David’s dead. But Charles is still hard at work to destroy the United States of America, turning the into a polluted, violent, dystopian nightmare, and he trained his children to carry on his dream, to take his place when he is gone.
Larry Arrn is the one now plotting with Tennessee Governor Lee to destroy Tennessee schools. I am a pacific sort of guy. Peace above all. But how far will this go until people who do not share my peaceful nature begin to shoot? This country has not seen a radical left since the Weather Underground, but a look at the labor movement shows you what people will do if they are angry. The “leftists” will come if you build a wall to keep them out. Is that what the radical right is trying to do?
Diane Again, thank you for posting. Interesting how it all weaves together. Just one little piece of evidence from the double-speak playbook, so easy to overlook, among many that show up in the linked Koch et al narratives:
As education secretary Betsy Devos “went to work to achieve David Koch’s 1980’s educational platform. ‘Government ownership, operation, regulation and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.'” (quoted from the link above)
If we understand democracy and are not out to destroy it, we can understand “government ownership” NOT in capitalist/profiteering terms, but as directly related back to the well-being of “The People,” our taxes, and as administered by our representatives duly sworn to uphold the U. S. Constitution. CBK
Well said!
“Libertarians demanded the abolition of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public schools, aid to children, the Post Office, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and more.”
Notice nowhere in this Platform is any item about the Culture Wars. Yet the Kochs have been major funders of these efforts and central to the Federalist Society are those wars .
Not because the phony SOBs really give a crap about abortions or gay rights ….. It is a tool to accomplish economic power.
The Koch’s understood their goals required Paul Weyrich’s religion which is why they funded him.
The campaigns of the Koch network enabled Weyrich’s religion to gain the majority on SCOTUS.
Linda It’s a BOTH-AND situation where, if we broaden our view, we can understand that theo-fascism is a correct phrase, . . . only insofar as BOTH religion, as emergent today, and fascism as always, are distortions of the human spirit and also mutually influential.
However, take away the historical doctrinal and religious influence, and the fascist is left to remain powerful while raising up whatever icons they want to symbolize their own twisted sense of the “beyond” (as Hitler did, and as Putin does now). On the other hand, take away the fascism and fascist personalities we see today, and our questions about the beyond, and even those clothed in a moving Christianity, or Islam or whatever, can take on the civility that is at least attempting to flowing through our many cultures in our time. CBK
ADENDUM. In my view, secularity (not secularism) and democracy are essential to the flow and realization of that civility, as is the freedom of religious expression. It’s either THAT or a fascist and brutal dictator. CBK
Rail all you want about Koch. He’s not going to change. Democratic voters have to increase in one of three ways, more who are on the left have to go vote, more right wing religious voters have to wake up or, the white working class has to switch from Trump et al.
Learning about Koch will reach which of the 3 groups identified above and make them behave differently in elections?
Linda, re: “the white working class has to switch from Trump et al.” In broad terms this makes sense, & in fact Biden was able to claw back enough of them to be a significant factor in 2020. But I like this source for a deeper look at the actual breadth of their support. It debunks myths on the overall significance of this vote for Trump-et-al in particular, which could help Dems hone in better on the true issues involved:
https://as.vanderbilt.edu/news/2020/07/29/political-science-research-debunks-myths-about-white-working-class-support-for-trump/
Linda and bethree5 “Rail all you want about Koch. He’s not going to change.”
Koch and his big-business/oil cronies are running the government and killing the planet (quite literally owning Thomas and the Supreme Right) and running it into the Libertarian ground while everybody on both sides jumps up and down about abortion. CBK
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/06/supreme-court-has-declared-war-on-governing-climate-change-epa?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=vf&utm_mailing=VF_CH_070122&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9d0cd2ddf9c72dc1a57a2&cndid=30445349&hasha=19a3bfa50e7c3500ca6359b823d96d69&hashb=82c62389cee2f2e0ecf6272b6a5c0053866ccbf9&hashc=a9a4d70d1021bdf0283f26899059e21de723cc7c00ec898bb4786d73acde8c4b&esrc=AUTO_PRINT&source=EDT_VYF_NEWSLETTER_0_COCKTAIL_HOUR_ZZ&utm_campaign=VF_CH_070122&utm_term=VYF_Cocktail_Hour
The goal is not to change the Kochs. It’s to expose the true Koch agenda to Republican voters– as expressed clearly in 1980, along with evidence as to how they’ve gathered power to implement it, and how much of it they’ve accomplished so far.
Which significantly-sized Republican demographic segments will switch after learning about Koch? Rusty Bowers was a clear indicator of how little issues other than man over woman, straight over gay matter in the GOP.
Linda “Which significantly-sized Republican demographic segments will switch after learning about Koch? Rusty Bowers was a clear indicator of how little issues other than man over woman, straight over gay matter in the GOP.”
So “significantly-sized Republican demographics” are being gaslighted, just like the rest of the American people . . . so let’s blame them for it (especially the Catholics) and forget about Koch and the rest, who “won’t change” anyway, not to mention the anti-Christian so-called religious who are in bed with the oligarchs, . . . while the planet burns down. (Why do Hitler and the Jews [under every rock] come to mind?) CBK
be three
Thanks for the link. Do you know how the researchers defined white working class? The article confirms my own experiences with Republican voters which is why I think the segment to target for change is the conservative religious voter. We’re led to think that Catholics are better educated and smarter than evangelicals, if that was confirmed and if it was confirmed that they are less racist, it should be easier to wean them from voting for authoritarians. Other people I talk to, disagree, and think that that segment is unreachable.
Two working class Republican voters I know, a married couple living in the midwest, provide example for me. The husband, a retired public school teacher, listens to Fox. He’s the typical, angry, white, racist man who votes to prevent his privilege from being taken away. He’s not going to change. His wife, a retired public school teacher, was raised Catholic, converted to evangelical. She studiously avoids all politics. Her children lean Democrat. Her Republican voting puts her at odds with them. She says she is a single issue voter- abortion. Always, my hope is that the minds of women can be changed once they reject the lies religious leaders tell them – Jesus expects them to be 2nd class citizens and their and their daughters’ lives are worth less than a fertilized cluster of cells.
When a man says God’s law is paramount over government’s protections for democracy and civil rights, that man plans theft on a large scale and to trample all in his way.
be three-
For clarification, the preceding comment is about targeting women who are conservative religious voting GOP.
Linda– I relate to the story of the midwestern couple. It may be a single anecdote, but it’s certainly reflected in my experience there [a miniscule 3 yrs]. And of course ‘midwestern’ is a huge brush; it was Michigan. But I worked in a large business with many people who were native to there & surrounding states. It was a new satellite office of a big CA corp, so our bosses were either Californians or multinationals who had worked all over the world (what a weird contrast!) As an opinionated young Easterner, I had to learn quickly to duct-tape my mouth. It was my first exposure to people who found any talk of religion or politics to be… rude! 😀 And every local I met seemed to have been raised that way. IMHO, that cultural tic leaves people (or the children they raise) highly vulnerable to being swayed by extreme POV’s. (How would they even know what’s extreme?)
be three-
My experience in Michigan is similar to yours. Btw- if you didn’t know, the political right wing, Church Militant is located in Mich.
My speculation- Koch reasonably expected based on history that the religious would marshal the anti-woman, anti-Black, and anti-gay vote. He anticipated the merger of conservative Catholics and the lesser ideologues, evangelicals, to circle wagons and fight vigorously against those on the left who they could frame as the Godless attacking Christianity. Don’t we see the later from commenters at this blog?
Linda “He (Koch) anticipated the merger of conservative Catholics and the lesser ideologues, evangelicals, to circle wagons and fight vigorously against those on the left who they could frame as the Godless attacking Christianity.”
Koch et al are power grabbing at the highest levels of our government.
“Don’t we see the later from commenters at this blog?”
. . .Who exactly are you talking about? Certainly not me, Linda . . .I’ve been trying to wake you up to the larger context and issues here for months where you accused me of trying to take the light away from your hobby horse, the Catholic influence.
Also, though rather pedestrian, the extremity of such comments, coupled with vague references to “commenters at this blog” marks your note as innuendo.
And BTW, back to your concern about the above “merger,” though I do believe anti-abortion is shared, it’s not as cohesive as you might think on many other issues. CBK
and in the end always about the dollar: how to GET more and more and more
I am curious if Pat Sajak will become a political candidate since he is directly involved in policy decisions at Hillsdale College. He would not be on their board if he were otherwise inclined. No accusations but merely hypothesizing with a face familiar to MAGA world.
“Libertarians demanded the abolition of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public schools, aid to children, the Post Office, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and more.”
The only one of those entities listed above that is directly mentioned in the Constitution is the Post Office. The Supreme Court has shown it can destroy anything not specifically described in 1787. It could, in the course of only a term or two, wipe out Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the EPA, the Dept of Energy, Title 1, federal education grants and scholarships, the Dept of Transportation, the FDA, the FAA, the OSHA, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Happy Independence Day, Diane and everyone. Congress made July 4th a holiday in 1870. It’s not in the Constitution. This could be our last Independence Day, folks. I’m not joking. In 1938, Independence Day was made a paid federal holiday, signed into law by President Roosevelt. That makes the 4th of July a target for libertarians.
A frightening but real prospect
I just listed more items from the 1980 Libertarian Party Platform. They’re all on a very frightening and real agenda, clearly stated.
The WordPress moderator is libertarian.
I have found it to be almost completely Randomarian
There seems to be no reason to it.
But lucky for me it likes rhymes and let’s most of those through without moderation (except the ones that include Brett K.s full name)
It didn’t like my K is the Pope ditty.
Just for kicks, I’m going to test the Randomarian theory. Here is a comment with the full names of some justices. Let’s see if it goes through. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, , Justice Elena Kagan.
Next, in just a minute or two, I’ll try to post a comment with the names of the other six minus B.K. and see if the algorithm is set up to try to keep them shaded from discourse. I’ll call it the Dark Mod Hypothesis.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Interesting, they both published. The mod program is nonsensically random. Also, Brett K is a very exceptional person, for some reason. It doesn’t make sense. Betsy DeVos’ name should elicit the same response as the K-man island of law.
I’ll see your Brett Kavanaugh and raise you a James K. Polk.
Our worst fears confirmed”
Grunts the K(ave)man:
“I like beer”
Confirmation
Of our fear
Grunts the K(ave)man
“Roe is settled”
Confirmation
That it’s scuttled
Brett the Kaveman is perfect.
Based on the accelerated trashing of the Constitution over the past few weeks, the subject of this post, and the fact that there is no denying that a large swath of the American people would gladly exchange democracy for theocracy, I think many of us owe a debt to Linda for consistently and factually warning us about the systemic threats to our nation. And unlike the tenuous threads of conspiracism that seeming tie together unrelated facts to fit an argument, Linda has been explicit about the links between the GOP, the Koch Network, religious fundamentalists who set political policy advocacy agendas for their supporters and how they have been infiltrating and corrupting public education. Some will object, that they are not like “them” and how dare she paint them with the same brush. But she’s never done that. She points out the hypocrisies of the leadership of what they profess to believe, somehow seeing factual arguments from her as a greater insult and threat than the forces that change the meanings of their faith for political reasons. Read this post a few times and ask yourself if this would have been successful with the active support of a political party, certain religious figures who call themselves and are perceived by some as leaders, and corporate America. (Corporate America is not so much on the agenda as they are with the time and air it takes out of the political process, not for moral reasons.)
I would estimate 45% of the American people are hostile to or do not want democracy; they see it as a bad thing. Pluralism and diversity are bad because they do not respect or promote an approved, sanitized version of history and contemporary life. What they want is the perception of power. Linking on to these networks gives them that feeling. When some complain that they don’t understand democracy, they miss the point. They are not debating how to refine democracy, but how to replace it with a system that enforces favoritism for chose constituencies. Linda has recognized that and repeatedly informed us about it. I still think we’re going down the drain. But at least I understand better why thanks to these updates. If we don’t recognize that they don’t want to refine the system but destroy it and if they can’t do that, at least gum up the works so that nothing works and legitimacy is further weakened. Linda knows that.
GregB Enough with the innuendo–> “And unlike the tenuous threads of conspiracism that seeming tie together unrelated facts to fit an argument, . . . “ (I doubt you’ll ever beat Linda at it.)
Aside from that, like you, I think that Linda’s work here has been informative to a good degree. However, don’t forget to thank that person (ha!), whoever she/he is, for uncovering at least some of the other innuendos, misquotes, logical fallacies, and SERIOUS omissions in so many of her notes here that, BTW, others regularly use . . . others that she rails against–but whose methods she so willingly shares. It’s the method of the extremes, or cannot you, GregB, see the difference and/or both?
My view has always been that the Catholic Church, ANY church or organization, needs its critics and critiques. Thankfully, we can still do that without fear of meeting harm. Innuendo is not so bad when you forget about its potentially extreme end run. CBK
I did not have you in mind at all in that sentence or any of it, for that matter. I am writing about the misnomer “conspiracy theory” that too many people use. I use the term instead coined by Thomas Milan Konda, conspiracism. What I refer to are the 45% who see a hidden hand of intent behind unrelated events as simple explanations that have nothing to do with the truth.
Conspiracy is, like woke, just a word that has lost its meaning due to abuse. Fact is there has long been tension between science and the Church, and Charles Koch is an opportunist, that’s all. He has many strange bedfellows in his efforts to deregulate and privatize everything. Using the age old battle from Europe between church and state to weaken the state is too easy for him because he knows how to make people blame each other instead of him.
Greg – replying under general comments to get more margin.
Thanks Greg. Your warnings which we read at this site reflect well-researched and reasoned extrapolations. Diane and Bob’s warnings also fit into the category. Over the weekend, my daughter expressed a fear for her son, though he is young now. She fears that in a future authoritarian U.S., her son could be conscripted into a DeSantis/Trump military.
The extent of protection media gives to the Catholic church’s right wing politicking is too great to have not been orchestrated. The ties between the Koch network and the Catholic hierarchy and institutions is well-documented. My view about the unwitting who provide protection is below.
Greg, your views have an importance mine don’t. You have greater access to decision makers, better writing and persuasion skills and you have more respect and impact among readers of this blog. I’m particularly grateful that you express, in political terms, both the obstacles to and opportunities for the Republic’s survival.
LCT- Groundswell opposition to Koch (I’ve been waiting since Dark Money was published) is what I wish for. I look at history and I don’t find example of industrialists e.g. Henry Ford, where there was public repudiation that denied them success in their social and/or political goals. I don’t see the path that deposes Bill Gates, Bezos, Bloomberg, Zuck, Koch, etc. What I can see is the value of the check and balance that existed before the merger of the two largest religions.
It’s a false equivalency to compare majority religions with those at less than 3% of the population. Attempting to paint conservative Catholics/evangelicals as needing protection because they are similar to people of the Jewish faith in Europe during WWII is wrong on a lot of levels. One is that Jewish people did not seek to impose a theocracy.
Linda and All Let me correct Linda’s understanding of what I said about being reminded of Hitler and the Jews:
The analogy was between (1) (Linda’s) blaming the consortium of religious groups for our present political problems and (2) Hitler et al blaming the Jews for all of Germany’s problems at the time.
Also, it’s no false equivalency where corporate money and power are concerned. Do you think Koch or any of the rich and powerful are like your next-door neighbor or the clerk at Target? The 3% (or whatever) has more power and money than any of us ever dreamed of having. How many yachts, hotels, businesses, corporations, Congresspeople and SC Justices, etc., do you own?
BTW, both of those sets of napkins that someone here talked about buying . . . one for July 4, and the other for the beach . . . probably were saturated with Koch-made chemicals, as is pretty-much everything else.
My question to Linda is, while she rewrites the history of her notes here: what WON’T you say to keep religion and Catholics in your crosshairs while you deliberately overlook other essential elements of the “bigger picture”?
Here is your paragraph that I am responding to: “It’s a false equivalency to compare majority religions with those at less than 3% of the population. Attempting to paint conservative Catholics/evangelicals as needing protection because they are similar to people of the Jewish faith in Europe during WWII is wrong on a lot of levels. One is that Jewish people did not seek to impose a theocracy.” CBK
Linda And BTW, “Attempting to paint conservative Catholics/ evangelicals as needing protection” . . . Wait, What? I never did that. If you are not talking about me here, then WHO?
I do think, however, that like most Americans, a good number of the religious among us, even the fake-Christians, need to wake up to the Libertarian corporate takeover we are presently involved in. The Koch-led Gaslight Company. CBK
Here in “liberal” Massachusetts, the exiting governor, Charlie Baker, is handmaiden to the Kochs and the Waltons. It was true back when he headed up The Pioneer Institute as well. (And even Diane’s alma mater, Wellesly College, has had to un-Koch its campus.)
So while Baker has used his muscle to advance charters and try to privatize public education via his appointees to the State Board of education, he has also refused to address the crisis of our public transportation system, the MBTA. Instead of addressing mechanical problems, which have casued death and otherwise endangered public safety, Baker has been advocating for a new privatized fare collection system, which allows private corporations to profit.
Baker cultivates a public persona of a reasonable, personable, tall, handsome, Republican, but behind the facade he’s intent on doing the Kochs’ bidding. The Kochs and Waltons are everywhere and are what Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island speaks of when he says: “..when you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for the power in the shadows.”
Despite the affordability crisis, the Baker/Polito administration has opposed fare relief for low-income riders, even as billionaire corporations line up to rake in profits on the backs of the MBTA riders.
PRIVATIZATION OF FARE COLLECTION BENEFITS CORPORATIONS, NOT RIDERS
Under the MBTA’s much-delayed and controversial fare collection privatization contract, the hard-earned transit fares of essential workers and other working families will enrich two private equity owned, for-profit corporations, Cubic and the John Laing Group.
The fare collection privatization contract has already been renegotiated for a 30% cost increase, to $935.4 million. In addition, riders will see costs rise, as Fare Transformation plans include a new charge of up to $5 for every CharlieCard.
Click to access ptpg_un-fare-deal-report.pdf
“Firms that backed Charlie Baker’s pro-charter initiative scored millions in contracts with Mass. pension fund,” 7-2-2021, Intercept.
But of course…
GregB– “I would estimate 45% of the American people are hostile to or do not want democracy; they see it as a bad thing. Pluralism and diversity are bad because they do not respect or promote an approved, sanitized version of history and contemporary life. What they want is the perception of power.” This is very, very perceptive.
At first I would have quibbled with you on the %age. But here you paint a very accurate picture of a certain type of person. Recognizable for me: my grandfather. I use him as example to draw the distinction: this is a bigger group than theocracy-seekers. Religion merely fit in for him like a card in a straight flush. Yes he was a dutiful RC, but never spoke of it, just followed its rules– encouraged others to follow their own, when it came to religion. One can be highly intelligent and even promote independent thinking, and still hate democracy. He was a racist for sure—but only against US minorities! A world traveler, he was at home with other races in other places. That part of him was strictly about bullying those lacking political/ social power.
It’s a human failing which for which many more than theocratic leaners have the capacity. It derives from a sense that one lacks power. They have a sense of being dominated by intractable forces. No matter what their accomplishments, it lurks and threatens. What power? I’m not sure, but the desire for it is never satisfied, and it derives from fear. For the most severely afflicted, simmering anger is ever-present. Others in this sort of pack are attracted, needing to be around and joined with those whose anger is never quenched. This is how I see those described in Diane’s previous post: locals drawn, flies to honey, into groups– potential wolf packs– by speakers like the MyPillowGuy et al. Same thing for the truculent shouters-down at school board meetings, drawn by the siren call of online bubble-supporters. Biker gangs, Oath Keepers et al, likewise.
bethree5 I think your analysis of how deep the fear goes is right on target.
I try to stay away from theory here; but in my own more theoretical work, I explore how such fear goes to our fundamental first-learned images . . . of how we fit in the order of “others.” Think Totem pole . . . where your grandfather (to use your example) is close to the top, but where those “kinds” of people he is biased against are always below, and post-language, THAT’s where the racist/sexist’s, whatever, thinking STARTS . . . with that image already in place.
It’s existential, then . . . we feel it before we even reflect on it, as you suggest in your note. If that order of existence (one’s metaphysics) becomes disturbed, e.g., a black boy flirts with a white woman, as with Emett Till, we are threatened to our core, quite literally, that image and its disturbance is intimate with our fight/flight existence insofar as it is connected with our sense of who we are in the world . . . the Totem. In such extreme cases, lynching or raping puts the order of existence back in place.
This plays into how deep racism goes, especially when it’s a part of the family and social order, left unquestioned from the cradle. It becomes quite literally built-in to our PRE-LANGUAGE images; and the images are connected with our metaphysics of existence, feelings, and fight-or-flight.
The upshot is that we need the laws, but also over the long term, education towards generational/cultural self-reflection, self-understanding and self-correction. CBK
State Catholic Conferences have succeeded in enacting school choice legislation. Raw Story in a recent article about Christian nationalism quoted the author of Power Worshippers. “Breaking American Democracy isn’t an unintended side effect of Christian nationalism. It is the point of the project…main goal to …access public money… exploit the base as a means of exploiting the rest of us.”
Paul Weyrich, Koch’s man, understood Christian nationalism.
Linda “Paul Weyrich, Koch’s man, understood Christian nationalism.”
Exactly that, only the emphasis is “Koch” and not the whole of Christianity in the United States.
The single-issue of abortion really does cover over a lot of what actually goes on in the pews, at least that’s what the polls tell us (and my experience), even about birth-control and abortion, but also on the deeper meaning of our history living under the U.S Constitution.
You STILL seem to have it that the entire block of Christianity in the United States is about bringing about a theocracy. Ironically, I doubt even Koch wants that . . . coming from THEM, it’s a part of the gaslighting ruse . . . remember your oft saying about fascism wrapped in a flag and holding a Bible? It’s about fascism USING nationalism and the bible. You’ve got it backwards.
And your still broad brushing everyone as not understanding the value inherent to all, even to the religious, of a secular democracy, is still so very wrong-headed. (Just kidding here, but pretty soon, Koch may just send you a check.) CBK
I was thinking about your beef today. There are definitely believers of religions who are progressive and they are the sources of many important programs. But that is ancient history.
Today progressive members of large, formal religions may complain about being wrongly lumped in a group of fundamentalists, and they’re correct about that. But you know what else they don’t have? Political power or impact. Compare your religious compatriots with those in positions of power, influence and prestige. You have no power whatsoever compared to them. Need proof? Read the papers over the past 30 years plus. Who have you elected? Where have liberal members of religions taken the lead and won in anything since the Civil Rights Movement? And instead of figuring out how to create effective progressive coalitions, you’d rather argue with the people who point out these facts.
We are allies. But for some reason labels seem to be more significant than actions and achievements. Is it any wonder that we are losing?
GregB With many others, that’s my point: I’m trying to get away from being labelled and grouped in with the (yes, powerful) right wing of the Church with many others. Within the Church, my understanding is that it’s an internal split that came along with Pope Francis. The right in the Church coalesced and became worse unreflective old-world absolutists than they were when the earlier popes were more in line with them.
For Linda, however, All Catholics are “Catholic.” And that means we are ALL “followers of authority” and all those other biases she permeates her notes with. That kind of thinking is just as dangerous as the other extreme.
And btw, how do you know what I do and don’t do in the Church, or others there, for that matter? Don’t you think we should all stick with what we know? I wanted to say: “mind your own business,” but I thought that might be rude, and I don’t want to be that way since your note otherwise seemed so civil. CBK
Reblogged this on Playing for Time and commented:
Hot off the Kansas prairie and explains pretty much everything.