Christian Nationalists hate it when you tell the truth about their fascist plans for America
They were hoping to surprise us like the Nazis did to Germany
Heading into November, there’s one thing Donald Trump has made crystal clear: He’s promised Christian Nationalists “power at a level that [they’ve] never…used before.” At a time when the American Evangelical community's support for Trump has been rumored to be wavering, he’s making sure that one of his most loyal voting blocs from 2016 and 2020 will come through for him again in 2024.
This time, he and his allies have a plan to show Christian Nationalists that he means business. But those same Christian Nationalists are furious that Politico reporter Heidi Przybyla has connected them and their intentions for a second Trump term…if it comes about in November.
If there’s one thing that’s a certainty heading into the 2024 presidential elections, it’s that Donald Trump, if he wins again, will surround himself with Christian Nationalists who believe the Bible, not the Constitution, ought to dictate how we run the country. And it’s only their conservative interpretations of the Bible that counts.
That’s the basis for Project 2025. That’s how right-wing justices have defended their insane decisions, including the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent ruling to effectively block IVF treatments. That’s how Speaker Mike Johnson is running the Republican Party.
That’s also why it was troubling, but not surprising, when POLITICO reported last week that a right-wing think tank was “developing plans to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in [Trump’s] administration should the former president return to power.”
By now, Project 2025 should be no secret to anyone who’s been paying attention. If you’re unfamiliar with it, Carlos Lozada of the New York Times has read all 887 pages of the Heritage Foundation’s “Mandate for Leadership,” the essential manual of Project 2025.
Przybyla’s report wasn’t exactly breaking news; the existence of Project 2025 has been known for months. However, the use of politically incendiary terms like “Christian Nationalism” has been left out of documents, speeches, videos, and general communications regarding Project 2025.
What has Christian Nationalists' panties in a wad now is that they’ve been caught engaging in a bit of verbal honesty in the vein of “When they tell you who they are, believe them.”
They just told us who they are…and it’s time we begin to understand what these zealots have in mind is, as a friend used to say, “dead fucking serious.”
The piece, by Alexander Ward and Heidi Przybyla, explained that The Center for Renewing America and its president Russell Vought had drafted a document with priorities for a second Trump term: “Christian nationalism” is literally one of the bullet points. While specifics are lacking, the implications are obvious, especially since Vought is an advisor for Project 2025.
The documents obtained by POLITICO do not outline specific Christian nationalist policies. But Vought has promoted a restrictionist immigration agenda, saying a person’s background doesn’t define who can enter the U.S., but rather, citing Biblical teachings, whether that person “accept[ed] Israel’s God, laws and understanding of history.”
Vought has a close affiliation with Christian nationalist William Wolfe, a former Trump administration official who has advocated for overturning same-sex marriage, ending abortion and reducing access to contraceptives.
It would be difficult to overstate the challenge this presents to the multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-faith America we live in. It would mean that American law and immigration policy would be remade to favor good, God-fearing White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual patriots. Same-sex marriage would be imperiled, as would be virtually every other hard-won right gained by the LGBTQ community.
Women’s rights would come under increasing pressure as Christofascists seek to roll back any idea that women have a right to control their reproductive processes.
The idea that America is better because it accepts and embraces those from around the world would be significantly curtailed as Christofascist immigration policies roll up the welcome mats and lock the entry doors at our border.
In short, the America we know today would quickly become unrecognizable as it quickly becomes harsher, meaner, more intolerant of diversity, less inclusive, and more “Christian.”
Yes, that’s every bit the oxymoron it seems to be.
Christian nationalists in America believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life. As the country has become less religious and more diverse, Vought has embraced the idea that Christians are under assault and has spoken of policies he might pursue in response.
One document drafted by CRA staff and fellows includes a list of top priorities for CRA in a second Trump term. “Christian nationalism” is one of the bullet points. Others include invoking the Insurrection Act on Day One to quash protests and refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects, a practice banned by lawmakers in the Nixon era.
CRA’s work fits into a broader effort by conservative, MAGA-leaning organizations to influence a future Trump White House. Two people familiar with the plans, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal matters, said that Vought hopes his proximity and regular contact with the former president — he and Trump speak at least once a month, according to one of the people — will elevate Christian nationalism as a focal point in a second Trump term.
All of Project 2025 is designed to be implemented if Donald Trump is elected in November. If Trump is defeated, Project 2025 doesn’t go away; it’s a Conservative dream that’s existed for decades and has been updated from time to time. Never has it seemed so close to coming to fruition as it does now.
Vought, who declined to comment, is advising Project 2025, a governing agenda that would usher in one of the most conservative executive branches in modern American history. The effort is made up of a constellation of conservative groups run by Trump allies who’ve constructed a detailed plan to dismantle or overhaul key agencies in a second term. Among other principles, the project’s “Mandate for Leadership” states that “freedom is defined by God, not man.”
Yes, but whose flavor of God? And what about those Americans who claim a different faith tradition…or no faith tradition at all? A small minority of Christofascist zealot would have no problem forcing their belief system on an entire country.
America could potentially become the breeding ground for something similar to the Republic of Gilead, the unbelievably corrupt Christofascist dictatorship from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The Mandate for Leadership might become an 887-page manual for constructing the American Gilead.
As Przybyla pointed out on MSNBC last weekend, the difference between Christians and Christian Nationalists is that Christian Nationalists don’t believe our rights come from laws or elections. They believe our rights come from Almighty God. The problem is that THEY- men, it’s always men- are the ones determining what God is telling them.
Oddly enough, what “God is telling them” always seems to be something that redounds to their benefit and serves to keep other, less-favored groups in subordinate positions.
Ch”istian nati”nalists seek to apply this so-called “natural law” to issues like abortion and LGBTQ rights…and we saw it in the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that declared embryos to be minor children and thus virtually destroyed the IVF procedure in the Yellowit'ser State.
Again, Conservative Christian men (it’s always men) will “e the ones deciding “omplex issues based on what “God is telling them,” which will always hew closely to their own prejudices.
Godwe'lls in mysterious ways, no??
One of the things we’ll learn as Conservative men begin to implement Project 2025 is that God REALLY hates DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives.
One of the book’s most frequent targets is D.E.I. — the diversity, equity and inclusion infrastructure erected throughout the federal government in recent years that “Mandate for Leadership” equates with racism. Just about every corner of the administration, from the Department of Labor to the U.S. Agency for International Development, must be scrubbed clean of D.E.I., and the measures to accomplish this can be brutish. At the Treasury Department, for instance, a new conservative administration would identify and interview every official who has taken part in D.E.I. programs to assess the scope of the efforts and ensure that they are eliminated, and it would “treat the participation in any critical race theory or D.E.I. initiative, without objecting on constitutional or moral grounds, as per se grounds for termination of employment.”
The excesses of diversity, equity and inclusion programs are hardly a concern only for the political right, but this isn’t just the countermanding of an ideology. It is a purging of anyone touched by it. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the D.E.I. party?
In a nation that will be recreated for the benefit of good, God-fearing White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual patriots, those tainted by DEI cannot be tolerated in positions of power. They must, and will, be eliminated- purged, more accurately- from government and from any hope of ever serving in government again. With any luck, they might find a job managing a Dairy Queen franchise, but that’s about as close as they’ll ever get to public service.
Because:
I wish that this was all some sort of dystopian fairy tale, that we could wake up in the morning, turn on the TV, and hear Jon Stewart screaming, “PSYCH!!! We were fucking with you the whole time!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”
Sadly, this is all too real, and the uncertainty surround November’s election is almost palpable. We’ve come to a fork in the road. One fork leads to a future which may be uncertain, but will at least be continuing the American democratic tradition we’ve enjoyed for the past quarter-millennium. The other fork leads into a void of uncertainty, a place where America has been before, because it won’t be the America those of us who grew up with the democratic tradition know.
It will be a different America, darker, harder, less compassionate, more “Christian.” If that sounds contradictory, that’s because it is. None of it will have anything to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ, and the “biblical law” will be brutal and swift, without recourse or opportunity for redemption.
Those who oppose the transformation of America into AmeriKKKa will no doubt find they have no place and a short shelf life in the new regime. Where will we go? Will we have a place to go? Or will the brave new world simply roll over those of us who refuse to conform?
Stay tuned.
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