America’s Holy War
“It would seem, however, the goal is to allow their version of Christianity, and their understanding of the Bible, to shape law and government.” Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers
It looks inevitable that the Christian Right will achieve its objective of nullifying Roe v. Wade. For most of the 20th century, the Republican Party didn’t care much about abortion. Only when it became clear that abortion could be deployed as an energizing issue to unify evangelical Christians with the GOP did it become a lightning rod and litmus test, part of the Holy Trinity along with low taxation and minimal government regulation. Aided for decades by infusions of cash from wealthy donors, the recruitment and vetting of federal judiciary and Supreme Court candidates provided by Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society, and patient, persistent, single-minded political advocacy, the Christian Right is poised to achieve its most cherished prize. America, and American women, particularly those who are poor and unfortunate enough to live in Texas and Mississippi, and other ruby red states, are about to take a step backwards.
Given all its bizarre contradictions, it’s a miracle that this country still functions. Is it possible for a nation to suffer from cognitive dissonance? The very people screaming these days that nobody is going to force them to get vaccinated against Covid or wear a face covering have no problem dictating what women can do with their reproductive capacity. My long-held view is that the call over this difficult, painful, wrenching decision rests with the pregnant woman, and no one else. The anti-vaxxers claim it’s about their freedom. So why doesn’t the same argument apply to women exercising freedom of choice over their own bodies? Why are so many white men so invested in this issue? Raise the subject of reasonable gun control legislation and many of the same people lose their minds, perfectly content, it appears, to cling to the belief that guns don’t kill people, even as the blood from the latest school shooting dries on the classroom floor. Nobody’s taking my guns! My guns, my freedom!
America is an open-air madhouse. How else to describe it?
Our memories and attention spans are short. What happens today is forgotten tomorrow. So-called political “leaders” flock to cable news and social media to tell us that what we witnessed with our own eyes didn’t happen, or didn’t mean what it obviously meant, or was an evil plot by the deep state or whatever bogeyman is convenient. It’s too much. The stupidity, the noise, the posing and posturing, the deliberate, calculated mendacity, the frightening narrowing of the separation of church and state, the overt white nationalism, the cruelty, and lack of common decency that is daily displayed by people with Ivy League pedigrees.
Three years after the Nixon court handed down its Roe v. Wade ruling, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which restricted the use of some federal funds for abortion services. The amendment was targeted at Medicaid, the insurer of last resort for poor women. What kind of country deliberately makes life harder for some of its neediest citizens? What kind of country punishes people for being poor? What kind of country spends more than half its budget on War? What kind of country ignores the climate crisis? What kind of country is too fragile and weak-minded to honestly examine its own history? Land of the free, home of the brave? No, we’re the land of the sanctimonious and cowardly, the gullible and ignorant. How is it possible that 74 million Americans voted in 2020 for a debauched, debased and delusional man responsible for tens of thousands of avoidable deaths? That still astounds me. What in the hell is wrong with us? Trump failed. His name, image, ridiculous signature, everything about him, and every member of his family, should be symbols of shame and embarrassment. None of them should be on television, radio, YouTube, or wherever; they should be in hiding, afraid to show their faces. Power exacerbated and accentuated every one of Trump’s worst traits. No man like that can be allowed near the levers of power. Look what he did, what he tried to do. He should be under indictment for treason, for sedition. How is it possible that such a man, such a colossal failure of a human being, rules an American political party?
Make no mistake, there is a war being fought in America. As Katherine Stewart wrote in her book, The Power Worshippers, Christian nationalists “have declared a new holy war against America’s ethnically and religiously diverse democracy.”
I think we know who is winning.
