The "moral majority"... is neither moral, nor the majority. This shutdown is on the GOP
TAT readers,
For old timers like me who remember the late 1970s through the 1980s, the name, “Moral Majority” will ring a bell. For those on the right, it will likely have a good connotation. Those on the left, middle and otherwise, will see it as the carefully planned beginning of the rabid Christian Nationalism threatening us today. A politically aggressive, highly ambitious and dishonest rookie congressman named, Newt Gingrich, was new to congress in 1978, and he is the forefather of the type of Republican that we now see today, dishonest, aggressive, Christian Nationalist, oligarchical and rigid in opposing anything that the other side of the aisle wanted. They are best summarized as bipartisan obstructionists.
Not only was Gingrich’s leadership lethal to any bi-partisan effort, his Moral Majority movement, was rabidly grounded in White Christian Nationalism. Everything Gingrich and his merry band of political hoodlums represented then, became the fertile soil that grew the seeds of Republican autocracy, oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and Political Violence, into the poisonous weeds strangling the beautiful flowers of American Democracy. We didn’t put a stop to it then, but now our backs are against the wall while battling the MAGA Republican Party. We can no longer afford to lose without signing the death certificate of our republic.
Onward
Born of the Moral Majority, today’s GOP have defined themselves by their actions and this definition is, overt, autocracy, oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and political violence. Our government shutdown by the Republicans, embraces all four defining attributes described above. For a party branding themselves as “Christians,” the only religious traits to be found are exclusively CN or Christian Nationalist in nature. Their autocracy lays bare their own overt deference to the sadistic whims of their dear leader, a malignant narcissist or MN. These whims are fully supported by a subservient, Republican-led Congress and a pliant to Trump’s will, SCOTUS.
The oligarchy is represented in their slashing the budgets of some of our nation’s most important agencies and programs, the very programs established during the Great Depression by FDR’s administrations. In three days, programs that provide much of the daily nutrition requirements for 42 million Americans, will be penniless, due to the malignant narcissist trait of sadistic cruelty. Whether our military will be paid, is another disgraceful chapter in the legacy of the Republican Party’s gleeful willingness to do the dirty work of the MN in our Oval Office. He is virtually incapable of seeing anyone’s needs but his own.
This shutdown, is also, part and parcel of an endless streak of sensationalist diversions from Trump’s real fear, the Epstein Files. This is where the political violence rears its ugly head. The use of ICE, the CBP, other DHS and Executive Branch forces against the American people, just may be the most disgraceful action by an American Government since the South seceded from the Union in 1861, in order to form a government by force that protected slavery.
In last Saturday’s essay, I mentioned “radical acceptance” and again, I invoke this phrase to try and demonstrate that, we must accept that the president and his party are exactly who they have showed us since January 20th. We must accept that they will not change for the better and will certainly become worse without massive resistance. This is not a guess, nor an educated guess but an assessment based on research, an understanding of malignant narcissism and the compulsive greed of the White House and his oligarchs. The Republican Party doesn’t have the spine to change and Trump’s MN, precludes any chance that he can or will. You can as they say; “bet the deed to the ranch on this assessment.” They prove this via their actions and inactions, all day and every day.
When the clock strikes 00:01 on November 1st, paychecks will still be missing for all but a handful of Federal workers. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has already advised that the military may or may not be paid. Even if some are, there is currently no procedure in place to pay all federal workers or the military. The MN is again, feeding the sadistic nature of his administration. Mortgages and rent will go unpaid, adding a serious black mark onto the credit histories of those whose lives are in service to the nation. Stomachs will ache without hope, for many Americans deprived of life-saving food programs. Healthcare will go unpaid, depriving America’s working classes of their ability to care for their families or preventing them from the care they need to remain working and feeding their families. There is absolutely nothing Christian about any of this.
Today again, the Republican-led Senate failed to pass legislation that would reopen the government and not cost over ten million Americans their healthcare. The Republicans insist on cutting Americans out of healthcare and they have since the beginning of the ACA or Obamacare. It’s long been illegal for undocumented citizens to acquire healthcare via government programs, so now the Republicans are happy to just kick Americans off of their plan, or to make it so expensive that working Americans experiencing the GOP’s inflation can’t afford it.
The GOP simply doesn’t give a damn about working Americans. They work exclusively for oligarchs. Pleasing corporate healthcare corporations by undermining services and costs for working Americans, was the driving factor for the action that Luigi Mangione took against a healthcare executive. Americans are fed up with the profiteering and ever-decreasing health services. Now the Republicans wish to double the premiums for healthcare. Healthcare executives, board members and CEOs are now some of the most despised people in the nation, and for good reason.
Republicans have been in hot water with voters for at least the 15 years that the ACA, commonly called “Obamacare” has been in effect. Due to the government shutdown, health insurance rates are expected to double or more. This is the significant issue keeping the government shutdown. Trump and the GOP want to end the subsidies that keep healthcare affordable and the Dems have stood firm on maintaining those subsidies. It really is this simple.
Yes, democrats have their deep connections to oligarchs as well and this issue must be fixed when we restore our republic. But for now, it is the Republican Party that has shutdown the government and the facts support this. I simply don’t know how the GOP can sleep at night after inflicting so much hardship, pain and suffering on Americans least able to afford their lives. At the moment, there is no hope for resolution until the Republicans, like in the Wizard of Oz, “follow the Yellow Brick Road” and find, courage, intelligence and a heart.
People are hurting from the shutdown and by the first of November, tens of millions will be hurt more painfully. The list of programs insolvent either on November first or a week or so afterwards, affect at a minimum, 42 million hard-working Americans and especially those with the least ability to help themselves. Let’s take a look at some of the pain that Federal workers and millions of other workers and their families will suffer.
"As the U.S. government shutdown reaches its 28th day, hundreds of thousands of federal workers remain furloughed, with President Donald Trump threatening to block back pay once the shutdown ends. In previous shutdowns, furloughed employees typically received back pay, but the White House has signaled it might not uphold that practice. Instead, Trump has said he would go as far as firing federal employees en masse if the government were shut down, and in recent weeks, the president has said he would block back pay." - Will federal workers get back pay? What to know as shutdown continues - USA Today - Fernando Cervantes Jr. - Oct 28, 2025
Fifty five percent of the Pentagon’s 740,000 federal workers have been furloughed with Trump illegally claiming that they will not receive backpay. In a critical area, 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 TSA agents are forced to work but won’t be paid, the same as the US military’s 1.3 million troops on active duty. The FAA has reported 22 “triggers” that indicate critical shortages at the nation’s airports. As we approach the busiest travel time of the year, these shortages could easily and sadly impact travel and with the growing number of safety issues of the past year, likely more dangerous as well. Even the administration’s favorite thugs, ICE and other participating agencies will work, but not be paid. I feel for their families, no matter how much I despise the aggressive and illegal manner of how they are executing their mission.
Among the most painful cuts are those that help to feed, one in every eight Americans.
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s largest food aid program, and helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, posted a notice on its website on Friday, Oct. 24 saying federal food aid will not go out on Nov. 1." - Is the federal government still shut down? Here’s what to know on Monday, Oct. 27. - USA Today - Terry Moseley - October 27th, 2025
The National Conference of State Legislatures has issued a good guide explaining what the myriad of agencies across the US government will and will not do during the shutdown. I highly encourage reading and saving this for later reading, as the circumstances of Trump’s and the GOP’s shutdown change often. Actions depend on which agency and which state is concerned, and it can be a bit complicated. This guide will help everyone navigate the shutdown’s impact as it pertains to them.
Tragically, Trump’s ignorance and arrogance has also led him to make other egregious statements about the shutdown. He’s threatening to cut other “Democrat programs” which even on the surface of this statement, is absurd. Government programs and their budgets exist, because Congress put them in place. He’s not shutting down “Democrat programs,” he’s threatening American programs that have lawfully been put in place via constitutional means. Again, the entire Republican representation in congress, is too spineless to “tell the emperor that he’s wearing no clothes.” Here in Texas, GOP congressmen are being shamed and confronted wherever they appear, which is very rare anyway. No one but the most hardcore red hat crowd, believe them any longer.
Farmers are furious about Trump’s soybean catastrophe. Ranchers are furious about buying Argentine beef, especially after the administration handed another far-right populist, Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, 40+ billion dollars recently so that he could buy his own election this week.
"After several years of losing money on cattle, Burleen and Pete Wobeter thought this would finally be the year things turned around. Their Iowa farm also grows corn and soybeans — crops that have been hit hard by the trade war with China — but cattle had been a bright spot so far in 2025. “This year, it is the one thing that is going to make any money for us,” Burleen said. That’s why they were astounded when President Trump announced he wanted to quadruple beef imports from Argentina, claiming it would “bring our beef prices down” and help “a very good ally.” His words sent wholesale cattle prices plummeting." - Iowa soybean farmers lost China as a buyer. Cattle was their backup plan — then Trump announced plans to import more beef - CBS News - Lana Zak - October 27th, 2025
"The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall called out Trump’s pro-Argentina plan in no uncertain terms: “This plan only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices. … Argentina also has a history of foot-and-mouth disease, which, if brought to the United States, could decimate our domestic livestock production.” - Americans see record-high beef prices as cattle ranchers see Trump turn on them - USA Today - Rex Huppke - October 26th, 2025
Everywhere we look as citizens, we see a nation that began the year with the hottest economy on earth, spiral down the drain due to criminality, corruption and negligent leadership. Although slightly quieter after the “No Kings protests” the ICE fiasco continues, with Trump promising more violence and aggression. Americans have had it with storm troopers in our streets rounding up US citizens, legal residents and the undocumented with the same violent glee. I cannot imagine how low the morale must be for those decent agents forced to participate in these shameful actions. Not getting paid, sure won’t help their attitudes much. We cannot allow any of this willful and incompetent dysfunction to continue much longer. It’s as if we’re flying in a plane that is not only failing mechanically, but is falling apart with each passing mile.
Well my friends, it’s time to wrap this up. I opened this essay by talking about the Moral Majority and how they were the seeds of far-right, Christian Nationalist agenda that is plaguing us today. Those seeds planted nearly 50 years agon, have now grown into full sized poisonous plants. Their movement was focused on many of the red-meat issues or culture wars, that permeate today’s Republican party. These are the hooks, that snag and drag their voters to anywhere they want them to go. Trump can say something today and the opposite tomorrow, and they will buy into it, hook, line and sinker, never once realizing that they are contradicting themselves. In lay terms, they’ve been either conned or brainwashed, most likely both.
Considering the substantial pain now being inflicted onto tens of millions of Americans because of Trump’s and the GOP’s shutdown, it’s pretty easy to understand that what the Moral Majority has grown into during the Trump era. The moral to this story is little different than what all farmers know when raising crops, that if you don’t control the weeds, it takes terrible toll on your yield.
When the radically extreme ideology of today’s GOP is mixed with Trump’s malignant narcissism, those unconstitutional Moral Majority weeds choke the life out of all the hard work and sacrifice made to create a nation based on the universal moral values of our founding. The Scottish Enlightenment, not the church are the ideals clearly laid out in our founding documents. Those brilliant and in many cases, scholarly founders did all possible to keep religion out of our brand new republic. James Madison is considered “the father of our constitution” and for good reason.
To prepare for successful resolution to framing our constitution and its ratification, he embarked on a scholarly investigation of all known “confederacies” or democracies from the ancient Greeks forward. He analyzed them for faults and wrote his brilliant analysis in a small book entitled, Notes on Ancient and Modern Confederacies. This is the basis for him building in the “checks and balances” that today’s GOP is working hard to dismantle.
It’s not just the checks and balances either. There is no doubt that not only Madison but the majority of the representatives at the ratification conference, agreed. We know this because they voted to ratify our brand new constitution. So those Moral Majority founders are dead wrong when they attempted to introduce their Christian Nationalist agenda into our system of government. Today’s Republicans are far worse. They are usurpers, not patriots, and I could care less about their Project 2025 takeover strategy. It’s unconstitutional, illegal and as anti-America as it gets.
Madison, a brilliant and prominent voice in our founding documents was a radical progressive in his era, opting for the College of New Jersey, now Princeton, rather than Harvard, where most of his contemporaries went. It was run by a remarkable Scottish Presbyterian pastor, steeped in learning from the Enlightenment. Madison’s quote about religion in government, speaks pointedly about his thoughts on religion and government. Madison has left us many fine quotes on this topic. Below are just a few.
![Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together." ~ James Madison [1920x1080] : r/QuotesPorn](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3DMI!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F71c2d999-79b6-446c-b70a-ed275776b276_640x360.jpeg "Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.\" ~ James Madison [1920x1080] : r/QuotesPorn")
Finally, the last thing I’ll say, is that to support my opinion that today’s White Christian Nationalist Republican Party, I refer you to the administration’s wanton disregard for our fellow citizens, which violates the most basic tenants of Christianity. Nothing about this version of the party is Christian. Don’t take my word for it, but listen to the countless churches, denominations, scholars etc.
The longer this shutdown goes on, the further the religious right gets from their claimed faith. It will only be a matter of days before we hear the outcry from millions of working Americans. Federal workers will either leave in order to put food on the table and to pay their mortgages, or wait endlessly for a malignant narcissist to grow an empathic heart. Either way they lose. For those who’ve invested the majority of their lives working towards a federal retirement and benefits, they must start all over. If they take another job, they will probably make less in a rapidly tightening job market and have to begin building retirement, all over again. The worst though will be for those in the most dire need of something so basic as food to eat. Those programs are pure, sadistic cruelty, especially for all of the children in these families.
Next time you see or write to your Republican congressman, ask them how proud they are of denying food to the hungry while simultaneously defiling the very constitution they swore to protect. Shame is a powerful motivator. In my opinion, their is no limit to the amount of shame, this MAGA era version of the party deserves. That includes those who voted for and still support it as well.
Onward
Publius Redux