You can be a Christian Republican, or you can be a patriotic Christian. They are not the same.
People are what they do, not what they say
TAT readers,
Thanksgiving is hands down, my favorite holiday. This year, in the wake of an incoming MAGA administration, it is important for all Americans to understand that we still have much to be thankful for. Of course, family, health, food on our tables and a roof over our heads, will always top the list, but this year, it is something much deeper in this time of national peril. In order to maintain my commitment to being plain-spoken, I will be blunt. Most Americans still adhere to our true national values, rather than the fake patriotism of today’s MAGA controlled Republican Party. Nationally, we are at what is called, an inflection point.
inflection point noun moment when significant change occurs or may occur: turning point - Merriam-Webster Dictionary
This year, the first item on my list of gratitude will be for those who will not shrink from their dedication to true American principles and continue to demand their rights. The single biggest problem for Republicans now, is that GOP congressmen and senators fear Trump and MAGA leadership, more than they respect the rule of law and the constitution that it is based upon. For the record, our constitution was radically progressive for its time. In other words, It accepted certain traditional roles in government, added a few new ones and left this preeminent founding document, open to modification as societal changes dictated. Conservatives, especially during the late 17th century, resisted such change.
“Inalienable rights as ordained by our creator” was a product of the Scottish Enlightenment that largely removed religious law from common law. The great irony is that some of the Enlightenment’s most prominent scholars, were also church leaders. All-encompassing equality as a human right, flew in the face of hierarchical domination by aristocracy, oligarchy and church structures. Conservatives philosophically, resisted this. As that President Eisenhower is in my opinion, the most prominent “principled conservative” in modern conservatism, the reason I have elevated him is that his agenda, was the pragmatic progressivism of his agenda, for leading our nation forward, despite being still inundated with class and racial divisions.
The classical difference between philosophical conservatism vs. liberalism, has been debated since the time of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. American politics only marginally fall along the lines that they debated. Still, a simple quote below, best encompasses the difference between conservatism vs. liberalism, even in a modern sense.
In politics, researchers usually define “conservativism” as a general tendency to resist change and tolerate social inequality. “Liberalism” means a tendency to embrace change and reject inequality. Political parties evolve with time—Democrats were the conservative party 150 years ago—but the liberal-conservative split is typically recognizable in a country's politics. It's the fault line on which political cooperation most often breaks down. - Many Differences between Liberals and Conservatives May Boil Down to One Belief: Conservatives tend to believe that strict divisions are an inherent part of life. Liberals do not - Scientific American - Jer Clifton - March 1st, 2023
A serious read of either the 2024 GOP Platform or especially Project 2025, demonstrates a pre-Civil Rights era dedication to “conservatism”, as defined above. I simply call this the Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse, Autocracy, Oligarchy, White Christian Nationalism and political violence, to enforce their established hierarchy so valued by traditional conservatives.
As I write this, my news notifications show that the election fixing case against Trump, for attempting to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, will be dismissed. I am still trying to determine if I despise Trump and Putin more than I do the cowardice and sellout of the constitution, by the US Supreme Court, right-wing extremist justices, Chief Justice John Roberts the most. Roberts and company have been selling us out for years, beginning with the Citizens United decision that pumps unlimited dark money into campaigns. Now with SCOTUS conferred presidential immunity, Trump can do pretty much as he pleases, so long as he can continue cowing Republican leadership into support.
Don’t forget that with only seven exceptions, every GOP Senator took the coward’s way out in both impeachment hearings. The entire GOP representation in the House of Representatives, voted to impeach President Biden and the Secretary of Homeland Security with absolutely no evidence. Collectively, there is not a single complete spine, among any GOP member in the Capital building. As for checks and balances on a despotic, president elect, there are few if any guardrails.
We can either maintain the trajectory of American history as Dr. Martin Luther King elegantly described or follow the path of Nazi Germany in the early to mid-1930s. This may sound harsh or hyperbolic but… the historical parallels are vividly presented to us in the actions of a once prestigious American political party, the GOP.
As early as the 1920s and throughout the Nazi era, Hitler and his Reich, wielded Christianity as a unifying weapon of racist and religious warfare. Co-opting Christianity gave Hitler a semblance of moral legitimacy and diverted attention from his consolidation of political power. These ideas were even codified in official party doctrine as can be seen in the quote below. Hitler’s maneuvering while the German people were distracted with propaganda, including Christian Nationalist religious fervor, it was too late. If we remain as complacent, within two-years, Project 2025 will do for Trump what Nazism or its euphemistic moniker of National Socialism did for Hitler.
"We demand the freedom of all religious confessions in the state, insofar as they do not jeopardize the state's existence or conflict with the manners and moral sentiments of the Germanic race. The Party as such upholds the point of view of a positive Christianity without tying itself confessionally to any one confession. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit at home and abroad and is convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only be achieved from within on the basis of the common good before individual good." - Article 24 of the 1920 Nazi Party Platform - The German Churches and the Nazi State - Holocaust Encyclopedia
“Once the state has the unconditional endorsement of the religious establishment, nothing is off limits.” - John Matthews - What happens when church and state merge? Look to Nazi Germany for answers- Baptist News Global - Jeff Brumley - January 20, 2023
The reason that I raise these issues today is that White Christian Nationalism saturates a Republican Party controlled entirely by Trump and spineless Republican leaders, from the Senate all the way down through individual Trump voters.
It is of the utmost importance that I include here, a strong disclaimer:
I respect all religious or secular beliefs. I do not respect any form of religious nationalism as is displayed exclusively in today’s Republican Party. It is a threat to our constitution and our constitutional republic. The Establishment Clause/ First Amendment in our Bill of Rights, declares with absolute certainty that there is to be no state religion.
I have countless Republican family and friends who believe themselves to be patriots and good Christians but… they are operating on the utterings of snake-oil salesmen if they belief that voting for Trump or the GOP is conservative, let alone, principled conservatism. The same applies to the type of Christianity most prevalent in today’s GOP. These words are not intended in any way to disparage well-meaning but purposely mislead fellow citizens but are a lesson in reality. Words have meanings and no one, especially those as immoral as Trump and his henchmen, have a right to attempt to change those meanings.
Historically, the most prestigious and emblematic president of principled conservatism, was President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In an exhaustive essay comparing his 1956 platform to a modern MAGA platform, I clearly show them to be nearly the opposite of each other. In short, the 2024 GOP Platform is fake conservatism traveling on the wings of fake Christian ideology.
Also, any Christian operating on what MAGA represents, is not operating on true Christian beliefs and concepts. How do I know this? I know it because I’ve done the deep research and written about that research. In a long essay, I quote the NCC/ National Council of Churches, and the leadership of major US and global denominations that all agree that Christian Nationalism is a threat to both democracy, and Christianity.
The bottom line is that any vote for a Republican in the age of Trump is a vote for MAGA. There is no other agenda but theirs and their own words, confirm this.
This agenda poses a direct existential threat to our shared vision of the United States as an equitable democracy where people of all faiths, backgrounds, and identities can thrive and make decisions according to their own personal beliefs. If implemented, many of the provisions of Project 2025 would dramatically restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of Americans – including religious freedom, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. The Christian nationalist movement behind Project 2025 hopes to remake the United States into a so-called Christian nation, repressing diversity and difference and imposing one extreme religious worldview on all of us. - How Project 2025 Threatens Religious Freedom & Democracy - Interfaith Alliance.org
Trump, who loudly denied knowing anything about Project 2025 during the campaign has now hired or nominated many of P25’s authors, including one of its primary architects, Russell Vought. A primary conceptual role within P25 is the promotion of Christianity over other religious beliefs and is written into the very document that Vought and others crafted as a “transition plan” or 180-day playbook, for the Trump administration. Another primary role within P25 is the restructuring of our three branches of government. P25’s primary objective is to move the preponderance of power into the Executive Branch, or simply put, the Oval Office. Undermining our system of checks and balances is unconstitutional without amending our constitution and there is a constitutionally decreed process for this, detailed in Article V.
Like January 6th, today’s GOP Platform and its foundational ideology, Project 2025, are coup attempts. The only thing standing between the loss of our republic as intended, and Trump’s coup, are the American voters who still respect our founding principles, regardless of party. The key to success is to stop seeing this as, politics as normal. It isn’t. Daily in media, reporters still use words like, “conservative” despite them being inaccurate in the extreme. As earlier noted, “words have meanings.” “Right-wing extremist” does not mean conservative. Rule-of-law doesn’t mean what SCOTUS is doing. Political rules are useless in the halls of our Capital Building, so long as the GOP insists on creating new ones and ignoring the old ones.
Who will enforce them? Not sycophants like former AG Barr. We may have already dodged the Matt Gaetz bullet but anyone that sits in the AG’s office will be there largely for the purpose of retribution for Trump’s and the party leadership’s, perceived slights. The DOJ will be enforcing Trump’s whims rather than two hundred and fifty years of legal precedence. Congress will make unconstitutional laws and the current SCOTUS bench, dominated by far-right justices will rubber-stamp them. I live in Texas and that is what happens here almost weekly on some issue or another. With a national government devoid of checks and balances and as Project 2025 intends, a Trump administration will make Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP, look like amateurs.
So my friends, today’s essay is sobering but not fearmongering. I am simply putting into words, what the situation is and will be without intervention. Of course, the media and the dysfunctional other side of the aisle, are incompetent in forestalling this dire threat. Had either been competent, our republic would not need such essays. Voters on the other hand are related to and live in the same neighborhoods as those who were conned (the title of my next book) into believing in fake conservatism and fake Christianity. This is where our advantage is. Also, if enough of those still safe in government, including honest judges, can forestall the worst of Trump’s Project 2025 for two years, we have a fighting chance.
As I wrote last week, my essays will continue to tell the truth, and I dare the administration to attempt to silence those of us who didn’t vote for serfdom. The answer to resisting the worst of Trump’s greed and treason, is to unite around our founding values as written, not the dishonest fake patriotic values of the GOP. This is a coup attempt and not, “politics as usual.”
The objective is simple; we must do all possible to avoid the catastrophic failures of 1861-1865, where we saved our Union and our values from a similar foe with a similar ideology, at great cost. Good, honest Americans outnumber the MAGA crowd. It all comes down to whether we stand for who we are, or toss ourselves into the dustbin of history, without being pushed. I believe in the American people to stand against tyranny.
Putin has convinced Trump that he can push Americans around like he pushes Russians. He is dead wrong. There is no subjugation gene in the American identity like there is in most Russians, who lived under oppressive tyranny from the Tsars, through the Soviets and now Putin. Putin’s advice to Trump is our advantage and I suggest that we wield this advantage to reclaim our republic.
Finally, if there is something intangible to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, it is to be an American, still breathing free, strong and willing to ensure that my grandchildren do the same.
Happy Thanksgiving to all. May your blessings be many,
Paul
Actually, Paul, one may be both Christian and Patriotic and still be a Republican -- neither is exclusive of the other -- so long as one remembers that one's first loyalty is to God and not mere politics.
Wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving. When can we next do breakfast at Maddy Lane's?