January 20, 2025

This time, the mall is in fact packed.   The President-elect had ordered that in no event must the crowd be smaller than the record 1.8 million who appeared to celebrate Barrack Obama’s first inauguration.   Instead of the normal joyous optimism, the vibe was both angry and triumphant.  The mall had become a sea of flags, few of them the American flag.  TV commentators explained the various symbols:  the Kek flag (modeled on the Nazi war flag), the Q-Anon flag, the Deus Vult flag (meaning “God wills it”), thousands of confederate flags, the VDARE flag (for a group named after the first white child supposedly born in the New World), the Day of the Rope Flag (featuring a noose to symbolize the lynchings meted out to “race traitors” in The Turner Diaries), and many others.  Many DC businesses had boarded their windows and residents who could afford it arranged to be out of town.

The scene on the inaugural stage was like no other in American history.   As usual, former Presidents and Vice Presidents, members of Congress, senior military officers, Justices of the Supreme Court, the diplomatic corps and other dignitaries sat solemnly.   But scattered among them were the Presidential-elect’s invited guests:  Proud Boy leaders wearing their customary helmets, Oath Keepers with their t-shirts worn outside their coats, a group of a dozen raucus white men wearing leather jackets with the large Q-anon symbol, a group of Three Percenters, and representatives of dozens of other far right, militia and white supremacy groups.   Scores of clergymen and suited GOP donors looked around nervously. 

When Joe and Jill Biden were introduced and entered the stage from the rear, the mall crowd exploded in a cacophony of shouts and boos.   This didn’t seem to perturb the President, but as they descended the stairs, he realized that hundreds of guests on the stage around him had risen to their feet and begun shouting abuse.   He turned to the right as a Proud Boy, only feet way, his face twisted in rage, gave him the finger and shouted “Fuck you, Biden, Fuck you.”  Biden turned to look at Trump, who was casually observing the scene over his shoulder.  Trump smirked and looked away.   The secret service surrounded the President and first lady and escorted them to their seats.  

After his swearing in by a pale Chief Justice, Trump walked to the podium to deliver his inaugural remarks, which Steve Bannon had promised would be “the most remembered in American history.”  When asked why, Bannon had just smiled and said, “Well, because this time the President gets to say what he wants, without interference.”

Trump began speaking.

“Four years ago the American people elected Donald J. Trump as their President, but that election was rigged and fraudulent and stolen.  You know it, I know it, everyone knows it.  The biggest hoax in history.  My friends – those of you out there on the mall and up here with me did your best to stop the steal – and so what did they do?  They came after you.  Many patriotic Americans who would be here today can’t be, ‘cause they’re in jail.  That ends now.   You are pardoned.  All of you who tried to stop the steal.”

Trump needed to pause for almost two minutes as the crowd went wild.

“Ok, so that’s done.  But you know, to get to you – and make no mistake, they were coming after you, all of you, all the Christians, all the conservatives, the God-fearing parents, all the good law-abiding patriotic Americans who they hate – they were coming after you.  But to do that, they had to go through me.  Donald J. Trump is your shield, your defense.   I’m the only one fighting for you.   So they needed to take Trump out to get to you.  So, what did we have – 91 criminal charges – they just kept making stuff up.  It was a farce.  The biggest farce ever.  But that’s over now too.  Donald J. Trump is pardoned.”

Again the crowd celebrated.

“But you know friends, that’s not the way this country is supposed to work under our beloved constitution.  Those who did those terrible things to Trump and to you, absolutely terrible things  . . . well, there have to be consequences.   So to all of them – everyone who conspired to steal the election, those who should have been loyal to Trump but then betrayed him, Biden and his corrupt family and everyone who ordered them to come after Trump, all those Deep State traitors in the Justice Department and FBI, the corrupt and biased judges, the nasty wacko left wing prosecutors – I tell you today, you’re all going to jail for what you did.  When I arrive back in the Oval Office, I’m signing the paper work, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll find another way to shut you down.  Either way, your reign of terror is over.”

A chant of “lock them up” occupied the crowd for a couple of minutes.   The cameras focused in on the former President, who attempted to look stoic but shifted uneasily in his seat.  Jill had grabbed his arm.  To leave now, he thought, would look cowardly; but to stay would be to normalize or legitimize what was happening. Trump continued.

“You know what this is, friends, this is a house cleaning.   Why doesn’t our government work?  Because it’s filthy, filled with Marxists, Communists, woke intellectuals, Deep State traitors, biased and nasty judges, and other vermin.  Well that ends today too.  What does Trump say?   You know what  . . .  ‘You’re fired!’”  

This time, hundreds on the stage rose from their chairs, their hands in the air showing the white power salute (a kind of OK sign which makes a “w” and “p”), and joined the mall crowd’s chant of “You’re fired.”    When the GOP members of the House, sitting together in a group a few rows in front of the other guests, had failed to rise from their seats and join the chant, three Proud Boys left their seats, stood in front of the group, made the gesture of pointing a rifle (everyone on stage had been screened for actual weapons), and screamed “Stand the fuck up.”   One by one, most of the Republican Congressmen stood.

Figuring it was one last act of leadership, Joe Biden also stood, turned his back on the President, took Jill’s hand, and left the platform.    After a few beats, former Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, together with the former Vice Presidents, joined them.   Moments later all Congressional Democrats also left the stage. 

Trump turned around, his hands on his hips, daring with his eyes others to join them.  Moments later, four justices of the Supreme Court rose and departed.   The Joint Chiefs sat stoically, while the diplomats squirmed.

The crowd had gone silent, awaiting instructions.  Trump turned back to the mall with a big smile on his face.  

“You see how easy this is going to be?  They’re cowards.  Trump says “You’re fired” and they’re gone, just like on TV.”

The speech went on for the same rambling hour, and with the same content, as a normal stadium rally during the campaign.   There was nothing new, nothing he hadn’t said before.

When it was over, one GOP mega-donor put his head in his hands and whispered to himself, “God help me, what have I done?” 

Santos

Although reporters and commentators are doing a fine job cataloging the individual falsehoods that enabled George Santos’s election to the U.S. Congress, few are looking at the bigger picture.  

Politicians have dissembled since the dawn of democracy.  But that dissembling occurred within the limits of what might be called a “zone of acceptable untruth.”  Various factors have served to define that zone:  the probability of getting caught, where the untruth lay on the continuum between objective facts and subjective opinion, whether the dissembling was closer to “little white lie” or preposterous fabrication, the importance of the subject, the consequences of the lie, and the extent to which those in power would excuse and enable the liar, or cut him (usually) off for crossing a line.   

The boundaries of this zone have waxed and waned over time.  During wars, for example, when victory is widely seen as trumping all other goals, gross deception by those in charge has been accepted if seen as serving that goal.    But in 2016 the constraints of the zone of acceptable untruth collapsed altogether, resulting in political dissembling that exceeded even that seen in time of war.   The pathological narcissist, uninterested in the truth even as a starting point of reference, said only those things that would get him what he wanted and would make him look good in the moment.   He lied when he was virtually certain to get caught and the facts in dispute were objectively determinable.  His fibs were often preposterous and they included some of the most consequential lies told in the history of the world.   And what happened?  Those in a position to constrain him allowed him to cross a line that had never before been crossed and his base of popular support rewarded him with continued loyalty.  Other politicians hastened to copy his example by saying whatever they needed to say to win, however preposterous or morally odious.

Mr. Santos took it all one step further.   He did not merely pad his resume or exaggerate.   He simply ignored his own biography and substituted one engineered from the ground up to win.   The district has lots of Jews?  Well then, better make my ancestors Jewish, why not holocaust survivors while we’re at it, and then the brilliant stroke of harvesting some additional sympathy votes by having them come from Ukraine.   My district has lots of small business owners and a powerful real estate industry, so I’d better make myself one of them and own a few rental properties so I can show that I know their pain.   Even animal enthusiasts got a line item on his resume – founder of a pet charity.  And then there are the old establishment Republicans, who are impressed by a good education and the validation provided by the big job.  So why not NYU (and/or Baruch, he couldn’t get it straight) and the most prestigious early career jobs he could think of, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup?  And there it is, the whole package – family, education, and job experience - created from scratch in order to win, and not a word of it true.   When the GOP suspected that his whole persona was a fraud, did they balk?  No.  And the Christian nationalist base that is essential to GOP fortunes, who would require the Ten Commandments to be hung in every courtroom and whose Bible says a lying tongue is one of the abominations most hated by God?  Silence.

I’m afraid that a future historian will see this as a turning point, after which at least one of the parties no longer finds candidates, but creates them.   The lies will come to light, they will be objectively untrue, they will be offensive and often preposterous, but will do the job of winning.   Will this, which in turn relies on a silenced press and un-educated and gullible public, precipitate a negative feedback loop that spirals the culture as a whole into the abyss?   George Santos is a nothing, but if he gets away with it, it could mean everything.

The GOP Crosses a Line

In 2020 the Republican Party declined to articulate a platform, telling voters that the party stood for whatever Trump says.   So when Trump insisted he won the 2020 election, it should have been little surprise that the party embraced the “big lie.”   As of yesterday, the purge of politicians unwilling to support the party line is complete.   Accordingly, the time has come to recognize that the GOP has crossed a line.  It’s core animating principle is now seditious conspiracy, which should disqualify it from further participation in American politics, forcing a new party to organize and represent the views of the law-abiding American right.

The U.S. Code defines seditious conspiracy (among other things) as “two or more persons . . . conspir[ing] . . . to oppose by force the authority [of the Government], or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States . . .”   Congress gathered on January 6 to execute the most fundamental of our laws, those providing for the peaceful transfer of federal power.   Trump and those around him organized an armed mob to come to Washington to oppose and delay the execution of those laws, which mob then set off for the Capitol at the personal and public behest of the leader of the GOP.  This was only the most visible part of a broad conspiracy to fraudulently overturn the lawful results of the election.

The GOP could have preserved its place as a legitimate party (although engaged in the most aggressive and least principled sort of politics) simply by distancing itself from this seditious conspiracy.  A few individual Republican politicians did.  But the party has now fallen completely under the control of those who did not.   The single litmus test for GOP candidates is now, in Trump’s words, assertion that the lawmakers gathered on January 6 were trying “illegally to take over the country,” illegal because Trump “won in a landslide.”

Thanks to the consistent advocacy of the ACLU and other liberal (in the traditional sense) groups, the reach of the First Amendment is broad.   Indeed, the fringe (neo-Nazi, white supremacist) right survived and eventually grew into a vigorous political force under the umbrella of First Amendment protection.    But that protection has limits.  Speech is protected until that speech becomes likely to incite imminent lawless action (as the Supreme Court put it, “advocacy [that] is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action”). 

The national GOP (now the puppet of the same network of shadowy zealots who worked to install “fake electors”) is systematically engaged in advocating and executing plans under which state election officials will violate their oaths and the law to ensure Trump’s victory, and state legislatures will, if necessary, ignore the popular vote and designate electors loyal to Trump.  The seditious conspiracy did not end on January 6, it has continued with increased vigor every day since.

I hope that Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and scores of other courageous and principled conservative politicians will now finally quit the GOP, organize a successor party, and vigorously contest the 2024 Presidential election.   A third party home for the nation’s many conservatives would, as a practical matter, also make it much easier to proceed with prosecution of the Trump party for seditious conspiracy and other offenses. The national GOP should be disqualified from participation in national politics until and unless it affirms its support for the constitution and the rule of law, and promises to abide by the results of the legal process by which contested elections are resolved[1].

A reminder from history:  Authoritarian forces almost always gain power through elections. After that, there is no going back, since job one for such newly elected authoritarians is to compromise the democratic institutions through which they could thereafter be opposed.   Trump tried this and failed in 2020.  The Trumpists, now free of responsible mainstream Republicans who reigned in such instincts between 2016 and 2019, won’t make the same mistakes again.  Moreover, the bright line between conventional means and political violence has been crossed, and TrumpWorld is now armed to the teeth. 

Ms. Cheney, now is the time.   After 2024, it will be too late.    

[1] Trump himself should have been replaced as the party’s nominee in 2016 when he refused to promise to abide by the results of the election unless he won.

A Light in the Darkness

I’ve never before shared or recommended a YouTube video.  But now I recommend that you watch this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPJL488cfRw  . 

I read the newspapers this morning and was left, as usual, with a leaden feeling of despair at a culture and civic sphere now dominated by superficiality, ignorance, mendacity, arrogance, coarseness and incivility.   The price of engaging with the public sphere, has been ­– at least in my case – an increasingly dark view of humanity and its prospects.

Returning to my desk, I found a page I had torn from a recent Economist describing a performance by 18-year-old South Korean pianist Lim Yun-chan of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Van Cliburn competition in Fort Worth, Texas.   The video now has nearly 6 million views.   I just watched it.  The performance left in me tears (as it did the conductor).

Some of those tears sprang from the sheer beauty of the sound.   But there was something else – a message that the music didn’t need words to convey.  It reminded me of the infinite potential of humanity.   Of our potential to push the boundaries of achievement further and further.  Of our potential for nobility, subtleness, generosity, and imagination.   And of all that can be accomplished when we tear down the walls of tribalism, in this case to have a young pianist from South Korea play music written by a dead Russian, conducted by a woman born in New York, before a wildly enthusiastic Texas audience.   

I hope this brightens your day, as it did mine. 

What's Not Being Said

It has been frustrating to follow the media coverage of Dobbs, most of which fails to put the overturning of Roe in the context of the broader five-decade project of politically active Christianity. I challenged myself to summarize briefly the handful of most important things that are missing from our national post-Dobbs dialogue:

1. We continue to treat abortion arguments as if they are policy, ideological, or political disputes. If they were, we’d be where we were under Roe, talking about how to balance the interests of the mother and unborn child. But the minute the Christian right had the power, look how quickly the widely supported common sense exceptions (rape, etc.) fell away. All around the country we are seeing laws reflecting a Taliban-like religious fundamentalism under which a 12-year old pregnant by an incestuous rape, likely not to survive her pregnancy, still would be required by the state to carry her baby to term. Only the perversions of absolutist religion can lead to this kind of result. This is all about fundamentalist religion and the extent to which we allow it, and not prevailing morality reflected in sound public policy, to govern. Dobbs should have prompted a wide-ranging discussion of the role of religion in public life. As long as we are not having that conversation, we will be blind to what really is happening..

2. Like Trump’s “big lie” almost everything you hear from the right about the culture war is a direct inversion. The fight for “freedom of religion” is actually a fight to end freedom of religion. The argument to “let the states decide” is intended to disguise the actual goal of doing whatever it takes to implement the entire culture war agenda everywhere in the country. They harvest supporters by railing against “big government” but their agenda requires the intrusion of government into the most intimate corners of our lives.

3. The goal of the culture war is to require compliance by non-believers with the religious beliefs and taboos embraced by a minority of Americans. Why are they not content with the freedom to follow their own beliefs? Why do they feel compelled to impose them on others? Because the core group that is the driving force behind the Christian nationalist movement believes that an American nation compliant with the will of God (as conceived by them) is necessary to achieve the most important thing that will ever occur, the second coming of Christ.

4. The religious right now recognizes that authoritarian government is necessary to achieve their goals. With only 32-34% of the population in their camp, the Christian right understands they are likely to remain a minority and thus that their vision cannot be implemented or sustained over the long term if we remain a pluralistic democracy. The undermining of democracy became a particular priority as they understood the speed at which demographics were moving against them.

5. No one should think for a moment that the overturning of Roe was or is an end in itself. In regard to abortion, they will not stop until the ultimate goal is achieved: to stop the “killing of babies.” Anything else (e.g., leave it to the states) is a smokescreen. To achieve that goal, they will go as far as necessary, including criminalization of anything done by anyone anywhere in the US to facilitate the “killing of a baby” after conception. All that Dobbs does is to remove the federal constraint on whatever legislative craziness the red states wish to pursue. But if the right controls the instruments of federal legislative authority, then nation-wide criminalization will follow and, with the right of privacy/substantive due process gone, the Supreme Court will allow that legislation to stand.

6. The right has said out loud, to anyone who will listen, that banning abortion is only a first step (which no one can doubt following the high-profile admission in Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion). The Christian nationalist movement (now synonymous with the GOP) will use every tool at their disposal to achieve the balance of their self-declared agenda, which includes banning contraception, eliminating same sex marriage, recriminalizing sodomy, restoring anti-blasphemy laws, eliminating the concept of a “hate crime,” pulling out of the UN (and all other multilateral institutions), reinstituting Christian prayer in the schools, eliminating all federal education standards and requiring “equal time” for faith based curriculum (including creationism), and much else. If you want to see a concise compilation of the complete agenda, have a look at the text of “The Blessing” that appears in Chapter 12 of my dystopian novel, Christian Nation.

Looking back from the theocratic future, the narrator of Christian Nation writes, “[T]hey said what they would do, and we did not listen. Then they did what they said they would do.” Now is the time to listen. Attorneys-General now speak openly of taking legal action based on “God’s intention.” GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert didn’t mince words: “The church is supposed to direct the government.” When I wrote Christian Nation those holding these views lurked at the fringes of our national political life. Now they stand at its apex, in a plural marriage of convenience with Trumpist populism and traditional Republicans willing to make a Faustian bargain in pursuit of power. They control the Supreme Court. In 16 weeks they will probably control both houses of Congress.

What are you going to do about it?

Ends and Means

There is only one thing you really need to know about the current state of politics in the United States:  those in control of one side believe that the ends justify the means; those in control of the other do not.

Although both sides are passionately attached to their agendas, only one side has decided that it will do and say anything to achieve it.    The new GOP is a party which no longer recognizes or respects any constraint:  neither the dictates of morality (which prescribe those means that are off limits, no matter how desirable the ends), nor the law, nor the political traditions that have enabled two centuries of democratic governance. 

How did this happen?    First, the GOP became infused with the righteousness and certitude of the religious right.   When your agenda is dictated by God, is it hardly surprising that you will go to any length to achieve it.  Second, the previous cultural and ethical constraints on political ambition were demolished by the Trump presidency.  For Trump personally, the need to feed his insatiable narcissism justifies anything, no matter how morally repugnant or harmful to others.  These twin pathologies infected the GOP, which, zombie like, was transformed into a single-minded monster whose raison d'être is the pursuit of power.  When that pursuit comes at the expense of truth, constitutional democracy, rule of law, our national security and standing in the world, or even simple decency – all these can be dismissed as justifiable collateral damage.  After all, the ends justify the means.

Almost all criticism of the new Trumpian GOP is met with “but what about . . .”  And yes, the other side is hardly saintly.    And yes, they have an extreme wing that sometimes pushes whacky and even dangerous ideas.    But this obscures the one thing you need to understand to navigate the new political landscape:  one side believes that the ends justify the means and the other does not.    

There are thus only two possible outcomes.  In the first, through overwhelming electoral defeat, the right is forced to return to contesting for its agenda within the previous constraints (some minimum level of respect for veracity, abjuring violence, and accepting the rules of constitutional democracy).  In the second, the GOP succeeds in obtaining permanent power, which leads to the end of the American experiment.  

235 years ago Ben Franklin famously announced the outcome of the Constitutional Convention to a Philadelphia matron:  “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”  The you is now us.

Willful Blindness

Why is it that the commentariat seems incapable of looking even one step ahead, when the battle plan for the right’s culture war is there for everyone to see?    For example, journalists are reporting on what the post-Roe world would look like for women in red states, painting a picture of the costs, inequities and inconveniences of women having to travel out of state for an abortion.

But that picture is woefully incomplete.  Do they really think the anti-abortion movement will stop with bringing down Roe, and sit on its hands as red state women travel across state lines to get the abortions that have been prohibited at home?   The point is to save fetuses, not simply rid their states of abortion clinics.  So after Roe is gone, red state legislatures will attempt to criminalize all conduct which assists a woman to cross state lines to obtain an abortion elsewhere. 

This move was foreshadowed in the recent Texas abortion law, which permits civil actions against people who “abet” abortion, such as insurers that approve a claim; ride-share drivers who drive a patient to a clinic; anyone who shares information about abortion options; family members, clergy, rape crisis counselors or others who help someone obtain a prohibited abortion (or, under the Texas law, merely “intend” to provide such help).   After Roe is gone, this law, and similar laws in other states, will most likely change this liability from civil to criminal.   And the minute the GOP controls both houses of Congress and the Presidency (or a veto proof majority in Congress), federal legislation (most likely similar to the Mann Act, which makes it a federal crime to transport a woman across state lines for purposes of prostitution) will most likely prohibit any act in “interstate commerce” for purposes of facilitating access to abortions in other states. 

They will not stop even there.  “State’s rights” is a cause embraced by the GOP only when the left is in control of the Federal government.   The principle always has been abandoned the instant that federal action in furtherance of their agenda is possible.  It’s not enough for the red states to be unfettered from constitutional limits, because the Christian nationalist objective (realization of America’s destiny as the Godly kingdom) requires the taboos, specific moral dictates and even eschatological narratives of the evangelical movement to be controlling nationwide. The right will not stop until abortion is banned by federal law as well, at which point (in the absence of Roe) the blue states will no longer have the right to permit the procedure.

Abortion is the canary in the mine.  With the Federal judiciary lost, should the right take control of Congress in 2022 and the White House in 2024, there will remain no barrier to full implementation of the Christian nationalist agenda.  The former  establishment Republicans will step aside in return for tax breaks and deregulation.   As the protagonist of my book Christian Nation writes in his fictional memoir from the dystopian future, “So I suppose what happened here is that they said what they would do, and we did not listen.  Then they did what they said they would do.” 

To switch metaphors from the avian to the amphibian, we are frogs headed slowly to our deaths as the water in the pot boils.  But worse than that, we are frogs who are willfully blind to the clear intention of those controlling the stove.   If we would only open our eyes, we would see exactly what is coming.

This Type of Religion Kills

When I wrote my 2013 novel about the threat posed by the far right and its theocratic objectives, one of the heroic characters campaigning for separation of church and state says he would defend with his life the freedom of conscience and religion of all Americans, including his opponents. 

This used to be my view, until “religion” came to mean something very different.   Take Greg Locke, the pastor at the Global Vision Bible Church near Nashville, who, as reported by the Washington Post, has stated the following during his “sermons”: the pandemic is “fake,” the death count is “manipulated,” and the vaccine is a “dangerous scam” made of “aborted fetal tissue.”   This week, he went a step further: “Don’t believe this delta variant nonsense.” If “you start showing up [with] all these masks and all this nonsense, I will ask you to leave.”   Lest you think his views on COVID and vaccination are not political, he has clarified his position, preaching to his congregation that  President Biden is “a sex trafficking, demon-possessed mongrel.” 

This man and his views are not simply tolerated, they are subsidized by the tax deductibility of contributions to his “church” that permit his hate-filled bilge to be amplified and spread.  And because he speaks under the cloak of “religion” his speech and actions are increasingly exempted from laws that would otherwise render them illegal.

Under both global norms and traditional Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, freedom of expression has been limited in situations where necessary to prevent harm to others.   Examples include libel and slander, obscenity, sedition, incitement to unlawful behavior, disclosure of classified information or trade secrets, copyright violation, the right to privacy, public security, perjury, practicing medicine without a license, etc.   And we all remember learning that falsely shouting “fire” in a crowded theater is not tolerated, because the resulting injuries and deaths are foreseeable.   But yell “God told me there’s a fire,” and it’s OK?

If we had access to the relevant statistics we could calculate the probable number of people who will die because “Pastor” Locke convinced his flock that the pandemic is a “fake” and that God requires them to remain unvaccinated.    But now consider that roughly a third of Americans attend similar services, and the number of resulting deaths is in the hundreds of thousands.   This type of religion kills.  And to permit, privilege and subsidize it – when the nation’s number one public health and economic priority is to achieve high rates of vaccination – is insane.  

We’ve seen this all before.  Frederick Douglass, in his magnificent July 4 (actually July 5) address in 1852 called out the American church’s perversion of Christianity in support of slavery: “These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form.”