This humble spirit hates to sound like a wacko QAnon conspiracy theorist, but that’s how I’m feeling lately. I’m not so concerned that everything is “rigged” (although it most certainly is for working-class Americans these days), but rather America feels like a white Christian nationalist nightmare combining Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Handmaid’s Tale.
Is there any question that it takes a village to destroy a democracy? The first generation of Republican sellouts (snatched bodies!) included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, along with such stalwart party prostitutes as Ted Cruz and the indomitable (insufferable) Lindsay Graham, who following the January 6th Capitol insurrection completely reversed his condemnation of Donald Trump when confronted by an irate constituent at the airport. Most of these people know better (many have said as much in private), but desperate to hang onto power, they bend to Trump’s misguided MAGA “base.”
The second generation of lost souls, people like former A.G. Bill Barr and Governor Chris Sununu, both of whom have said disparaging things about Trump since he left office, now support him in a rematch with President Biden. Why? What’s driving their change of heart? They claim to fear Biden’s so-called radical liberal/leftist policies more than they fear Trump. Translation: they fear letting down the republican donor class far more than they fear the destruction of American democracy—just so long as their authoritarian leader supports that same donor class. These people should know better, but like much of the MAGA base, they don’t put much stock in democracy anymore.
And let’s not forget the pathetic Trump sycophants who have been indicted one by one (e.g., Rudy Giuliani, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis). What attracted them to a man like Trump and why would they remain loyal to him unless they agreed with the awful venom he spews? Even more perplexing are the people working for Trump’s 2024 campaign; what makes them think their fate will be any different from that of the last batch of suckers? If Trump can’t pay his own legal bills, he’s unlikely to pay theirs.
The Economic Interests of the Top 1% have Melded with the Rage of White Christian Nationalism.
Politicians are always beholden to their benefactors, but what we have now is something very different. The Republican donor class and all the snatched bodies know how horrible Trump is, that he’s a bogus conman and potential authoritarian who will put the entire American democratic experiment at risk, but they remain unphased. I fear that what we have is the perfect melding of the selfish interests of the top 1% with the sudden growth of white Christian nationalism, the result of which is very different—far more dangerous and insidious—than the old ploy of simply using social issues (God, guns, and gays) to instill anger and fear in working class victims. . . I mean voters.
But again, it takes a village to destroy a democracy, and when it comes to the breadth and scope of Trump’s enablers—from the Supreme Court to the hapless fools in the “clown car”—we should consider who is a victim and who is a perpetrator. Sadly, many members of the “Grand Old Party” are willing to sacrifice anything and everything to defend white, Christian patriarchal America. I fear that is the overriding cultural imperative driving the MAGA Republican conspiracy against democracy—white Christian’s fear of losing control of their country per the “great replacement” theory. And even worse, should all the spineless, soulless zombies fail to accomplish their task through the electoral process, a sizeable portion of Trump’s MAGA followers now say violence might be necessary to “save” America.