TIL that the Religious Right literally has databases that allow pastors to cross-reference church and voter databases such that they can learn what percentage of their congregation is registered to vote & even what percentage voted.

This is why the Dems are so badly off.

I remember growing up books were always like "the Dems are a big disorganized coalition; the GOP is smaller but much more directed." I never quite got what that meant. Slowly getting there: from "non-partisan" voter guides, to busing voters, to this stuff--they're a machine.

This is why I won't back down on the "evangelicalism is a right wing phenomenon for American empire" shtick. In Ohio, e.g., this system is specifically used to target Latin evangelical congregations. By becoming evangelicals Latinos are more likely to become GOP operatives.

I know this upsets people, but it's a fact. Sure lots of Catholics are mobilized and right-wing. But this infrastructure targets evangelicals above all. While some Catholics are integrated, a network of prot churches you can't imagine acts as an appendage of a specific ideology.

Let's say your lapsed Catholic cousin happens to "get saved" in suburban Ohio one day, there is a pretty large chance he has just joined a church with national connections that will deploy every imaginable trick in the book to get him motivated to vote. This happens all the time

Had he remained Catholic or irreligious he is substantially less likely to ever end up part of this voter turnout mechanism. It's just not entrenched in other churches / civic orgs (excepting maybe the NRA). As US Latinos become less Catholic they will become more Right-wing.

Again, I know that upsets people, but we're just talking percentages here, odds. If one converts, one is more likely to become a ravening Christian nationalist kinda person. Simple as.

And this extends to missions. Take the Humanitarian International Services Group. Sounds normal right? Wrong. It's an evangelical "mission org" with ties to both prominent seminaries & high-level US intel figures like Lt. Gen. William Boykin. Mission dollars do US empire.

These orgs are so well integrated into a broader network of right-wing religious stuff you can't even begin to imagine. We Catholics have our versions (e.g. a major CatholicVote guy developed the Trump-Cruz voter app), but they pale in comparison. Pale.

Last bit: People like to say "white evangelicals" are the problem. That is statistically true rn. But these ppl aren;t dumb; they are making inroads in Asian, Black, and Latino communities rn. They are doing so thru evangelical religion; they are clear on this point.