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A brief thread about Josh Hawley, Christianist Fascism, and what my upbringing taught me about the present political moment.
I was raised in (overwhelmingly white) fundamentalists evangelical communities in the 80s and 90s. The Venn diagram of that group and Reaganite conservatism was close to a circle. But there were people who were far to the right of the Reaganites.
Today you'll sometimes see these people called Christian Dominionists. As a practical matter, they're fascists who frame the Us vs. Them dynamic that fuels fascism in explicitly religious terms.
"Us" for these Christians includes fundamentalist protestants and basically no one else. Sometimes they'd extend that to fundamentalist Catholics, though this alliance wasn't much of a thing until later, from what I can tell.
"Them" was "The World," understood to mean everyone and everything that wasn't fundamentalist.
And here's the thing I need you to understand: these fundamentalists openly, proudly believe that the US should be governed by "God's Law," which for them means the tenants of their extremist version of Christianity.
I was taught that America was founded to be a Christian country, that "Freedom" meant the freedom to follow (their interpretation of) God's commandments, that non-Christians knew they were wrong but pretended not to (or deluded themselves), etc.
Most mainline Christians and even many/most evangelicals, according to this worldview, had been corrupted by the World and couldn't be trusted.
Their goal for decades has been to capture the machinery of American Government and create a theocratic state, where government enforces "Biblical" laws.
They care nothing for democracy or anything you'd recognize as freedom. What they want (and they're very clear on this) is to get to enforce their worldview on the rest of us.
They're fascists. They're a subset of white evangelicals, but an increasingly powerful one, and everything I've seen says they've only grown more powerful since my youth.
If you don't know people like this, you may find what I'm saying hard to credit.
If you do know people like this, you know that if anything I'm understating the threat they pose.
If you do know people like this, you know that if anything I'm understating the threat they pose.
That brings us the coup.
People keep trying to place Hawley, Cruz, et al. in a framework they understand. Cruz may be simply an opportunist, but Hawley is a true believer. What he wants, his life goal, is to make the US Government an organ of his theocratic worldview.
People keep trying to place Hawley, Cruz, et al. in a framework they understand. Cruz may be simply an opportunist, but Hawley is a true believer. What he wants, his life goal, is to make the US Government an organ of his theocratic worldview.
If you think any norms, collaboration, talk of unity, appeal to reason, etc. are going to work on him or the people he represents, you are dangerously deluded.
He believes it his divine duty to bring about a theocratic state. He believes freedom means his freedom to enforce his views on us. That his fascist vision is different from previous fascists shouldn't surprise us. Fascism is amorphous, indifferent to consistency.
If you think these people can be chastened. If you think they may see the world differently than you do but you can find common ground, you are wildly misunderstanding who they are and what they want.
Your uncle who loves capitalism and says he's got no problem with queer people but they shouldn't "shove it in his face"? Reason with him.
Your conservative Christian friend who thinks Trump is awful but is a single-issue abortion voter? Reason with her.
Hawley and co. won't be reasoned with. The only workable response to fascism is to make it so politically toxic, so worthy of public contempt and so openly despised that they don't dare publicly advocate for their beliefs.
What we saw last week will only be the beginning unless we clearly understand the threat we're facing and the worldview that has brought us to this point.
If you're antifascism doesn't extend to these theocratic shitgibbons, then you need to reconsider immediately.
~Fin
~Fin
Update: I've seen good arguments that Hawley may not be a true believer and just a cynical opportunist.
His followers truly believe in this stuff, though, and he'll give them what they want if given half a chance.
His followers truly believe in this stuff, though, and he'll give them what they want if given half a chance.
