Contra #NeverTrump narratives, Trump pushing US toward racial civil war has a *very* long history in white thought, which the right especially has nurtured, as @4GWDOTDOTDOT explores in a new report & discusses with me at @Salon: 1/9 salon.com/2020/09/26/beh…
First, @4GWDOTDOTDOT talks about the broad sweep of history, previewed thus: 3/9
But there's also the "tyrannical government" narrative: 4/9
In short, he underscores the *necessity* of violence in response to Black *existence* that white supremacists have long nurtured: 5/9
These broad observations can be historically grounded in the Haitian Revolution and how white America & France responded. In France, immigration fears have taken center stage, via the 1973 novel "The Camp of the Saints" giving rise to the "Great Replacement" narrative: 6/9
While the "white genocide" narrative has predominated in the US. Though distinct, "white genocide" and "the Great Replacement" narratives can be used interchangeably: 7/9
My latest at Salon: A 3-part glossary provides a guide to the dominionist threat in America. Biden's Gaza policy may be horrific, but these folks think Armageddon is a good thing. We damn sure need to understand them in order to stop them. 1/15 salon.com/2024/05/26/cra…
The glossary's first section, "Preliminary Terms" lays the foundations for understanding dominionism today. White "Christian nationalism" for example (the belief that America was founded as—and was intended by God to be—a Christian nation) has been around much longer: 2/15
"Christian Zionism," around since the 19th century, is key to understanding MAGA "support for Israel" that's actually destructive to both Jews & Palestinians: 3/15
In his new book, "Taking America Back" @DavidAstinWalsh plumbs the prehistory of MAGA, how--contrary to the "never Trump" narrative-- 'mainstream' conservatives never purged the hard right. My author interview explores what he found. 1/19 salon.com/2024/04/20/a-p…
Legendary conservative William F. Buckley Jr. is a central presence in Walsh’s book & it’s undeniable that Buckley tried to purge the American conservative movement of its most extreme elements. Indeed, he did so over and over again, because no clean break was possible, 2/19
The "hard right" & "mainstream conservatives" have co-existed in conflict for centuries, as Edmund Fawcett argued in “Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition” but Walsh gives much more detailed account of how this unfolded in the US ~1930-1990. 3/19 salon.com/2020/10/24/how…
SCOTUS is a threat to democracy — but activists at @LPE_Project & @PeoplesParity are organizing to fight back, with a vision that goes well beyond court expansion: 1/18 salon.com/2024/03/03/tod…
The Supreme Court is a supreme threat to American democracy. That was Abraham Lincoln’s view in light of the Dred Scott decision, expressed in his First Inaugural Address. And the threat continued after his assassination: 2/18
It’s not just abortion. On guns, environmental protection, discrimination, labor rights, affirmative action, student debt relief and mant other issues SCOTUS has squashed majority rule: 3/18
Democracy itself is on the ballot in '24—ONLY IF DEMS PUT IT THERE!!! @RachelBitecofer explains why & how to do it in her new book, "Hit 'Em Where It Hurts: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game." My author interview 4 @Salon: 1/18 salon.com/2024/02/17/rac…
Bitecofer's most basic point is simple: Democrats as a whole—despite their “reality-based” self-image—have been unable or unwilling “to accept that the American voter is, at best, rough clay,” and to work with it accordingly, as Republicans have been doing for decades: 2/18
Some Dems have begun to make the shift, but to be effective, this needs to be comprehensive, bottom-to-top systemic change. Even with the right-wing media ecosystem, and the think-tank and donor infrastructures that underlie it, a messaging change CAN save us in 2024: 3/18
With Trump's low-40s appoval there's no way for him to be elected without the help of reactionary centrists—a term coined by Aaron Huertas for supposedly fair-minded moderates who routinely punch left. I explore why/how—including Israel/Gaza: 1/23 salon.com/2024/01/14/rea…
After Aaron Huertas coined the term "reactionary centrist" insights from @RottenInDenmark, @tzimmer_history, @tzimmer_history, @LilyMasonPhD & @perrybaconjr shed additional light on the causes, dynamics & consequences of reactionary centrism. I'm indebted all of them. 2/23
Trump needs reactionary centrists—funders, establishment media and organizations like No Labels—to make him competitive. If Biden’s ill-conceived support for Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza should prove fatal, that, too, is partially due to reactionary centrist politics. 3/23
Evangelicals closest to Tump are part of the New Apostalic Reformation [NAR], a dominionist movement radically transforming Christianity. Canadian bible scholar @andre_gagne1 provides an inside guide in his new book, he & others discuss: 1/15 salon.com/2024/01/02/mee…
Lance Wallnau, Paula White-Cain & Dutch Sheets are just 3 prominent Trump-supporting figures from the NAR, which @andre_gagne1 explores in “American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times.” 2/15 bookshop.org/a/2464/9781032…
“The trap one must avoid in writing about this subject and reporting on the movement is to do so in a way that comes across as credible without sounding like a conspiracy theorist. The truth is you are in fact writing about a conspiracy.” -- UCC Past President John Dorhauer 3/15