Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” — Unknown
The above quote used to be attributed to Sinclair Lewis, but Politifact has stated that this was not his quote. Either way, this quote is prescient now. The large difference between the past and the present is that the quiet part is now being said out loud.
The notorious MTG has already called for a move to Christian Nationalism. Obviously, my commentary on religion has been a lightening rod. So, I won’t try to belabor this point too much, but the whole concept of Christian nationalism is a bastardization of Christianity.
In the gospel of John, a story is told about the woman at the well. Jesus approaches the woman at the well and asks for some water. The Samaritan woman has a conversation with Jesus and if you believe the wording in the translation, she convinces him that he is supposed to be the savior for the whole world.
So, how do we take a savior that is the savior for the whole world and somehow shrink him down to a savior of just your own country? Obviously, the answer is that those doing this and those listening to it have no earthly clue what the key point of Christianity really is.
Really this is about the love of team. The best analogy I could give is that of being a sports fan. Everyone wants their team to win the big game. Whether it is the World Series, NBA Championship, or Super Bowl you feel an immense amount of joy when your team wins. The problem comes when you are willing to sacrifice your personal beliefs and borders on common decency.
So, you have to ask yourself if you are willing to root for a scumbag on your team. Are you willing to root for Deshaun Watson? Are you willing to root for Trevor Bauer? Are you rooting for Kyrie Irving? What happens in fascism is that the team becomes more important than any personal feelings on morality and decency.
If we make this portable to the political world then this becomes very clear. There are Democrats that are scumbags. There are Republicans that are scumbags. Yet, these scumbags are members of our team. So, we are going to root for them to succeed even though we know they are horrible people.
If you have any doubts about this, just check out the number of people that call themselves a patriots or have a bunch of flags around their name. Are they not all rabid conservatives? You will notice that anyone that comes across them on social media and states something wrong those people will not politely invite you to leave the country.
People that have to say they are patriots are just like the people that feel the need to tell you they are nice guys or that they are smart. How smart and how nice are they really? If you feel the need to tell me you love America then how much do you really love America? You love a certain part of America which means you hate other parts of America. That’s when we get to another of the pillars of fascism. Stay tuned…
It feels like we have been living in a consequence free zone for too many years. It tires out regular folk and discourages them. I was glad that Biden called out some of the things the GOP has said/done and then claimed otherwise. I was also glad to see Mitt Romney spoke his mind to George Santos. We need people who still have the strength to speak for the good values all Americans have and point out bad behaviors.
1I have long made the distinction between Christians that follow Christ’s teachings, and “Kristians”. Just as “Krab” isn’t real crab, Kristians are not really Christians.
If I recall the AntiChrist stuff correctly, the AntiChrist sees to discredit real Christianity by putting forth an imitation version that subverts Christ’s teachings. Kristians, especially the KKKristian racist sect, seem to fit this narrative.
2Those Xchristofascists and “rabid conservatives” are going to be all gung-ho to be –lowering some taxes– too, Bunky; once they get control of things.
These kind of taxes [below], because they’re the only ones that will be in a position to be having to pay this particular tax levy [think about that…]; they’ll be lobbying for at least a 50% reduction.
To wit:
An actual 1840 Bexar County San Antonio TX Tax Assessor office tax assessment, to be re-instated in a few years, by 2040 for sure:
” “Miscellaneous Articles Subject to a Specific Tax”
Under which columns were listed, among other things, “Negroes” and cattle [even ‘1 silver watch’ showed up].
Each negro over 15yo had a $3 tax assessed, under 15yo, $1. Cattle were 10 cents a head.”
Guess what, added to the above “Miscellaneous Articles” will be those/you commie libruls and all the rest of -those people- that they’re always ranting about.
Y’all think that this shit won’t happen if the Rescummies take over political power in the good ol’ USofA? Buulll…
Full description and link at my
3‘comment #19’, on Nick’s previous ‘fascist article :
https://juanitajean.com/a-series-on-fascism/#comments
“Deshaun Watson? Are you willing to root for Trevor Bauer? Are you rooting for Kyrie Irving?”?
4Damn, now I’m gonna hafta to go look up all these people to know how I’m spose’ta think about’em.!
I believe the quote is by Sinclair Lewis in “It Can Happen Here”.
5It’s a great book.
My favorite of this kind of genre remains Mark Twain’s masterpiece “The War Prayer”.
I am also minded of the duelling bumpersticker slogans from the 60’s: “America! Love it or leave it!” versus “America! Change it or lose it!” which neatly described the kind of divide here.
6BruceJ:
My favored variant of those slogans is
7“My country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right. When wrong, to be set right.”