LINK White Christian Nationalism Is a ‘Threat to Democracy’
An ideology is on the march. Traces of it are detectable in a racist massacre in Buffalo; in Tucker Carlson’s monologues; in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s public comments. Find it again in the right’s anti-abortion rhetoric, which poorly disguises demographic anxiety, or in the right’s response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which shows it embracing God and guns with ever greater conviction. This ideology has a name, argue sociologists Samuel L. Perry of the University of Oklahoma and Philip S. Gorski of Yale University. Perry and Gorski call it white Christian nationalism, and in their view, it represents a pressing threat to democracy.
In The Flag and the Cross, their new book from Oxford University Press, white Christian nationalists undergo careful scrutiny. Combining research with data analysis, Gorski and Perry argue that white Christian nationalists share a set of common anti-democratic beliefs and principles. “These are beliefs that, we argue, reflect a desire to restore and privilege the myths, values, identity, and authority of a particular ethnocultural tribe,” they write. “These beliefs add up to a political vision that privileges the tribe. And they seek to put other tribes in their proper place.”
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I keep coming back to your statement, “These are beliefs that, we argue, reflect a desire to restore and privilege the myths, values, identity, and authority of a particular ethnocultural tribe." Can it be that this tribe is so bent on keeping the privileges and the power that has been bestowed upon them for centuries. Could they be so paranoid of losing what has kept them ahead of the game for as long as this country has existed, has now brought on this extreme and escalating nationalist agenda.
One has to think that the thought of losing the edge that has kept them empowered is pushing them to the brink. The mere thought of becoming a "minority" in THEIR country must be a horrifying notion, one that upsets the balance that they have lived with all their lives. I would have to suspect that they would never accept the fact that the God they have been so faithful to, would even allow a balancing of the books to occur, so to speak and now, in many instances, their paranoia has erupted in violence.
maikidagardner
Level 2
June 6, 2022
2
I'd be concerned except for the fact that the phrase "a threat to Democracy" is so over used that I tend to dismiss those that use it.
Alienbeing
Level 8
June 5, 2022
1
Thank you snytiger6 for the relevant post! This anti-democratic white Christian nationalist project is now the issue of the day. The only other thing more pressing is the growing climate catastrophe, but that will apparently have to wait for real action until we have put this fascist movement to bed. It's a shame, because the climate clock is ticking (klanging!), and we should be hitting it with a full-court press now. I sincerely hope that the coming Select Committee hearings serve to wake people up to the danger we face from the neo Nazis and their ilk. I hope we can snuff out their movement through legal means, and not have to take up arms to do it. I hope.
Flyingsaucesir
Level 8
June 5, 2022
4
I'm not sure if you're right, because Marjorie Taylor Greene says that all the ills of the country will go away if we would just embrace Christian nationalism.
StoicsFuckBest
Level 3
June 5, 2022
4
MTG...what a moron. Screw her and the sway-backed nag she rode in on.
@Flyingsaucesir I agree. MTG is a total idiot, Anyone who gives her any credibility is also a total idiot.
@Alienbeing But she is also a very dangerous idiot. Let's not underestimate the damage she can do, is doing. She, and the white Christian nationalist project she represents, will turn this country into a fascist dictatorship....if we let them.
@Flyingsaucesir I'm not too concerned. Her followers are few in number.
@Alienbeing My armchair estimate: 50 million +/-
@Flyingsaucesir I doubt that number, however even if it was true, the total does not have much influence, compared to the whole.
@Alienbeing Her followers may be few, but because she says some pretty ridiculous hings, she gets a lot of news coverage. One of my favorites is when she said the increase of wildfires in the U.S. wasn't caused by climate change, but by "Jewish space lasers."
@snytiger6 That was a particularly stupid statement, and laughable at the same time. Unfortunately, our media love to print/broadcast the most sensationalist items they can uncover.
Let's hope she disappears i the near future.
The U.S. has completely forgotten Nazi Germany (on purpose).
racocn8
Level 9
June 5, 2022
6
Some have forgotten. Most never were taught the before WWII, there was a very active Nazi movement in the U.S. that continued up until the Pearl Harbor attack. Also in the 1930's there was a plot to assassinate FDR and replace him with a military dictator, which was led by many corporate leaders. However, General Smedley Butler, who they approached to be that dictator instead testified to prevent the coo. Butler later wrote a short book entitled "War Is A Racket".
Anyway, Fascism is the capitalist version of totalitarianism. When government and corporate interests are combined, then profits can be huge. The problem is the people in charge have never had any limits to their ambitions, and so fascism leads to war and destruction. However, corporations still want us to move towards fascism to increase their profit margins.
If Trump was not restricted in power by the constitution, we'd have gone the way of Germany in the 1930's. Trump even blamed non-whites for societal ills just as Hitler did. I have read several times that the only book found on Trump's nightstand was a book of Hitler's speeches. Trump insisted on blind loyalty and wanted unlimited power.
Think we could ''blanket'' the GOP States with free copies of the book? Maybe not...I doubt they'd read it.
LucyLoohoo
Level 9
June 5, 2022
4
It’s a great idea Pam, but you’re probably right, they either wouldn’t read it or would claim it’s some kind of propaganda. 
@Redheadedgammy Book burning would suddenly come back into fashion.
@anglophone I’ve read some stories already about some of the nuts wanting to do this.
They’d be having bonfires all over those states trying to get rid of them all! 
@Barnie2years It'd look like Nazi Germany...all over again!
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