As I say, the problem with that phrase is so obviousl I think it's disappeared from the national discourse. But that's what this story means: white evangelicals don't like being left out. Funny, nobody noticed them for decades, and even when Falwell was alive and "The 700 Club" was a big thing, even Pat Robertson coulnd't win the GOP nomination and nobody really gave the whole crew serious consideration. Until Trump; and now, after four years, suddenly we're done for because that minority of whites can't have their way anymore? They're "taking America with them"? Seriously? Hyperbole much?https://t.co/4WNnCCKcFl pic.twitter.com/EsEilIUB15
— Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn) July 9, 2021
I just heard that the DOJ has allocated $6 million to buy computer storage space for all the internet traffic, text messages, e-mails, etc., that it has related to the 1/6 insurrection. That's digital evidence alone. Over 500 people face criminal charges, and none of them are getting a walk because "Trump made me do it!" or "I was just a tourist!" From where I sit, that's how the system works. If there's a failure, it's all in the GOP: they refuse to take any responsibility for the insurrection, or to allow any responsibility to even be investigating
The only thing the disappointed white evangelicals are taking with them is the party of Lincoln. Then again, that's now the party of McConnell, Trump, Gaetz, MTG, Madison Cawthorn, Dan Crenshaw, Ted Cruz, Mo Brooks, Kevin McCarthy....you get the idea. As we learned in November, that ain't America. Not by a long shot. White evangelicals can drag all those people down to hell, and good riddance to them. The rest of us will be just fine, thank you.
Honestly, if you think this is a sign the End is near, you need to get out of whatever bubble you live in and find out how damnably contentious American democracy has been from the git-go. This isn't even the anti-war and civil rights struggles of the '60's, much less the political violence of the '70's. Jeebus, read some history. No, read a LOT of history. The world wasn't born ten minutes before you started paying attention.
My problem with the term "white evangelicals" is that there is a significant part of those white people who identify as "evangelicals" who have some notion of an evangelical framing in their religious thinking who are anything from Hillary Clinton-Biden voting moderates to liberals to, in some cases, radicals. To erase them from reality is not only a lie bound to lead to trouble, it's unjust. And it lets off the secularists who are as bad as the worst of the bible-thumping, Lord praising (though never following) people someone who writes for the NYT will write about. Like Catholic liberals who account for quite a few, not to mention Black and Latino evangelicals who are far more likely to vote for Democrats than Republican-fascists, they are an important Democratic constituency who should not be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point.
ReplyDelete