Now THIS is disturbing!

Sorry for the language but this is about as nasty as it gets, and demonstrates just how completely OFF the rails some Trumpers have gone.

Deconstructing church-state separation and reconstructing Christian theocracy

“If you think they’re going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken. Every day, it is going to be a fight. And that is what I’m proudest about Donald Trump. All the opportunities he had to waver off this, all the people who have come to him and said, ‘Oh, you’ve got to moderate’ — every day in the Oval Office, he tells Reince and I, ‘I committed this to the American people, I promised this when I ran, and I’m going to deliver on this.’ .... [The Trump administration is in an unending battle for] ‘deconstruction of the administrative state.’” -- Steve Bannon in 2017 referring to the mainstream media, political opposition, and the radical right populist intention to completely restructure the federal government and society

In addition to attacking and eliminating civil liberties such as abortion and same-sex marriage, the Christian nationalist (CN) wing of the fascist Republican Party wants to completely obliterate all separation between church and state. In the minds of the elites who control the CN political movement, establishing a Christian theocracy with society controlled by Christian sharia law, is the ultimate power and wealth grab. Radical Christian fundamentalists would control both political power and tax revenues for its own ends. Those ends include making fascist Republican elites richer and more powerful than they already are. 

An opinion piece by MSN comments on the prospects for destroying church-state separation:

Many legal scholars in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s radical decision to reverse Roe v. Wade have focused on the dangerous implications of the court’s centuries-old worldview on protections for things such as same-sex marriage and contraception. This concern is real, but there is another issue with equally grave constitutional consequences, one that portends the emergence of a foundational alteration of American government itself.

Considered alongside two First Amendment rulings last term, the Dobbs decision marks a serious step in an emerging legal campaign by religious conservatives on the Supreme Court to undermine the bedrock concept of separation of church and state and to promote Christianity as an intrinsic component of democratic government.

The energy behind this idea was apparent in Justice Samuel Alito’s speech last month for Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative in Rome. Calling it an “honor” to have penned the 6-3 majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and mocking international leaders for “lambast[ing]” the ruling, Alito spent the bulk of his remarks lamenting “the turn away from religion” in Western society. In his mind, the “significant increase in the percentage of the population that rejects religion” warrants a full-on “fight against secularism” — which Alito likened to staving off totalitarianism itself. Ignoring the vast historical record of human rights abuses in the name of religion (such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and even his own Catholic church’s role in perpetuating slavery in America), Alito identified the communist regimes of China and the Soviet Union as examples of what happens when freedom to worship publicly is curtailed. Protection for private worship, he argued, is not enough. Because “any judge who wants to shrink religious liberty” can just do it by interpreting the law, Alito insisted that there “must be limits” on that power.

Dobbs is significant not just because it reversed 50 years of precedent under the “due process clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment (under which the Court has recognized certain rights, even if unenumerated in the Constitution, as so bound up with the concept of liberty that the government cannot arbitrarily interfere with them). In Dobbs, Alito subverted that notion and fashioned a brand-new, two-part test for assessing the viability of individual rights: (1) whether the right is expressed in the Constitution’s text, and if not, (2) whether it existed as a matter of “the Nation’s history and tradition.” This second part of the test is the crucial one when it comes to religion — and in particular, its installation in government.

Under Dobbs’ step two, Alito time-traveled back to the Fourteenth Amendment’s ratification in 1868, when women could not even vote and, in his words, “three quarters of the States made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy.” Alito then regressed even earlier, to 13th century England (before America’s birth), to shore up his dubious quest to excavate historical authority rejecting abortion rights. Alito gave no guidelines for identifying which chapter of history counts in this calculus. Nor did he grapple with ancient law that actually went the other way. All we know going forward is that, for this majority, text is paramount and, barring that, very old history is determinative.

This article makes it clear, once again, that the Republican CN judges on the Supreme Court are opaque and unprincipled in their decision-making. They know the decisions they want to make before a case is heard, and they then dream up a reason that their decision is legal and constitutional. When there is no sound legal reason for what they want, they just make one up. The power that gives the Supreme Court is enormous.

On the one hand Alito complains that protection for private religious practice is insufficient because a judge can shrink religious liberty just by interpreting a law. On the other hand, Alito and four other theocrat CN judges decide to take power from judges to interpret law and instead tells them to look to cherry-picked ancient texts that he claims support the decision he wanted to arrive at the day he and the other Republican CN judges were sworn in as federal judges. 

There is no legal precedent for determining if a personal civil liberty is constitutional based on whether it existed as a matter of “the Nation’s history and tradition.” Alito just made that up. The whole point of judges being there is and has been since 1803 to interpret law. Now Alito and his Christofascist friends are turning to selected ancient texts to tell Americans in 2022 what their Nation’s history and traditions are and therefore what rights they can have and not have. This is pure Christian bullshit masquerading as sound legal reasoning in a secular country with a secular Constitution, secular traditions and a living Constitution that adapts to secular social change over time. 

The Christian fundamentalist intent here is crystal clear. The CN movement needs an excuse (they call it a rationale) to obliterate church-state separation. Looking at convenient cherry-picked ancient texts eviscerates what the Founders and drafters of the Civil War Amendments tried to do. Ignoring inconvenient ancient texts makes the bad situation much worse. The Founders tried to keep Christianity and religion generally out of government as best they could in their times. They tried to protect personal rights and civil liberties as best they could. 

Now, the Christofascist Republican Party has taken control of the Supreme Court. That court intends to generally get rid of secular law, in particular, laws related to civil liberties. They intend to replace that with Christian sharia law. 

That is core CN dogma. It is not a secret. It is a true conspiracy, but one so big that it cannot possibly be fully hidden from the public. What CN movement elites and their propagandists (Faux News, etc.) try very hard to do is to hide their real intent. That is where the conspiracy is. In that, the CN movement is quite effective. Millions of Christian fundamentalists have bought into core CN lies and propaganda. For example, most believe that America was founded as a White Christian nation, which is a lie. Most also believes that God Almighty demands that White heterosexual men should rule over all others with an iron fist, which is propaganda.

Our secular democracy and civil liberties face at least two major, urgent threats from the fascist Republican Party. One is the fall of secularism and pluralism to intolerant White Christian bigotry. The second is the fall of professional bureaucracies to lawless authoritarian radical right ideologues and regulation, taxes and government hating capitalists. Both are lethal separately. Together they are more than lethal.

A part of Sotomayor's dissent in a recent case that 

punched a huge hole in the wall separating church and state

Acknowledgement: Thanks to FriendlyGoat for bringing the MSN article to my attention.

CPAC and modern authoritarian anti-democracy tactics

This 19 minute video discusses how authoritarians rise to power in democracies and then they subvert and kill democracy. The process is well underway in America right now. Most of the interview is with Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor at Princeton. She is an expert on how Hungarian democracy was destroyed after Viktor Orban was elected in 2010. Orban has since been re-elected three times in rigged elections, making him the Hungarian dictator for life. Central points are:

• Modern authoritarians in democracies have learned how to gain power and then use it to establish tyranny. After being elected, they destroy free and fair elections and by subverting government. Government subversion involves firing career professional employees and replacing them with people chosen for their loyalty to the tyrant. That includes government employees who oversee elections. Loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law, concern for the public interest, professional competence and other concerns are not the most important qualifier. Loyalty is all-important.

• CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), which consists mostly of Republican Party elites, elected politicians and radical right propagandists (Faux News, etc.), is openly adopting these same tactics. Once back in power, Republicans plan to give themselves the power to fire tens of thousands of federal employees. Fired employees will be replaced by people loyal to the Republican Party leader and its elites. 

• Most average people in democracies are very slow to understand what is happening to their form of government. It takes years before most people come to realize that they have lost their democracy. Holding rigged elections distract from the fact that elections have been turned into a farce. Despite being a farce, holding rigged elections provides extremely effective propaganda and cover for tyrants. Tyrants boldly but falsely claim they are democratic and adhering to the rule of law by holding elections they falsely say are free and fair. The tyrant's supporters do not complain because they believe they are rightfully winning, and defending their racial purity, their nation and literally Western civilization.

• Institutions and norms that impose checks and balances on concentration of power, like those in place in the US, fall apart when the people in power are loyal to a party or a tyrant In a functioning American democracy, loyal of powerful people in government would be to federalism, the institutions they are in, and the Constitutional. That is the legal basis for separation of power sufficient to prevent the rise of a tyrant. If Republicans once again get control of institutions, including federal agencies, federal courts, congress and the presidency, their loyalty to their party will be the pathway for a tyrant to rise to power for life. So far, the Republican Party has disabled all of the checks and balances that it could. That makes the rise of a tyrant for life in the US much more likely. The GOP already controls the US Supreme Court, making it a major ally in the Republican Party's run at tyranny.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to PD for bringing this interview to my attention.

The next tactic in political war against democracy: Attack and investigate the investigators

Some of us thought the day might come when Republican Party elites would call for open warfare against the US Government and the rule of law. Well, that day is here. The Washington Post writes in a series of short articles:

Trump claims political persecution after FBI search of Mar-a-Lago residence

News of the court-authorized search prompted recriminations from Trump’s fellow Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who threatened to investigate the Justice Department if the GOP takes control of the chamber next year. Democrats, who twice impeached Trump but failed both times to convict him, welcomed the news of the raid. 

Trump raising money for his PAC off the FBI search

Former president Donald Trump is seeking to raise money for his political action committee off the FBI search of his residence.

A text message sent to supporters Tuesday morning announces that “MAR-A-LAGO was raided” and provides a link to donate to Save America, Trump’s PAC.

A landing page seeks to stoke more outrage, offering this message: “It’s time for EVERY PATRIOT to step up and stand against the Left’s reckless WITCH HUNTS and political persecution of President Trump!”

Republicans call for Garland, Wray to hold news conferences, testify to Congress

Leading Republican lawmakers are calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to hold news conferences and appear before Congress to explain why the search of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was necessary.

During a television appearance Tuesday morning, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said Garland and Wray — as well as President Biden — should appear before cameras and “take all questions, explain why they’re doing what they’re doing, what each of them knew when.”

“This should scare every American,” Scott, who leads the campaign committee of Senate Republicans, said on Fox Business. “Until we get answers, you should have unbelievable concern.”

Conservative Republicans planning to dine with Trump tonight

Members of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus of House Republicans, are planning to have dinner with former president Donald Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., in what is expected to be a show of solidarity following the FBI search of his residence in Florida.

The visit was previously planned but takes on added significance given Monday’s news and a vow by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to investigate the Justice Department if Republicans take control of the House next year.

The corrupt and authoritarian intent of the GOP leadership could not be clearer. This is the face of modern American fascism. What scares this American is not the raid on the traitor's residence. It is the response of Republican elites in defense of what is indefensible and openly treasonous. As far as the Republican Party goes, the rule of law has fallen. They are done with it. They are coming with a vengeance for our democracy and liberties.

Qs: 

1. Is it over the top to accuse Republican Party elites as modern American fascists who now openly ignore and attack the rule of law, or do facts and circumstances make those accusations reasonably defensible?

2. Are the rank and file who still support the Republican leadership also fascist, or merely understandably deceived and betrayed? We all know about the elites, but what about the rank and file?

Rick Scott -- openly attacking 

the rule of law and democracy