The United States loves to export its political ideals and practices to the rest of the world. The latest export seems to be antidemocratic insurrections. Here is a taste of Anne Applebaum’s Atlantic piece: “What the Rioters in Brazil Learned...
Insurrection-Jan 6
“Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” –Donald Trump
Kevin McCarthy, with the help of Donald Trump, is Speaker of the House. Here is what some of the members of the House Select Committee on January 6th are saying: Liz Cheney: Adam Kinzinger: Adam Schiff: Jamie Raskin:...
Another link between 7 Mountain Dominionism and the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol
Last year I called your attention to Tyler Ethridge, a disciple of 7 Mountain Dominionists Andrew Wommack, Lance Wallnau, William G. Boykin, and David Barton, who lost his job as a pastor after he tweeted a video of himself inside...
Why the McCarthy anti-Trump audio won’t hurt him politically
In case you missed it, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said some negative things about his supreme commander, Donald Trump, in the immediate wake of the January 6, 2022 insurrection. To quote the New Republic e-mail blast I received yesterday,...
North Carolina decides against Madison Cawthorn on insurrectionist law
The pro-Trump Congressmen may be disqualified from running again. Here is Kyle Cheney at Politico: The North Carolina attorney general’s office says a constitutional prohibition on insurrectionists seeking federal office could be applied to GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn if a...
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is raising money off his fist pump to the January 6, 2021 insurrectionists
For $20.00 you can get a Josh Hawley fist-pump mug. Of course Hawley says he is only fist-pumping the peaceful protesters....
The House select committee on January 6th would do well to have some historians on its staff
Earlier this week the Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump’s request to stop the January 6th committee from obtaining access to White House records related to the insurrection. The National Archives has sent the material to the House and the committee...
Trump complains that the media is not covering the January 6th, 2021 crowd size
Philip Bump of The Washington Post covers the latest remarks from former narcissist-in-chief. A taste: …In an interview with the far-right cable channel One America News that was released on the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, former...
Conservative commentators Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg are leaving Fox News
They are leaving because of the “voices of the responsible” commentators “are being drowned-out by the irresponsible.” The tipping point was Patriot Purge, a three-part documentary hosted by Tucker Carlson. Here are Hayes and Goldberg: The special—which ran on Fox’s...
More on the new Lost Cause
Are we seeing a new Lost Cause? David Graham of The Atlantic thinks so. So do these scholars and writers: The Evangelical Lost Cause comes to Orlando Are conservatives advancing a new Lost Cause? The Evangelical Lost Cause is alive...
What do white evangelicals think about the January 6, 2021 insurrection?
I got some time today to look at the recent survey on January 6 conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute. The survey found that 57% of white evangelical Christians believe that liberal or left-wing activists such as Antifa were...
Tweet of the Day
From Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson:...
George W. Bush compares “violent extremists at home” to the “violent extremists” who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001
Here are two take-away quotes from today’s speech at Shanksville, Pennsylvania Many of us have tried to make spiritual sense of these events. There is no simple explanation for the mix of providence and human will that sets the direction...
January 6, 2021: What does Kevin McCarthy and the GOP have to hide?
Kevin McCarthy and other GOP House members are threatening American telecommunication companies that have received subpoenas from the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection. What do they have to hide? Here is Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene: It’s...
What happened on January 6 was an attempted coup
Here is Ruth Marcus at The Washington Post: I try not to be alarmist, but it is difficult to read the latest accounts and not be alarmed. The drip-drip-drip evolution of this story has served to mask how serious the...
January 6, 2021 must not be normalized
Midway through the Trump administration people started e-mailing to tell me that I had “Trump derangement syndrome.” Even very smart people for whom I have much respect were telling me that I needed to calm down in my criticism of...
Chait: “Imagine a 9/11 commission if the hijackers had allies in Congress”
Here is Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine: In the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, when both parties agreed on the need for an investigation into the attack, the shorthand that entered the lexicon was 9/11-style commission. When, on January...
What did the congressman know about the insurrection?
What did William Seward (NY) and Henry Wilson (MA) know about the John Brown raid on Harper’s Ferry? Here is Sidney Blumenthal at The Guardian: The House select committee on the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol, according to chairman...
This is what too often passes for conservative evangelical politics today
Watch Dinesh D’Souza: Evangelical pastors invite D’Souza to speak at their churches and schools. In the last two years D’Souza has spoken at: Emmanuel Enid Church in Enid, Oklahoma Church of Glad Tidings in Live Oak, California Calvary Chapel–Chino Hills...
Annette Gordon-Reed talks race and American history
Here is a taste of Chauncey DeVega’s interview with Gordon-Reed at Salon: Why are so many (white) people upset by basic facts about the color line and its centrality to American history? Guilt. That is why there are people who...