Mainstream Extremism

There have always been political extremes in America. It was once considered a radical and unAmerican idea that Black folks shouldn’t be slaves. Let us not forget that the Constitution was explicitly written, in part, to protect slavery. Heck, Article V forbids the government from regulating slave trading in any way. But over the last 40 years or so there has been a shift on one side of the political divide that has made what was once fringe, mainstream.

Starting in the late 70s and early 80s, Republicans realized that there was a large group of voters who had been mostly ignored by both political parties: evangelicals. They were already organized and passionate. By shaping Republican conservativism to align with their values, Republicans knew they could scoop up a lot of their votes. Which they have. In 2020, 81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump. Interesting, considering that Trump doesn’t seem to live a very Christian life. I mean…

Lord, I feel the power of JESUS! Clearly, this is a man who has definitely read the Bible. (And for the record, Trump is absolutely an Old Testament guy).

There is a cost that comes with aligning your secular political party with a religious one. For starters, it can be very hard to adapt to shifting social and cultural identities. Don’t forget we’re talking about people who think a bunch of dudes who wrote something a thousand years ago had the best ideas. Not exactly Modern Millies we’re dealing with. Worse yet, the fate of your party is now tied to the fate of the religion. It’s no secret that the number of people who are religious has fallen.

With a dwindling faithful, religious groups are stuck with trying to survive. The best way to do that has been to embrace the extremists that remain. Think about it for a moment. If a group whose foundation is unconditional belief and the numbers of the group fall, the only people left will be the die-hards. So naturally, the group will take a harder line on issues and drift further from the center, and with it will go the political party that has aligned with it.

Another common myth is that the country is split relatively evenly between Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. That isn’t really the case. It’s easy to see equal balance when presented with a binary but the numbers don’t bare it out. To get a better sense of where America stands, I think it is helpful to remove labels and boil things down to issues. Right-wing media has done a good job of demonizing “liberals” and “progressives” and there are many people who might agree with liberal ideas but do not want to be labeled as such.

I could go on. Republicans oppose all of these things. Including contraceptive access. Just last week, Republicans voted against a law that would ensure women would be able to get birth control. The governor of Mississippi might even be pushing for outlawing the pill.

The reason why the majority of Americans support progressive policies isn’t that the country has suddenly become more liberal. It’s because Republicans have become so much more extreme. What was once outside conspiracy theories has now become mainstream. This is very dangerous for two reasons: one, it pushes our country closer to theocratic fascism; two, it forces Republicans to resort to lying, cheating and stealing elections to stay in power.

Want to see a cool picture from the 60s? It’s from a college campus in southern California. Look at how happy and free these women are.

Oh, hang on. That’s actually Afghanistan. There are loads more pictures like this online. You can see some here. In less than a decade they went from the photo above to near-total theocratic rule. Don’t think it can happen here? Neither did they. And look at where they are today. Sure, foreign entities using their country to fight proxy wars and secure natural resources didn’t help things but don’t think for one second that if America were to fall into disarray (think civil war) that opportunistic countries wouldn’t try to capitalize on that. 2032 might look very different indeed.

If we want to avoid this fate, we need to act now. We cannot allow Republicans to hold power until they drift back towards the center. We have to make it clear that people who try to overthrow democracy, lie about elections, and seek to institute Christian Nationalism will not be tolerated. We must do this now. Or risk freedom becoming a memory.

Matt Barnsley