Category Archives: Religion

Time For Christians To Get Their House In Order.

Posted on by

For years, Christians have demanded that all Muslims speak out against Muslim extremists. When will they take their own advice? Domestic terrorists – most of them Christians – have murdered far more Americans than Muslims. They have used their faith to justify vandalizing synagogues and mosques; to excuse the gunning down of Muslims, Jews, members of the LGBTQ community, abortion providers, immigrants, and people of color. Yet Christian leaders have remained relatively silent about those who have committed these tragedies.

Likewise, few Christian leaders have spoken out against Christian White Supremacists. Christian churches have remained relatively silent on the sexual abuse of children by priests and pastors. They have not spoken out against Christian pastors who abuse their privilege, abandon their principles, and preach division and hatred from the pulpit. They have stood silent as con artists under the cloak of Christianity contort passages of the Bible to condemn abortion and homosexuality. They have watched in silence as pastors and televangelists fleece the faithful in order to buy private jets and mansions. They have refused to speak up against those who preach prosperity gospel while ignoring the poor and the hungry, even condoning their punishment. They have stood silent as some Christian pastors and churches funnel money into Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory as a way of displacing an entire population.

For the most part, Christian evangelicals have only raised their voices to convert others, to demand that the US be declared a Christian nation, to condemn those who do not believe as they do.

What will it take for the churches to reassert the teachings of the one they worship? What will it take for them to speak up in unison to condemn all violence, most especially that of those who commit it in the name of Christianity? What will it take for them to aggressively root out predatory pastors and priests? What will it take for them to call out corruption within their ranks?

What will it take for them to follow the advice they give to the leaders of other religions?

Destruction Of The US. (Part Thirteen – Putin)

Posted on by

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, most of the world was hopeful that Russians would enjoy the benefits of democracy. Instead, it has become a brutal dictatorship led by a former KGB operative, Vladimir Putin. Using techniques he learned in the KGB, he controls almost every aspect of Russian life. He not only controls the government and the military. He and his criminal associates control the nation’s industries, technologies and natural resources.

As Malcolm Nance states in his latest book, The Plot To Betray America, there are four classes of society in Russia: From the top down, they include the leadership , the oligarchs and Russian mafia, the street criminals, and, at the bottom, ordinary people. Putin and his ex-KGB friends use brutality and murder to maintain control and to funnel the nation’s riches off-shore to their private bank accounts.

Nance describes Putin as a wannabe Charlemagne writing “Putin, with the Russian Orthodox Church patriarchy, would put forward a template to unite a new, conservative Europe under a Christian banner. America could come along too. He set his spymasters to develop an intelligence operation to bring the Americans along by making common cause with ideological soul mates across the Atlantic.”

Obviously, those soul mates are Trump, the GOP and evangelical Christians.

To push his agenda, Putin has used his billions and the billions of other Russian oligarchs to support political campaigns, to publish pro-Russian lies in mass media, to promote division via social media, and to meddle in Western elections.

In the US, he directed his efforts against President Obama and Hillary Clinton. And to aid Donald Trump. From the Mueller investigation, we learned that Putin’s GRU (successor to the KGB) hacked the servers of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the chair of Clinton’s campaign. The information gleaned was directed to the campaigns of GOP candidates, including Trump’s.

In addition, Mueller documented more than 100 meetings between Putin’s officials and members of the Trump campaign. Putin’s operatives engaged the NRA and his Russian oligarch friends funneled campaign donations through the organization to GOP campaigns. Mueller also documented that GRU operatives, disguised as Americans, posted millions of divisive messages and fake news on social media.

Not coincidentally, once Trump won the nomination, his campaign rewrote the GOP platform to soften its approach toward Russia. Since then, the Trump administration and GOP congressional representatives have only reluctantly criticized Russia while putting forth debunked conspiracy theories originating in Russia. (It’s Putin who’s behind the crackpot idea that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election.) Additionally, Trump has requested that Russia be re-admitted to the G7 despite Russia’s ongoing war and occupation of Ukraine territory. He appeared subservient to Putin at their public meetings. And, we can only imagine what has been said in their private meetings since Trump has refused to allow anyone to attend except a translator (and he confiscated the translators notes). Moreover, the transcripts of Trump’s private phone calls with Putin have been hidden away in classified servers. Lastly, Trump has abdicated US leadership in the Middle East by betraying our Kurdish allies leaving Russia to fill the void. Indeed, many of the Trump administration’s decisions seem to benefit Russia more than the US.

Given all of the evidence, one can only conclude that our president and the GOP leadership have become little more than puppets with Putin pulling the strings.

Being Against Abortion Is Not The Same As Being Pro-Life.

Posted on by

In an attempt to gain more public support, in the 1970s, Christian evangelicals re-branded their anti-abortion efforts as “pro-life.” In other words, if you supported a woman’s right to choose to end a pregnancy or even to use contraceptives, you were against life – the equivalent of a murderer.

Unfortunately, it worked.

It seems that, each year, “Pro-Lifers” have succeeded in finding new ways to undermine Roe v. Wade. They have portrayed Planned Parenthood as an abortion mill, even though abortions represent a tiny portion of its activities and even though, in some areas, Planned Parenthood is the only source of health care for underprivileged women.

But to truly understand the effects of the “Pro-Life” movement, one must look at the consequences. First, doctors, nurses and other clinic workers have been threatened and murdered by “Pro-Life” extremists. Almost all of them have had their homes and vehicles vandalized and their privacy invaded.

In addition, one must understand that, for some women, being forced to carry a baby to full term is life-threatening. One must realize that being forced to have an unwanted baby can literally destroy a woman’s opportunity to finish her education, to improve her life economically, and to improve the lives of the children she may already have. One must also understand that to follow some of the new “Pro-Life” laws are impractical and even scientifically impossible.

If we return to the days before Roe v Wade and before contraception was readily available, many more women will become pregnant. The poor will, once again, resort to more dangerous ways to end their pregnancies, including coat hangers, acids, falls and suicides. But, of course, the rich will merely travel to countries where abortions are legal. Or they’ll convince their family doctors to describe the procedure as a D&C.

Many of the women who carry unwanted children to term will place their children up for adoption – a system already at its limits. At any given time, roughly 120,000 kids in the US are up for adoption and, as sex education, contraception and abortion become less accessible, that number is certain to grow. So, too, will the number of children with major disabilities who will be placed up for adoption. The children who are not immediately adopted are placed in the foster system. That may seem like a reasonable outcome. But according to census data from 2011, there were 47,885 children in foster care. Many stay in the system until they “age out.”

It’s worth noting that 50 per cent of the nation’s homeless and 80 percent of our prison population have come through the foster care system. So, obviously, our entire society is impacted by unwanted and unloved children. And, if the “Pro-Life” extremists get their way, many more children will end up in the system!

Destruction Of The US. (Part Twelve – Religion)

Posted on by

It is well-known that many of the original European immigrants came to the US seeking freedom to practice their own versions of religion. For example, the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock had faced persecution in England when they quit the Church of England and established their own congregation in violation of the Act of Uniformity of 1559. The Quakers who settled Pennsylvania had faced similar persecution in England and Netherlands. Indeed, it was the hope of religious freedom that brought people of many denominations and faiths to the “New World,” including those who practiced Judaism and Islam. Yet, even in colonial America, many people were still subjected to religious persecution. In Virginia, Baptists and Presbyterians faced persecution from members of the Church of England. Similarly, other states established official religions forcing all residents to support the state church with their taxes.

Is it any wonder, then, that the Framers of the Constitution included the separation clause that forbade the establishment of state-sponsored religions?

Yet there are still those who have falsely denied that was the Framers’ intent. And they have continued to demand that our government proclaim the United States of America a Christian nation. Their demands only increased following the attacks on 9/11 which were carried out by Muslim extremists. Of course, they ignore the fact that many acts of terrorism carried out against Americans are committed by home-grown Christian terrorists.

In their push for conformity, these Christian zealots are, in effect, attempting to impose the type of discrimination their ancestors escaped. In fact, as a result of US tax policy, they are already engaged in a form of discrimination. Since all church property, even that used by church-owned businesses, is classified as tax-exempt, all Americans are forced to support their place of worship, including the 29 percent of Americans who do not attend a church. What if we did the same for private clubs? For other organizations?

Ironically, some of the darkest days in our history have been marked by discrimination excused and even promoted by religious leaders: Discrimination against people of different denominations and faiths or of no faith, discrimination against Native Americans, against people of color, and against the LGBTQ community. Religion has even been used to support slavery and war.

I believe that today’s religious fervor is fueled by fear – fear that religion is losing its sway. It’s not the first time. In the 1950s, Christian conservatives used the fear of communism to call for the end of separation of church and state. They pushed Congress to change the nation’s original motto from “E Pluribus Unum” (Out of many, one) to “In God We Trust.” They succeeded in adding their new motto to all US currency. Under the same pretense, they got “Under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance. They also pushed for a National Day of Prayer which, not surprisingly, is almost entirely dedicated to Christian evangelism.

More recently, the GOP has aligned with conservative religious leaders to rile up its voting base by preaching “family values” from the pulpit. Not coincidentally, these values tend to encourage discrimination against women, gays, lesbians, transgender individuals, and people of color – all supported by the selective reading of the Bible.

And the influence of conservative religious leaders on the GOP has continued to gain momentum. The GOP and their evangelical Christian supporters have pushed for “freedom of religion” laws intended to make it legal for business owners to deny products and services to gays and lesbians. Some evangelical Christians have meddled in US foreign policy by investing in Jewish settlements on the West Bank based on the bizarre belief that the Messiah will return when the Holy Land is united under Jewish control. They support Putin’s Russia because he supports many of their narrow-minded views of Christianity. And they have been able to summon their faithful to help elect a president who would embrace their hatreds.

That’s right, Christian evangelicals have anointed Donald J. Trump, the pussy grabber himself, as the “chosen one.”

Their hypocrisy is stunning. They’re willing to ignore the fact that Trump has gleefully broken most of their 10 Commandments. Why? Because they see him as someone who, as long as they proclaim fealty to him, will do their bidding. Someone who will continue to pack the courts with ideological judges who will carry forward their hateful and narrow views on abortion and discrimination. Someone who will give them power to rewrite our laws, maybe even the Constitution itself. Someone who will institute God’s law as they themselves define it. Someone who will proclaim the US a Christian theocracy presided over by a leader “chosen by God.”

If we allow that to happen, the US will have come full circle. And we will require another revolution to achieve freedom from persecution.

The Three Rs: Republicans, Religion and Racism.

Posted on by

Ironically, given that one of the party’s founders was responsible for emancipating African-American slaves, racism has been an integral part of the GOP ideology for a very long time, most especially after a Democratic president signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. Of course, the Republican party vehemently denies its racist appeal. But, if you examine the party’s electoral platforms from the 60s and 70s, you’ll see that states’ rights (aka Jim Crow-style racism) has long been a central theme. And if you look at the electoral maps before and after 1964, you’ll see that the South – the former slave states – suddenly turned bright red.

Lee Atwater, GOP strategist and advisor to presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, admitted as much.

During an interview, he described the party’s southern strategy this way, “You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”

In other words, the party stopped using the overt language of Jim Crow and resorted to dog whistles, instead. But things changed in 2008 when the nation’s first black president was elected. It’s not coincidental that GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky responded to the 2008 election results by vowing to make Barack Obama a one-term president and by successfully blocking much of his legislation. And the party’s rhetoric, once again, became more explicit. Many of the party’s faithful and conservative pundits felt comfortable using the N word to describe the president and his family. They held up racist posters and circulated racist memes. They denied he was a citizen, they demanded to see his birth certificate and they talked about sending him back to Kenya.

In 2015, things only got worse when Donald J. Trump – the most vocal of the “birthers” – began his campaign for president as a Republican.

Trump had long been a racist. He was raised by parents who were members of the KKK. He had been charged with refusing to rent properties to people of color. He had run a full-page ad calling for the execution of five innocent young men of color who had been falsely accused. And when he took a momentary recess from tweeting, got off his gold-plated toilet, and came down the gold-plated escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president of the United States, he began by calling Mexican immigrants murderers, rapists and terrorists.

Central to Trump’s campaign was a promise to end “Political Correctness” – code for “It’s okay to be racist again.” One of his advisors and most powerful backers was Steve Bannon who, as editor of Breitbart News, called his website a platform for the alt-right, a nuanced name for white supremacists. In addition, many of Trump’s policies have been guided by Stephen Miller who has long circulated racist talking points by email and social media. Yet another advisor, and Trump’s first choice for Attorney General, was Sen. Jeff Sessions who clearly harbored racist beliefs. Even one of Trump’s campaign themes, “America First,” was originally used by Nazi sympathizers prior to the US entry into WWII. The theme has also been extensively used by the KKK.

Once ensconced in the White House, Trump not only surrounded himself with fellow racists, he embraced white “Christian” evangelicals who saw him as a vehicle to criminalize gay marriage, to end abortion, and to consolidate the Holy Land under Israel’s control in order to fulfill a prophecy that will hasten the return of their Messiah. Of course, the evangelicals’ hatred and bigotry are not confined to homosexuality and advocates of family planning. Many white evangelicals have long associated with white nationalism. Historically, they have not only excused the violence of the KKK and other racist groups. They have marched alongside them. And they have helped burn crosses on the lawns of black families.

Indeed, the symbolism of the white-hooded mobs and Christian crosses have long been intertwined.

So, when you see the Trump administration try to ban all Muslims from entering the US; when you hear Trump call predominately black nations “shit hole countries,” when you hear the administration order babies to be ripped from the arms of brown-skinned parents and placed in cages; when you see brown-skinned refugees being sent back to their countries of origin to face near certain deaths; when you hear the president excuse the violence of white supremacists against protesters by saying “there were good people on both sides”; when you hear him tell black congresswomen to “go back where you came from”; when you see Republicans use a variety of means to suppress and diminish the vote of African-Americans; when you hear white evangelical “Christians” say that Trump was sent by God to save the US; when you see polls that show Trump’s approval rating among Republicans is 74 percent; when you see that 53 percent of Republicans believe that Trump is a better president than Abraham Lincoln, you arrive at one inescapable conclusion:

A majority of GOP voters and a substantial number of the “Christian” faithful are hopelessly and unapologetically racist!

Understanding The Threat Of Trump: A Holiday Reading List.

Posted on by

If you have a few moments to relax from your busy holiday schedule, here is a list of books that will help you better understand the political landscape of America. With the upcoming elections in 2020, nothing…I emphasize NOTHING…could be more important. The very future of democracy and our nation are at stake!

The Constitution of the United States of America
For anyone who wants to debate politics, this is the place to start. It’s one of the most powerful documents ever written. If you haven’t read it, or if you haven’t read it since grade school, I recommend you take the time to read it and understand it.

That’s Not What They Meant!: Reclaiming the Founding Fathers from America’s Right Wing by Michael Austin
The definitive guide to the thinking of our Founding Fathers and the framers of our Constitution. It’s essential reading for anyone seeking the accurate historical background to many of the today’s political debates.

CIVICS TODAY: Citizenship, Economics, & You
All naturalized US citizens are tested on the workings of our government. Yet few natural born US citizens have even read a civics book. Here’s your chance to know as much about the workings of our government as most recent immigrants.

Testing Theories of American Politics, Elites, Interest Groups and Average Citizens by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page
An academic study that proves the US has become an oligarchy in which the very wealthy, the powerful and the connected control our institutions of government, often in direct contradiction of the wishes of ordinary Americans.

Fascism: A Warning by Madeline Albright
A personal and urgent examination of Fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world, written by one of America’s most admired public servants, the first woman to serve as US Secretary of State.

Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War On America And The Election Of Donald Trump by Michael Isikoff and David Corn
The incredible, harrowing account of how American democracy was hacked by Moscow as part of a covert operation to influence the US election and help Donald Trump gain the presidency written by two of our generation’s best investigative reporters.

House Of Trump House Of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia by Craig Unger
This book tells the story of one of the greatest intelligence operations in history, a campaign by Russian operatives years in the making, ending with either a willfully ignorant or an inexplicably unaware Russian asset in the White House as the most powerful man on earth.

It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America by David Cay Johnston
A great book by an exceptional journalist that describes the rise of Donald Trump in great detail. It goes on to examine how the Trump administration is gleefully destroying the US from within.

The Mueller Report
The report by Special Counsel Robert S Mueller III and his team who were tasked with investigating Russia’s attack on our democracy and the Trump campaign. Contrary to statements by Trump and William Barr, the report details the extensive connections between Russian operatives and the campaign, including Trump himself and his family. It also outlines at least 10 instances in which Trump obstructed justice and attempted to suborn perjury.

The Plot To Betray America by Malcolm Nance
A 20-year Navy veteran, Nance is an expert in intelligence and counterterrorism. In this book, he details how Trump, with the help of Putin and Russian intelligence, cheated his way into the Oval Office. He not only explains how Trump succeeded. He explains why.

Bring The War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen Belew
Belew details how the white nationalist movement grew out of our nation’s wars. As veterans returned home, they brought military strategies with them making the movement more dangerous. As evidenced by the reaction to America’s first black president and the White House reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, the movement now has supporters at the highest levels of government.

Democracy In Chains: The Deep History Of The Radical Right’s Stealth Plan For America by Nancy MacLean – Based on her access to a treasure trove of documents from the estate of James McGill Buchannan, MacLean reveals the playbook of the GOP, rightwing billionaires and the new conservative movement in the US.

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
Although you may have trouble remembering his name, Giridharadas offers a clear-eyed examination of the state of our nation by taking us into the inner sanctums of the new gilded age in which the rich and powerful threaten our social order.

Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, And The Richest, Most Destructive Industry On Earth by Rachel Maddow
An unapologetic liberal, five days each week Maddow helps her viewers understand the political developments that affect us all. In this, her second book, she explores how the fossil fuel industry has corrupted our government, led us into war and is on the verge of destroying our planet.

UN Global Outlook Report 2019
The latest UN report on climate change warns that countries have collectively failed to stop the growth in global [greenhouse gas] emissions, meaning that deeper and faster cuts are now required. Without urgent and dramatic changes, the future is bleak, according to the report.

The Death Of Christianity.

Posted on by

For decades, many Christians have declared the US a Christian nation. That is provably untrue. Not only does the Constitution state “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” Most of those calling for recognition no longer practice a religion that, in any way, resembles Christianity. Unless, of course, your idea of Christianity is represented by visions of the Spanish Inquisition or the pastors and priests who have used their positions to abuse children or to scam millions from their followers in order to live a life of luxury in mansions.

According to exit polls, 80 percent of those who call themselves evangelical Christians voted for Donald J Trump. So did 52 percent of white Catholics, along with 57 percent of whites who are mainline protestants. And they did so despite knowledge of his three marriages and extramarital affairs, his troubling statements about grabbing women by their pussies, credible accusations of rape and assault, his racist attacks on Mexicans who are predominately Catholic, and knowledge of his many scams, including his use of a charity to funnel money into his own pockets. Moreover, there was no evidence that he regularly attended church or had any real knowledge of Christianity.

All these voters knew was that he was suddenly “pro-life” (though he had long supported pro-choice Democrats) and that he was endorsed by some of the most disingenuous evangelical con men…er…pastors on the planet.

Now let’s examine the “Christian” actions of this man who some have labeled an instrument of God sent to prepare Earth for the second coming of the Messiah. Indeed, some even seem to think Trump is the Messiah.

Deuteronomy 10:18-19 states, “For the Lord your God…loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Yet Trump ordered the separation of children, including toddlers, from their immigrant parents and placed them in cages. He placed adults who had the nerve to ask for refugee status in cages, eventually blocking all refugees at our southern border and forcing them into makeshift camps in Mexico. His so-called “pro-life” regime even ordered those here on medical visas for lifesaving treatments not available elsewhere to leave within 30 days, in effect, sentencing them to death. Most recently, he refused entry to refugees from the Bahamas who are fleeing the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

According to Luke 14:12-14, Jesus said to his host, “…when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.” Yet the Trump regime has moved to end food stamp benefits for 3.1 million poor Americans. Ostensibly the excuse for such action is our enormous federal deficit. Never mind that the primary reason for the growing deficit is the tax cuts given to corporations and the very wealthy at the start of the Trump regime. Perhaps Trump and his “Christian” supporters should pay heed to Matthew 19:24 which quotes Jesus, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

These are but a few examples of the dozens of cruel and hateful actions by Trump and his administration. Yet his base – his Bible-thumping, cross-wearing, prosperity gospel-spouting base still support him in numbers close to those of 2016. I have a name for them: (actually, I have many – most of which are unprintable) Hallelujah Hypocrites.

The truth is, according to a recent study, atheists and agnostics are more driven by compassion to help others than are highly religious people.

Mass Murder And Mental Illness.

Posted on by

Despite the fact the US has already experienced 293 mass shootings this year as recorded by gunviolencearchive.org, the president and the GOP do not want to talk about the single biggest issue that contributes to gun violence: Easy access to guns. I’m not referring to shotguns, hunting rifles and six-shooters. I’m referring to weapons of war – AK-47s, AR-15s and 50-caliber sniper rifles – weapons that have no place in the hands of civilians.

Even after the most recent mass murders in El Paso, Dayton and Odessa-Midland, the president and the GOP seem unable to summon the courage to go against the NRA to pass legislation for universal background checks or to pass legislation that would, once again, ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. Instead, they seem ready to pass legislation focused on mental health.

It’s a ruse…another con from the conman-in-chief.

Certainly, there is a need for more mental health facilities, more in-patient treatment centers, and more counselors. Far too many of the mentally ill are now housed in prisons with no access to treatment. And when their behavior becomes extreme, they are moved to solitary confinement for the rest of their lives where most Americans can forget they ever exist.

But the truth is, focusing on mental illness will do little, if anything, to stem gun violence. That’s because the vast majority of those with mental illness are far more of a threat to themselves than to others.

The most likely to commit mass murders with guns are white nationalists and neo-Nazis – extremists, many of them Bible-thumping racists who want to turn back the clock on America to make it white again. People who can’t stand the inevitability of the US becoming majority non-white in the next few decades. People like those in Charlottesville who marched with torches shouting, “You will not replace us.” People who were resentful of the election of President Barack Obama and who have been inspired by Trump, the racist in the White House who, after seeing video of Charlottesville claimed “there were good people on both sides.”

The only thing that will curb gun violence in the US is to keep the most lethal weapons out of the hands of extremists by passing universal background checks, passing red flag laws, and passing laws banning the sale of weapons of war, including high-capacity magazines. But I would urge Congress to also pass funding to treat those who are mentally ill. Especially, the one who most obviously is suffering from mental illness and who controls the most lethal weapons of all: President Trump.

Destruction Of The US. (Part Three – Racism and Discrimination)

Posted on by

One of the many ways that Trump and the GOP are destroying our democracy is through discrimination – creating fear of those who look different, who speak a different language, who practice a different faith, or who love someone of the same gender. Under the guise of rejecting “political correctness” the GOP and its propaganda outlets, such as Fox News, have emboldened their followers to blame the “other” for all of their social and economic problems.

Their political strategy has led to a divisiveness not seen since before or after the Civil War. It has also led to increasing violence.

For example, inspired by Trump, two Boston brothers brutally attacked and urinated on a homeless Hispanic man. Three Trump supporters in Kansas planned to bomb Somali immigrants. A white male in Washington stabbed an interracial couple, citing Trump’s rallies. The young man who rammed his car into a crowd of people protesting the racist Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia killing Heather Heyer was emboldened to act by the election of the most overtly racist president since Woodrow Wilson or, perhaps, even Andrew Johnson. An ardent Trump supporter in Miami was moved to send package bombs to Democratic leaders and the media he believed engaged in “fake news.” Likewise, the mass killers in Pittsburg and El Paso were inspired to act by Trump. In addition, there have been many less visible and less successful domestic terrorists who were inspired to violence by Trump.

Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric has led to dozens, maybe hundreds, of threats and hate crimes against brown and black people – some of them US citizens – for daring to speak Spanish or to look like immigrants. In addition, there has been a growing number of hate crimes against the LGBTQ community. GOP-nominated judges have sanctioned discrimination against gays and lesbians on so-called religious grounds (the religion of hate). And the rhetoric of GOP candidates and supporters has inspired anti-abortion protesters to murder doctors, nurses and patients at medical clinics.

At the same time, the Trump administration has used ICE and CBP to engage in a form of violence against immigrants – many of them seeking asylum from dangerous and hopeless situations – by ripping their children from their arms and, in some cases, placing the children in foster homes or putting them up for adoption. They have crammed immigrants into cages with no toiletries, no soap, no showers and no beds, often without sufficient room to even lie down.

All the while, Trump’s supporters, including many so-called evangelical “Christians” have cheered.

And, for decades, the GOP has practiced racial discrimination by gerrymandering districts to minimize the impact of black voters. They have purged people of color from voting lists. They have demanded photo IDs from state motor vehicle departments then closed the locations in black districts. They have also closed polling places in black areas, forcing voters to stand in line for hours.

The GOP has intentionally positioned itself as the party of choice for white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, anti-immigrant militias, and “Christian” evangelicals. Its candidates have all been endorsed and funded by the NRA, which has made gun violence possible, perhaps inevitable. And Trump has even been endorsed by the David Duke, the former grand wizard of the KKK.

What do all these groups have in common? They are all paranoid, feeling that they are persecuted by the educated and secular “elite.” They fear that our white Christian culture will be “diluted” by people of color and people of other religions. They fear they’ll lose the advantages of their white privilege. And they fear a government that limits their freedom to rape and pillage the land, air and water; a government that forces them to pay for their fair share of infrastructure; a government that denies men the right to control women; a government that denies them the ability to discriminate without consequence.

For more on the subject, I encourage you to read Bring The War Home, The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen Belew.