"We want our country back," they shouted and cried at town hall meetings and other gatherings. And I struggled to understand what they could mean. I won't hold back. Here's what they mean.
They want a country in which the white male Christian is the dominant figure.
Like it used to be.
Oh, and Christian means Protestant, preferably fundamentalist.
This desire has quite a few corollaries:
They want a country in which corporate interests and actions go unchecked.
They want a country in which the down are kicked again.
They want a country in which everyone is armed.
They want a country which is overwhelmed by the military industrial complex, as Eisenhower warned us it could be.
They want a a country in which only the children of the privileged go to good schools.
They want a country in which our schools leave out history and science that doesn't fit with their beliefs.
They want a country in which everyone else is Christian, too.*
They want a country at perpetual war, but not on our soil until they decide they want a civil war,
which they just might do.
I pray to God that they don't get that country they want so badly. I love my country. I don't want to see her debased and degraded and humiliated by the worst elements in humankind's nature.
Sinclair Lewis said, "When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in a flag and waving a cross."
But there's more than religiosity here. The outrages we have seen over the last two years are in part the death throes of an evil ideology that just won't die: white supremacy.
*I am Christian myself, but I am a proud member of the Christian Left and Christians Tired of Being Misrepresented.
