They Want an American They Can’t Have, and They’ll Excuse Anything to Get It.

Since at least October 2016, a question has arisen almost daily: “What’s it going to take?”

At this point many of us have exhausted of asking, having decided the answer, even for many devoted “Christians”, is clearly “Nothing.”

It really seems like Donald Trump could [very offensive religious imagery removed] and even his most deeply religious supporters would just shrug. “What a nut! Go get them Libtards, Don, you crazy bastard!”

In seriousness, the lists of Trump’s “missteps” is so long now that reading through them feels like discovering old boxes of childhood things: “Oh my gosh, I forgot about that!”  “Wow! Did that really happen?”

To recap, here are just a few highlights...

After the Access Hollywood tape, of course, came Stormy Daniels, then offensive statements about minorities/the disabled/other countries, then dumb statements about toilets and windmills, then inflaming racial division after George Floyd, a despicable Bible photo op, fan-girling with dictators, and diversions about COVID that arguably led to millions of deaths.

Then came the unconscionable election lies, obvious election interference, January 6th, ignoring subpoenas, the hawking of autographed China-made Bibles (along with dozens of other grifts), 34 felonies, and a sexual assault conviction.

Naturally, following this, he was reelected. Since then, we’ve seen the blanket pardon of all January 6th rioters, the hiring of comically unqualified opportunists to the highest ranks, and the indiscriminate shuttering of crucial humanitarian services. We’ve also watched the blaming of Ukraine for being invaded by Russia, not knowing what the Declaration of Independence is, an expensive military parade for his birthday, the acceptance of a custom jet from Quatar (as one of many obvious bribes), the illegal abuse of his station for profit, the decimation of the economy, and a “Big Beautiful Bill” and new budget both discretely calculated to further benefit the top 10% at the expense of everyone else. Also bulldozing Washington to try and get his name on as many buildings as possible while he still has the chance.

There’s also this whole Epstein thing. And Venezuela. And Greenland. And NATO.

All of this very heavily supported by, among others, white Evangelical Christians who very much hope that you will quit your wicked ways and learn to follow the loving teachings of Jesus.

But we’re not done.

On top of ALL this, we’ve seen very obvious moves towards an Authoritarianism that forty years ago would have flabbergasted any intelligent Reaganite, not to mention most of those Evangelicals who’ve never stopped worrying about the Anti-Christ. These include banning books and erasing history, the flagrant ignoring of the Separation of Powers, shady attempts to control media outlets and personalities to stifle dissent, Gestapo tactics to arrest and deport alleged “illegals” without DUE PROCESS, and the sending of federal troops into numerous American cities when they are, without a doubt, NOT needed. The Rule of Law has never meant so little in this country.

Thankfully, there IS a growing roster of dissenters that have emerged since Trump’s perplexing second win: Minorities for whom ICE is an awakening; At least a few moralists for whom Epstein is suddenly a bridge too far. Genuine Middle-Class economic conservatives finally realizing the game against them.

And yet…

One of three Americans still passionately support him. That’s still a lot, given the above. Further, many of those who disapprove of Trump’s particular efforts still support MAGA in general and seem fully prepared to accept the next grotesque leader who can continue his legacy.

All this begs a most important follow-up question: “Why?  Why in the world does truly nothing shake some people’s allegiance?” Better, “What do tens of millions of otherwise ‘decent’ people, even soft-spoken, humble Christians, want so badly they are willing to overlook mountains of evil and horrible and obviously unJesus-like behavior?”

A big part of the answer has been shouted repeatedly by critics from the beginning: Racism. At this point, it’s genuinely impossible not to acknowledge this as a major factor. Long gone are the “dog whistles”. Many in the administration aren’t even trying to hide it anymore.

And yet, I want to offer some important nuance, because although many MAGA-ites are consciously racist and will happily tell you that Western whites are superior to everyone else, (this includes many members of Trump’s cabinet and donors) there’s an interesting point about racism in that many racists- perhaps a majority- do not actually realize they are racist.

Many who harbor what can be called “soft racism” will tell you that they do not believe whites are superior, and that all humans are equal before God, and they sincerely want to mean it. At the same time, they also believe that “those people” have plenty of other places they can live besides here, and God will take care of their needs somewhere else. There’s also the fact that most also harbor the same discomfort with and/or hatred of non-conformist whites, like white LGBTQ+, and ICE protestors, and “radical Leftists”, among others.

In other words, it’s not so much “racism” per se, or even really “hate”, that truly motivates so many, it’s the much simpler (and admittedly human) discomfort with pluralism. They don’t care if there are people “out there” who believe and/or live very differently than them, they simply don’t want them in their space. They don’t want to encounter them in public, or see them on TV, and they certainly don’t want to have to vote against them at the poles.

In essence, they want:

-a world where their gas station clerks and service techs don’t have foreign accents or subscribe to other religions.

-classrooms where their kids’ teacher sings in the local choir, and none of the other kids have two dads.

-movies and commercials with no biracial or gay couples.

-a Macy’s Thanksgiving parade and Super-Bowl with white crooners and country singers instead of rap artists.

-street corners without mosques or “temples”, and sidewalks and school boards without turbans.

And they definitely don’t want anyone in public office influencing our laws who aren’t part of their very narrow Evangelical tribe, which is of course a direct contradiction to Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution.

But what’s shocking is they want all this so badly they will excuse the worst human behavior imaginable, grotesque abuses of the Christian faith, the authoritarian trampling of human rights, and even a terrible economy to get it.

The receipts for this are overwhelming.

Vice President Vance, trying desperately to position himself as Trump’s successor, recently argued that “It is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to…say ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with’,” and not “rowdy” people from “a totally different culture” who “speak a different language”. (LINK).

Christian Nationalist Pastor C Jay Engel made a stronger point and apparently spoke for many recently when he said “We would rather go through economic hell than continue forward on the path of replacement migration.” (LINK)

On top of this, not only has ICE gone upsettingly beyond their fake promise to only root out “the worst of the worst” by also targeting and torturing an arguable majority who are either already legal or pursuing legal status, (including perennial tax-payers and children, not to mention murdering white protestors), a new budget inflates the ICE budget beyond any reasonable need unless one is building an army and preparing some kind of showdown.

It’s truly impossible to understand how we could have gotten here so fast without the existence of an enormous latent hatred of diversity and pluralism within people who not only spent decades screaming “Freedom!”, “Liberty!”, and “Individual Rights!” as if they were the backbone of Conservatism, but also “Love your neighbor”, and “Love your enemies”, and “Be Jesus to the World”. It turns out that many of them never really meant these things. Or more accurately, they meant something else by them than what they mean for normal people who understand how words work.

True “freedom”, of course, means that new citizens with Indian or Vietnamese or Somalian heritage have the exact same rights as twelfth-generation whites. “Equality” means that companies/employers cannot discriminate on the basis of race and, sorry JD, people can’t be blocked from neighborhoods because of language. “Liberty” means that people are allowed to pursue their own unique sexuality between consenting adults and still be teachers and run for school board. And a big one, “Freedom of Religion”, means Muslims and Hindus have just as much right to build temples and serve in congress as Christians do.

These are the rules that America was founded with, but it seems that millions of Americans never actually understood them, and now that they’ve figured this out, they want to change them.

It is going to be the difficult duty of all good Americans over the next decade or so to explain to more of them why they can’t do that if America is going to stay America.