Question What You Think

In winter 2022, self-help author Joseph Nguyen released, “Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking is the Beginning & End of Suffering.” He offered readers ways to deal with anxiety, self-doubt and negative thoughts—emotions that afflict us all.

Just the first part of that title, “don’t believe everything you think,” seemed to speak to an era of social abandon wrought by vast technological changes, from AI to hyper social media.

When our children were in those growing years of confusion and anxiety (made even more so by social media), we used this aphorism – we still do, even to remind ourselves – to help them try and see things more clearly.

We wanted to free them to question what they think, but also what they read, hear, watch and are told, which, admittedly, when a parent is doing the telling requires patience at times.

To be sure, I have not read Nguyen’s book (only just learned of it, in fact), nor am I trying to shill for him, but I am using him to make a point in this essay.

I went to Nguyen’s website to learn whether my interpretation of “don’t believe everything you think” aligned with his. It did and more.

His opening chapter quotes Canadian philosopher Matshona Dhliwayo: “One who looks around him is intelligent, one who looks within him is wise.” Self-help writer Sydney Banks, “Thought is not reality; yet it is through thought that our realities are created,” starts the chapter.

Banks, a welder with a ninth-grade education who died in 2009, developed a “Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought” philosophy practiced today by mental health counselors and therapists.

In one of his lectures, Banks recounts explaining his insecurities to a therapist who told him his troubles were rubbish.

“What I heard was, there’s no such thing as insecurity, it’s only thought. All my insecurity was only my own thoughts! … It was so enlightening!”

A passage in Nguyen’s book seems to speak to what Americans grapple with today:

It’s not about the events that happen in our lives, but our interpretation of them, which causes us to feel good or bad about something. This is how people in third world countries can be happier than people in first world countries and people in first world countries can be more miserable than people in third world countries. Our feelings do not come from external events, but from our own thinking about the events.

Despite the technological advances to inform, learn and communicate, many Americans seem to live in dread – of the world, their country, their community, a neighbor, a relative – instead of examining why they feel this way.

As if they fear enlightenment or prefer to be fearful.

Q Anon followers strike me as a group that believes everything they think, as do the thousands of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Enlightenment can alter, sometimes significantly, narratives of what you believe or what you think you believe, but you have to open yourself to being enlightened.

Some claim enlightenment when their preferences in media, political party, politician, celebrity, “influencer,” religious figure, billionaire, etc. confirms what they think. That’s confirmation bias, not greater knowledge or insight that true enlightenment provides.

It is difficult, but not impossible, to change a viewpoint or thinking on which you’ve established a worldview of yourself and others. But just as Banks realized his insecurities are only thoughts, it is freeing to see new perspectives.

Then you realize, there isn’t as much to fear as there is to learn.

Pictured: Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker."

Exorcising America’s Demon(s)

Until U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Luman Smith special counsel, Donald Trump seemed unstoppable, despite mountains of incriminating evidence compiled by the bipartisan (only two Republicans joined) House Select Committee on the January 6th attack.

In his bid to win the White House again, Trump has operated like he’s untouchable, staging rallies, flaunting civil discourse, and stealing and mishandling secret U.S. documents on military preparedness, nuclear technology and more.

Could no one stop this man from destroying democracy?

Most certainly not Republican-elected officials who feared Trump’s MAGA base in the party and thus losing power. They use “whataboutism” to excuse away his alleged crimes. Social media and the airwaves crackled with anger and indignation that Trump would escape justice while MAGA supporters reacted with anger and indignation over perceived unfair treatment of their man.

Critics of Merrick Garland wondered whether the Department of Justice would ever investigate Trump for executing the January 6, 2021 attempted coup and violent insurrection by thousands of his supporters. They accused DOJ of fearing prosecution because of Trump’s mob-boss threats of “civil war,” if he is indicted.

With this backdrop, Smith, a relatively unknown prosecutor, arrived in Washington, D.C. in the 2022, somewhat like that of the exorcist priest Lankester Merrin in the 1973 horror film, “The Exorcist.” In fact, when Garland announced Smith’s appointment, the only photo of Smith the media seemed to have was of him in a priestly looking white-collared, black and purple robe that prosecutors in the International Criminal Court are required to wear. Smith had just finished a stint there chief prosecutor for war crimes committed in the 1999 Kosovo War.

The robe seemed to affect the former president. Just as the devil who possessed teenager Regan MacNeil screamed Merrin’s name upon his entering her Georgetown home, Trump used his Truth Social posts to scream Smith was a “deranged lunatic,” a “Trump Hater,” and a “psycho that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘Justice.’”

Seems the devil draws the line at name calling.

In his role as special counsel, Smith is neither friend nor foe but an attorney for the federal government assigned to ensure that in our judicial system, as he says, “no one is above the law.”

I don’t know Jack Smith, but I’ve watched him speak at his two brief news conferences and read his indictments against Trump. I’m guessing his love of country, democracy and the rule of law eclipse any feeling he may have about the man he’s about to try in a courtroom, possibly as early as this fall.

Smith’s middle name sounds like “lumen” – a measure of visible light emitted from a source – and the charges he will argue are related to Trump’s January 6 coup attempt. The other federal case, stolen classified documents, will likely be tried next year.

Set aside the characters in this legal drama, the case against the defendant is simple, concise, and brilliant in its jurisprudence and execution. The specter of jail looms for Trump. And yet, similarities to a 1970s film about a couple of priests fighting a demon possessing a young girl resonate on the circus level, where Trump prefers to exist. He plays the role of victim, defender of the little people that he constantly lies to and fleeces following every indictment – four and counting – and at every rally. Alabama MAGAs gave him $1.2 million after his third arraignment because they believe when he tells them, “I’m being indicted for you.”

After these “Christ the Savior” allegories Trump spews, you almost expect Jack Smith – here in his role as exorcist priest Lankester Merrin – to start showering Trump with injunctions while loudly praying, “The rule of law compels you! The rule of law compels you!”

In reality, what Smith is doing is prosecuting Trump for his alleged crimes to undermine American democracy and to sell American security to foreign bidders.

Most Americans, exhausted by a man they fear can get elected and destroy democracy, hope Smith will win convictions and thus exorcise the body politics’ “demons.” But that’s not his role; that’s the individual voters’ role because there is no guarantee Trump will be convicted of anything, and if convicted, there’s no guarantee that he won’t get elected.

To stop Trump, who has stated his authoritarian anti-democratic plans to alter the nation forever if returned to office, vote against him. To stop candidates who oppose democracy, vote against them. To be sure, there are tens of millions of Trump supporters who will be voting for him. Some of them, unfortunately, actually believe he is fighting demons.

That’s the power every individual in a democracy possesses—the right to vote. There is no guarantee – even if Trump were to make a guarantee – that this sacred right would continue to exist if he is elected.

Remember, one of the charges for which he is about to stand trial is “conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted,” which is usurping the will of the people, that is, taking away your right to vote.

Also remember, that while we have the right to vote, only we the people can exorcise our political demons.

Defeated

In the mugshot seen around the world, the scowl on the 77-year-old face under a combed-over “strawberry blond” mane was intended to sow fear in those prosecuting him under federal and state laws.

Despite the fearsome mask, the four-time indicted Donald Trump showed fear and defeat, both of which seemed to weigh heavily in his body language as he ambled – slumped-shouldered – across the airport tarmac after getting booked in the Atlanta jail on Aug. 24.

This is no longer MAGA’s inevitable triumph who boasts of slaying imaginary enemies that are out to get him and thus them. This is a pathetic man long broken – probably since childhood –with a diminishing base of supporters who struggle to hang onto his lost cause.

Trump performs, even if all he does is play himself, but great actors are confident in themselves, highly imaginative, with sharp understanding of human behavior; you can’t tell how they actually feel when they perform, you just think you do.

Whatever mask he wears – bluster, braggadocio, arrogance, cockiness – Trump always lets us know how he feels, projecting his anger, fears, hurts, deviousness and lusts onto others.

A fortunate son of a New York City developer, Trump spent a life using wealth and privilege to attain wealth and power, a singular focus that deprived him of essential self-reflection.

We know Trump is transactional and angry, but we know little else about the man. I wonder if Trump even knows who he is, lost in his performance of the caricature “Trump.”

Loneliness must consume him.

Tellingly, at every one of his arraignments, none of his family or friends are there for him. From all the news footage and photos, the only people who are ever there are Secret Service agents assigned to him, his staff, some hangers on, and the media.

Despite calls to his supporters to turn out for massive protests at each of his arraignments, Trump has seen only small gatherings who are outnumbered by the media. After each indictment, the din of “unfair charges” from GOP politicians and conservative media becomes quieter.

At the Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox News the night before the Fulton County Jail arraignment, no one gave a full-throated roar of support for Trump. Two candidates on the stage denounced him and the one candidate that sought to emulate the former president, Vivek Ramaswamy, was constantly attacked by the others.

Trump is aware of this. In the fragmented way that he often speaks, he seemed to subconsciously allude to his lack of support on the tarmac when he told the media, “I’ve never had such support.”

If latest polls are any indication, Trump has already been defeated in his bid to become president again, even before voters go to the polls next November. He may win the GOP nomination, but a majority of the country believes he should stand trial for his attempted coup on Jan. 6, 2021 and his pilfering of secret documents.

He may voice defiance as juries of citizens are prepared to hear evidence and render verdicts, but this fourth indictment seems to have unsettled him. Trump no longer appears like the historic figure that he always tries to emulate, World War II Gen. George S. Patton.

Unsurprisingly, he does exhibit many character traits of the general, according to a 2016 article in Politico that compared the two men:

Twelfth Army Group commander Omar Bradley, who knew Patton well, described him as “colorful but impetuous, full of temper, bluster, inclined to treat the troops and subordinates as morons. He was primarily a showman. The show always seemed to come first.” Patton acted as though he didn’t care what people thought, but he “harbored a burning ambition for personal recognition,” wrote [Supreme Allied Commander Dwight] Eisenhower’s son John.

Since he doesn’t like to read, Trump’s understanding of the general is solely based on the 1970 film biopic, “Patton.”

Trump should watch the movie again and heed a quote from “Old Blood and Guts” himself that actor George C. Scott, who portrayed Patton, narrates in the final scene:

“For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”

Trumpism’s High-Water Mark

By Matthew Durantine

I have been reading recently a rather detailed account of the Battle of Antietam in Sharpsburg, Maryland. It prompted me to think also of the second invasion of federal territory, the Battle of Gettysburg. 

Like the afternoon of July 3, 1863 in Gettysburg, was Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. the high-water mark for Donald Trump and Trumpism? 

Was the violent invasion of the Capitol Building comparable to the assault on the Union Army’s center, where, at the clump of trees on Cemetery Ridge,, Confederate General George Pickett’s famous charge broke? 

Keep in mind the rebels fought on for almost two more years after that turning point in the Civil War. They scored victories and launched other assaults into federal territory. There were many times when the outcome was uncertain and victory for the nation seemed unlikely. 

Trump and Trumpism are winning some battles these days, particularly in the U.S. Supreme Court, where Trump made three appointments to the nine-member bench while he was in office. The court has effectively reversed more than half a century of progress for racial and economic equity and diversity.

But are the Trumpists ultimately losing the war?

President Abraham Lincoln was vilified and lampooned in the press as an ape and a buffoon. As commander of the Union Army, Gen. Ulysses Grant was pilloried as a drunken butcher who bludgeoned his way south without concern for the death toll among his troops.

For a time, Gen. William Sherman, commander of federal troops in the west, disappeared along with his army on his drive to the sea after the Battle of Atlanta. A tremendous amount of uncertainty and doubt persisted among voters in the North still loyal to Lincoln’s vision of a nation once again united but without slavery.

And then, just like that, the war ended.

Union troops launched a siege around Petersburg, Va. in June 1864. Lincoln’s re-election in 1864 was in doubt as a former Union general, George McClellan, ran against him. McClellan enjoyed tremendous popular support, even among some of the troops. His platform was to sue immediately for peace and divide the country in two.

Such thinking is echoed today by Trump, Trumpists in Congress and MAGA voters who oppose President Joe Biden’s support for Ukraine and its fight against Russia’s 16-month unprovoked and unwarranted invasion. Trumpists in Republican-led states like Texas clamor for secession from the nation.  

Lincoln managed to win in November 1864 and the Petersburg siege didn't break until March 25, 1865. But within a few weeks, by April 9, the conflict that began five years earlier – and must have seemed interminable to the country – was over. Just like that.

They say history doesn't actually repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Are we in a similar paradigm today?

I'm finding it easy to become disheartened after eight years of Trump and Trumpism fighting against the rule of law to take and hold power at any cost in order to serve their needs and not the nation’s.

I have found some hope in our justice system, which Trump and congressional Trumpists vow to dismantle if returned to power. Federal indictments against the former president and his lieutenants, and convictions against MAGA insurrectionists, proceed methodically and determinedly.

In the United States, as federal special prosecutor Jack Smith said in his indictment against Trump for violating national security, no one is above the law.

Maybe this is how history always plays out. You never know until you know. Things don't change until they do. Things seem inevitable until they're not. Has Trump and Trumpism reached the high-water mark?

Time will tell. 

Matthew Durantine is a writer from Silver Spring, Md.

Guns Fought the Law and the Guns Won

The two organizationsmost responsible for the gun violence on American streets today, the Gun Owners of America (GOA) and their partner, the National Rifle Association (NRA), have much to celebrate these days.

America has more guns than people and thanks to their willing partners in Congress, state legislators and municipal governments, laws have been fashioned to allow gun owners to shoot whomever whenever for whatever. This is the freedom conservatives long sought—the power to kill and maim with your firearm of choice without consequence.

Just the last week, freedom-loving gun owners have exercised their right under such state laws as “stand-your-ground” and “conceal-and-carry” in a variety of ways that must warm the hearts of the GOA, NRA and every guns-for-everyone politician and gun-fetishist everywhere.

We had an 84-year-old gun owner shoot and nearly kill a teenager for knocking on his door; a gun owner shoot and wound two cheerleaders for mistakenly getting into his car; and a gun owner shoot and wound a 6-year-old and her family because a basketball rolled into his yard.

These were just some of the shooting for the week of April 16, which, having become like any week in America, also included plenty of mass shootings, illegal discharge of guns, gun violence to settle disputes, etc.

Earlier in the month, a mass shooting at a private school in Tennessee took teenage and adult lives. How many? Why ask? Body counts are always increasing, and lawmakers in that state certainly didn’t care.

They took action to ensure freedom for gun owners (and thus less freedom for non-gun owners and future victims) by passing more gun laws to make more guns available to anyone without any restrictions. Oh, a red flag law failed to muster support because it would temporarily keep guns out of the hands of gun owners with such high-risk behaviors as shooting everyone in sight to address mental and emotional problems. Lawmakers saw that as violating a freedom-loving gun owner's Second Amendment rights.

They also voted to kick out two Black lawmakers because the two young men had the temerity to demand more gun safety measures after the school slaughter and because they are Black. Cooler heads prevailed in the districts they served and they were re-instated.

Civility is dead, stupidity reigns. America belongs to the freedom-loving gun owners who believe that around every corner, in every heart and mind, someone – in particular someone who is Black, Hispanic or Asian – is out to get them. As the 84-year-old Kansas City gun owner who shot the Black teenager without any provocation other than to glimpse his skin color believes, shoot first, and then shoot again. If you feel like bothering, ask questions later.

For more than 50 years, the GOA and NRA and the gun industrial complex have spread the fear that without a gun you as an American are in danger, every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Own a gun. Own many guns. Keep several in your home, in your car, in your boat, your camper, your kid’s lunch box. At any moment, someone is going to get you!

Forget thoughts and prayers, America. Guns now rule, and for those who don’t agree, tough. Shut up and get a gun or just shut up.

And if you get a gun, don’t worry about unloading it and locking it up in a safe place at home (Hell, someone could break-in at any moment and get you!). If your 6-year-old happens to take it to school and shoot his teacher, well, that’s America, where the GOA and NRA wants every kid from the time their born to get a gun. Just be proud that he aimed correctly.

Yes, America, we are a gun republic, many of our congressional members have even replaced their flag lapel pin with an AR-15 lapel pin to show their loyalty to the gun, under God.

America is steeped in the John Wayne and movie Western mythology that the gun won the West (It didn’t. It was the federal government and a powerful military with a genocidal policy) and that men and guns are what make men, men.

Two hunters once told me this when I told them I had no interest in guns. What an idiot I must have seemed to them as they informed me about stirrings they feel when fall comes, the birds fly south, and hunting licenses arrive in the mail. They were almost disbelieving when I shared that I never experienced such longing, which made me question my white manhood.

It’s just not the conservatives and Republicans and Democrats and the GOA and the NRA and the gun industrial complex at fault for gun violence. It’s not even the fault of Americans who hate guns but own one because they are fearful of the other gun owners.

Hell, in a gun republic like ours, gun violence is the daily rhythm, no one is ever at fault, other than the victims who were not armed at the moment of their demise. Tough, but, hey, the GOA and NRA warned you to get a gun because someone would get you.

We are a democracy – in our gun republic that ideal is slipping fast – and if we truly want an America without gun violence as many civilized and developed nations enjoy, then we have to change the conversation that the GOA and NRA have dominated and we need to make the serious sacrifice of banning guns. It’s not impossible to ban guns, just hard.

Until that happens, the only people who will be making sacrifices are those who are killed and wounded every day by guns.

Standing Up to Bullies in Power

Something happened in a Florida federal court a few weeks ago that showed what it takes to standup to bullies, and not just any bullies, but bullies who wield power.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks sanctioned former President Donald Trump and his attorney Alina Habba, ordering them to pay nearly $1 million in fines for filing what he deemed a frivolous lawsuit. Trump claimed that his political opponent in the 2016 presidential campaign, Hilary Clinton, as well as others involved in the Russian investigation, conspired to damage his reputation.

Middlebrooks said Trump was a sophisticated litigant who made it a practice to use the courts to seek revenge against his political opponents and called the former Republican president’s lawsuit against Clinton a “political manifesto.”

"He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer. He knew full well the impact of his actions," Middlebrooks wrote in his opinion. "As such, I find that sanctions should be imposed upon Mr. Trump and his lead counsel, Ms. Habba."

The judged ordered Trump and Habba, who as a member of the bar clearly knew the frivolity of her and her client’s actions, to pay 18 defendants $938,000. Of course, they vowed to appeal, but that seems doubtful.

Indeed, the very next day, Trump dropped another one of his “revenge lawsuits,” this one against New York Attorney General Letitia James whose fraud investigation into the Trump family seeks records from his private trust.

Last month, the same Judge Middlebrooks denied Trump’s lawsuit against James and called Trump’s claims of harm “quintessentially speculative.”

In sanctioning Trump and his lawyer for the Clinton lawsuit, Middlebrooks made clear, unequivocally, to Trump that he would not tolerate the dishonest bullying tactics Trump has employed most of his life, using lawyers and friendly courts to hide his misdeeds and attack those who legitimately question those misdeeds and seek accountability.

Unlike his colleague in the Southern District of Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon, Middlebrooks rendered a decision without fear or favor. Cannon – who Trump appointed despite her apparent lack of necessary qualifications to sit on the bench – granted Trump’s request last year to effectively delay the Department of Justice’s investigation into his mishandling classified documents. But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Cannon’s ruling that appeared to return a favor to the former president for appointing her.

“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote in its ruling. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

In regard to the lawsuit Trump filed against Clinton, Middlebrooks wrote, “This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.”

Trump’s complaint that the Russian investigation tarnished his reputation is yet another bullying tactic. Despite what he and his minions including former US Attorney General Bob Barr say, the Mueller Report clearly demonstrated Russia interfered and influenced the 2016 campaign in favor of Donald Trump.

And for Trump, all roads lead to Russia. For the last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stood against an international bully, Vladimir Putin, a Trump ally.

Remember, Trump asked Zelenskyy in 2019 for a “favor” in return for releasing a $400 million congressionally mandated military aid package then-President Trump blocked. The quid pro quo that he sought, which lead to his first impeachment, was for Ukraine to investigate his political opponent, Joe Biden.

This incident is seen in new light with the Russian dictator’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which Trump cheered, and which hundreds of thousands have died since the war began last February.

But Putin’s invasion is failing, spectacularly, and largely because the Russian military is neither well equipped nor properly skilled. Many Russian soldiers sent mercilessly into battle appear to lack motivation for carrying out orders of a would-be czar who wants to re-build a Soviet empire in Eastern Europe.

Despite the world’s fears leading up to Putin’s aggression against his supposedly weaker neighbor, the Ukrainians stood, undaunted (and with immense help from the West led by the US), and bloodied the bully’s nose, month after month as missiles rain down on their country.

Late last year, following one Russian defeat after another, Putin, who vowed never to negotiate, signaled, then called for negotiations. But Zelenskyy knew Putin was stalling for time to build an army for a winter offensive. Ignoring Western pleas to negotiate, Zelenskyy demanded Putin first return all territory taken since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and restore Ukraine to its 1991 border.

As Russian exiles Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, co-founders of the pro-democracy Russian Action Committee, wrote this month in Foreign Affairs, Ukraine is on the verge of victory and Putin defeat, militarily and politically because of Zelenskyy’s fearless refusal to back down from a bully.

“This is a make-or-break moment for Ukraine,” the authors said.

However, Kasparov – chair of the Human Rights Foundation and a former world chess champion, and Khodorkvosky, a businessman and former political prisoner – advise that the West, and in particular President Joe Biden, must not fear the bully’s threat of nuclear war or that Putin’s fall from power would mean something worse in Russia.

“Biden can turn the tide in Kyiv’s favor by backing up his declarations of support with the delivery of tanks and long-range weaponry,” the authors said. “He can also hasten the demise of Putin’s regime, opening up the possibility of a democratic future for Russia and demonstrating to the world the folly of military aggression. The United States cannot let its fears stand in the way of Ukraine’s hopes.”

If we let them, bullies will intimidate and brutalize us. Stand up to them, and you will see how weak they truly are. At this point in human history, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

It Has Happened Here

Fascism can slither into a democracy unnoticed until a moment of social dysfunction, then it strikes hard, its poison seeping into the psyche of the nation as its political leaders struggle for constitutional coherence.

Despite his decisive election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump refused to relinquish power, and waged a deadly insurrection with an army of supporters on Jan. 6, 2021 to take control of the United States government before Biden was inaugurated.

This is fascism in 21st century America, where Trump, once considered a billionaire buffoon until he won the presidency in 2016, directed thousands of loyalists, many armed or ready to retrieve an arms cache nearby, to attack the U.S. Capitol and stop certification of the 2020 election.

Hundreds were injured, five people died and one woman was killed in the melee before the mob was turned back.Yet, 147 Republicans in the House and Senate still voted to overturn the election in favor of Trump, even after his loyalists destroyed property, beat police officers, and voted to hang Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence.

Gallows for Pence on Jan. 2, 2021.

Credit: Tyler Merbler

Meanwhile, a presidential hopeful for 2024, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, signs laws by a complicit Sunshine State legislature that dictate what school children and high schoolers should learn. Are checks and balances, one of democracy’s pillars, no longer valid there?

In Pennsylvania, Trump-endorsed Republican Doug Mastriano, a conservative Christian and ex-army officer, vows to disenfranchise voters if he becomes governor and doesn’t like the outcome of statewide elections. Mastriano was among those who marched on the Capitol Jan. 6.

Not since Huey Long of Louisiana has there been governors or candidates for governor willing to tear apart democracy to keep or get power. Long was a beloved populist with a fascist fist. As the Democratic and demagogic governor (and later U.S. senator), he ruled the Bayou State from 1928 to 1935 when he was assassinated at the state’s capitol.

The iron-fisted Long.

Credit: Library of Congress

The conservative wing of the Republican Party, having long desired to dictate social mores from the pulpit of government, finally succeeded after jerry-rigging the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided recently that women have no rights under the Constitution.

Five conservative justices took away a fundamental right of privacy under Roe v. Wade, thus effectively banning abortion. They also struck down a gun-safety law in New York and several other states that restricted gun owners from openly carrying weapons.

Justice Clarence Thomas who delivered the opinion on guns appears to have no problem with Trump’s armed insurrection, which his wife, Ginny, supported, if not helped organize.

Thomas said the court is now considering stripping more rights including same sex marriage. In the history of the United States, the Supreme Court has never taken away a constitutional right, but this court is only getting started. Thomas wants to nullify years of gun-safety laws.

This fall, fascist forces could succeed in controlling Congress. If Republicans win one or both houses, they have threatened to impeach Biden for no other reason than to impeach him. If that occurs, the coup Trump started on Jan. 6 becomes a fait accompli.

No matter who wins the presidential election in 2024, a conservative-controlled Supreme Court and a Republican Congress dominated by conservatives will maneuver to decide the winner.

In 1935, during the rise of fascism in Europe, writer Sinclair Lewis penned a novel about a fascist leader taking power in the United States, “It Could Happen Here.”

Since that period, fascist forces have banged at America’s door, and conservative politicians and religious-right leaders have tried to let them in, eager to serve their own self-interests and thirsts for power. Their wish appears on the verge of coming true. It has now happened here.

Some of the leading forces of fascism in this country have largely been conservative Catholics and evangelical Christians. From the anti-Semitic Father Charles Coughlin, who embraced fascism on his Detroit radio programs in the 1930s, to today’s Supreme Court Justices like Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch (now Episcopalian), Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts.

Perhaps fascism’s absolutism resembles the dogma of religions like Catholicism and evangelical Christianity and that’s why churchgoers find appeal in both.

The three largest countries in Europe that turned to fascism in the 1930s were Catholic: Italy, led by Benito Mussolini; Germany, led by Adolf Hitler; and Spain, led by Francisco Franco.

While Mussolini and Hitler were raised Catholic neither man believed in their faith. They led the most brutal war in world history. Franco was a devout Catholic who, with Hitler’s help, waged a brutal Civil War (he stayed out of World War II), and then led an evil dictatorship for 39 years.

The five conservative justices who took away the right of a woman to choose her own health care based their ruling not on constitutional or even science-backed constitutional law. They based it on their religious beliefs. Could we be headed to a sort of Franco-theocratic rule?

If conservative Republicans manage to succeed in their fascist quest, their next task is re-writing the Constitution. They will surely take away more rights and eliminate the Establishment Clause that, at this tenuous moment, prevents the government from making religious-based laws.

Since 2014, 19 state legislatures – everyone one of them Republican controlled – have passed resolutions calling for a constitutional convention. Four – Wisconsin, Nebraska, West Virginia, South Carolina – did so this year. The effort is led by wealthy business conservatives such as Charles Koch.

Conservative Republicans claim they want to re-write the Constitution to reign in federal spending and limit government. That is devious. A convention will allow them to throw out our current Constitution for a document that could create an authoritarian government and restrict rights for everyone by heterosexual Christian whites.

Legal scholars have long warned of the dangers of a convention, particularly in an era so politically polarized as today.

As one former Supreme Court chief justice, Warren Burger, explained during his tenure on the court from 1969 to 1986, “there is no way to effectively limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention. The Convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda.  Congress might try to limit the convention to one amendment or one issue, but there is no way to assure that the Convention would obey.”

Conservative Associate Justice Antonin Scalia (yet another Catholic), who died in 2016, was even more succinct in his opinion: “I certainly would not want a constitutional convention. Whoa! Who knows what would come out of it?”