The GOP's base is preparing for a holy war -- and Democrats need to pay attention

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

For millions of Americans, the coming era of politics — present and future, decided election by election and bill by bill — amounts to nothing less than a holy war, waged by the armies of the righteous against the infidels.

Across the United States, from coast to coast, this zealotry is on the march, tramping in time to a steady stream of right-wing propaganda. The rhythm twists the truth and revels in outright falsehood with gleeful, unapologetic bellicosity, as it drums up the masses to a fever pitch of righteous rage. The sentiments that these Republicans share differ at times in the particulars — not all believe, for example, that the Democratic Party is a front for blood-drinking, Satanic pedophilia, but many do.

What they all share is a central, apocalyptic commonality. Whether they believe, as 56 percent of the Republicans do, that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump in plain sight or that the dual specters of socialism and anti-white racism stand to destroy their faith and lives if given any quarter, the message, and its galvanic effect, is ultimately the same.

In this context there is little incentive for these true believers to adhere to the quibbling pieties of the democratic process, or to fairness, or even to accept any loss as legitimate. If one believes a priori that one’s opponents are thieves, would-be totalitarians, drinkers of children’s blood, wresting back power becomes in and of itself a moral imperative, regardless of the means. The storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 begins to make sense if you realize that the thousands in the crowd saw themselves as foot soldiers in a war, self-described patriots battling for the soul of their country, with fists, fire extinguishers and flagpoles.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-gops-base-is-preparing-for-a-holy-war-%e2%80%94-and-democrats-need-to-pay-attention/ar-AAKNOe0

[Moostache]

1. Let me put it out there like this for Y'all Queda...

If you are named "Cletus" or have multiple first names like "Jim Bob", you need not apply for employment with me.
If you have fewer teeth than the square root of 4 in either your upper or lower jaw, you will be scorned.
If you run around in ball caps and use flags as capes, for any reason, you are an embarrassment to your family.

If you equate Jesus of Nazareth with the United States Constitution, you are an insufferable twat AND you are a useful idiot to many people you will never meet, but who control your life for you.

If you believe that Donald Trump is anything but the worst leader in human history, including the guy who told HIS tribe that the people with fire in the next valley were crazy devil worshippers, then you are without question an imbecile not worth a squirt of piss if you are on fire.

Now, as for 'holy war', those are two of my least favorite words in the English lexicon, but I am willing to engage any so-called conservative in verbal or physical combat any time, anywhere, any day. True conservatives are too ashamed to appear in polite company and the Y'all Queda variety are the mental equivalent of pushing elderly or infirm people down the stairs.

[PortTack]

2. Thx!! Queda getting the REAL attention they deserve!!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Why so many Trump supporters crave apocalyptic bloodshed

I converted to Judaism a long time ago but I have been watching various christian sects who are pushing concepts like support of Israel will hasten a second coming

Link to tweet

As a Jew, I do not care why these groups support Israel and I know that Israel needs such support.

What scares me now is that there is a subset of the groups who want a second coming who also support the Former Guy and believe that reelection or reinstatement of the Former Guy will hasten a second coming. For example

Link to tweet

Now these supporters are evidently advocating or praying for violence to restore the Former Guy

Link to tweet

Fact is, lots of Americans believe they are God's chosen people. They believe the end of the world is coming, according to God's divine plan. They believe the US Constitution is a covenant with them only, and that a genocidal purge will preface Christ's return.

This is the End Times I'm talking about, a story about global events culminating in apocalyptic bloodshed that "reinstates" the King of Kings to his rightful place. It's a story millions of Americans tell themselves and their children. It's a story in which the messy and hard-to-understand world around us is no such thing. Instead, it is polarized as conflict between God's friends and God's enemies. The only difficulty is decoding the signs and symbols God lays out. Reality isn't real. Reality is a sinful illusion. What's real is the trail of secrets leading the chosen safely to The End. Argument, language, reasoning—they don't matter. Only they can know The Truth.

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that religion is off-limits. Therefore, the conventional wisdom in Washington does not see, because it will not see, that tens of millions of Americans already believe democracy is getting in the way of God's plan, that democracy is—and I mean this seriously—desecrating the sacredness of the US Constitution. As one critic put it, the Venn diagram showing the overlap of QAnon believers and white evangelical Protestants (and related groups) is actually a circle. When you stand with God against His enemies, you have God's permission to hate.

That's their religion. No, it's not a cult. It's more than that. It's deeper than that. The hate felt by the former president's supporters during four years' worth of political rallies is the same hate for America as it stands, not as they desire it to stand, that right-wing religious radicals have felt since post-Civil War America. That's when Charles Darwin's theories and what they determined about humanity's place in God's divine scheme first gained traction in the United States. Every single intellectual development—from evolution then to Critical Race Theory now—has been met with such hate. I don't understand why the conventional wisdom looks away from history.

Because it's easier, I guess. It's easier to maintain the myth of the civic religion; to be shocked by Americans talking about a military coup; to blame the former president for imperiling the world's oldest democracy. It's easier to respect religion without scrutinizing it too much, and risk discovering it's steeped in hate, which might force the conventional wisdom in Washington to take responsibility. On this one-year anniversary since Trump gassed Americans out of the way for a photo-op of him holding a Bible in front of a church, we need the truth. And that's never been easy.

The idiots who support Israel for the sake of a second coming scare me. The trump supporters who want a revolution really scare me. We came close to a full blown civil war on Jan. 6 and there are a good number of trump supporters who are still praying for such a civil war to reinstate their leader/messiah. There are still risks of a civil war or other attempt to reinstall trump.

I hope that the prosecution and conviction of trump may help but I may be wrong. We live in scary times