Some people call it a “culture war”. That’s correct if one considers “culture“ to include all of the following: white supremacy, white nationalism, patriarchy, misogyny, authoritarian Old Testament theocracy, defying the teachings of Christ, betrayal of oaths to support and defend our Constitution, xenophobia against people who aren’t “white”, homophobia, putting refugees from our drug wars in for profit prisons and their children in adoption mills, fossil fuel revenues and global warming denial, rewriting history…
The War Between the States in the 1860s, the first U.S. Civil War, was over slavery. Abolitionists were active before the American Revolution. In 1808 the importation of slaves was banned. The 1830s saw an increase in anti-slavery activism. Republican president Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, nearing the third year of the Civil War. More than 700,000 soldiers died, many from disease.
Protestant churches had split, the Methodist Church in 1844. Reunification didn’t happen until the 1960s, but the African Methodist Episcopal Church, created in 1816, is still separate.
The Texas Revolution was over slavery. This year, Texas governor Abbott stopped a presentation and discussion about a book on that subject at the Alamo.
The modern civil rights movement began during WW II. Roosevelt signed an executive order opening up defense and other jobs to black Americans. Truman signed legislation ending segregation in our military forces.
The complete history of the civil rights movement is in an article linked below. Some of us remember the 1960s, MLK, his assassination, the marches, the protest songs.
Desegregation and civil rights legislation gave birth to the religious right political movement. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Federalist Society judges appointed by Reagan, GW and Trump have dismantled the VRA. They claim to be “originalists”, meaning interpreting the Constitution as it was written in the mindset of the authors. There will be an essay on that subject.
Women’s and LGBT rights became issues. There was a wave of feminism. I thought that the first LGBT rights movement began in the 1960s. I was wrong, there was a vibrant gay community in Berlin in the 1920s.
As I said, the religious right political movement was over racism. They claim it was over abortion. That was one of the first Big Lies.
This is the source of the term Big Lie:
“All this was inspired by the principle – which is quite true within itself – that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.
It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.”
— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X
Catholic activist Paul Weyrich was one of the most influential unelected men in modern history. He founded the American Legislative Exchange Council and their voter suppression legislation, co-founded the Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell and the Heritage Foundation. “I don’t want everybody to vote.”
Weyrich came up with the idea to use lies and propaganda about abortion to unite “conservative“ Catholics and “evangelicals“ to gain political power. It worked. Early funding came from tobacco companies, now it’s mostly fossil fuel interests and religious right and other right wing money laundering entities, another subject to be addressed separately.
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus was another influential unelected man. He was one of the founders of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, created with the explicit purpose of taking over or splitting mainline non-Baptist Protestant churches. They and allies succeeded. The Methodist Church is the largest and last to be split. There will be another essay on that subject.
Comentários