Full Circle?

In 1986, Frank Zappa appeared on Crossfire, a nightly current events debate program that aired on CNN 1982-2005, whose format was designed to present and challenge the opinions of politically liberal and conservative pundits. Zappa, who had rarely if ever been on such a show, was there to debate censorship with conservative commentators Robert Novak and John Lofton, who argued that the government had a right to carry out forms of censorship to protect families from objectionable material. He added that he considered this an issue of national defense: "Our families are under attack because of people like you," he said, pointing at Zappa, who replied, "Can I make a statement about national defense?” and said, presciently, “The biggest threat to America today is not communism, it's moving America toward a fascist theocracy, and everything that's happened during the Reagan administration is steering us right down that pipe.” Laughing, the others asked for “one example,” to which Zappa responded, “When you have a government that prefers a certain moral code derived from a certain religion and that moral code turns into legislation to suit one certain religious point of view, and if that code happens to be very, very right wing…”

“Every form of civil government is based on some kind of morality!” said Lofton, to which Zappa replied, “Morality in terms of behavior, not in terms of theology.”

Cut to now: “Project 2025: A Christo-Fascist Manifesto Designing a Theocracy” https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/project-2025-christian-nationalism by Andra Watkins, who was raised by “parents who joined a Christian Nationalist church in rural South Carolina [in the 1970s]…During my formative years, I was indoctrinated in the Christian Nationalist belief system that underpins today’s Republican Party. Christo-fascist Republicans do not acknowledge any law that conflicts with their interpretation of the Bible. They don’t care about an issue’s popularity with voters; they don’t pay attention to polls. They will install loyalists who will carry out Christian Nationalist directives and will ignore the will of the American people…From abortion bans to restrictions on transgender rights to book bans and more, gerrymandered red states are forcing their citizens to live in the country Project 2025 envisions…According to the nonpartisan research firm PRRI, Christian Nationalism has solid support in all 50 states…”

Here’s a brief decoding of Project 2025’s Four Promises: the President should 1. sanction only heterosexual monogamous marriages; 2. dismantle the administrative state to force every American to live by a Christian Nationalist interpretation of the Bible; 3. reject and deport as many immigrants as possible, and 4. “Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely—what our Constitution calls ‘the Blessings of Liberty’,” which is code for “what God commands in the Bible.”

The new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has very specific Christian Nationalist tattoos; has fired staff who aren’t Trump loyalists/Christian Nationalists. As someone wrote, “When the time comes, he want military lawyers who’ll ok the use of American troops against American civilians on American soil…he also wants a pliant military that won’t object to using overwhelming force to keep the regime in power.” He has, more recently, ordered the US Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia; and has advocated for parents to “pursue homeschooling, classical education, or Christian schools” for their children, as part of his theology of Reformed Reconstructionism, which advocates for a Christian theocracy, where secular government is subservient to biblical law.” https://www.interfaithalliance.org/post/pete-hegseth-s-christian-nationalist-crusade-is-a-threat-to-religious-freedom

I moved to Japan in the 1980s, as I was attracted to the teachings of Buddha and other saints of Asia. Since 2008, I have been living in the Himalayan foothills of India. If you’re interested in moving to a country where the cost of living is low, see my blog: https://outofunitedstates.com/p/home-in-the-himalayas