There are myriad reasons for Americans terrified at the direction Trump and his Republican facilitators are taking this nation to vote with a sense of urgency, as if America remaining a free country depends on it. Now, for the second time in a couple of months, a member of the extremist Christian sect co-ruling the country utilized a Trump lie to frighten other extremist Christians to vote en masse for Republicans - as if their extremist Christian lives depend on it.
Of course Democrats are rightly portraying the upcoming midterms as crucial to America’s survival as a free representative democracy, yet there seems to be the same biannual lack of urgency responsible for perpetually handing Republicans victory. That urgency is never lacking on the right, and that is particularly true of the extremist, and not quite-as-extremist, religious right – evangelicals are dependable Republican voters no matter the candidate or the candidate’s horrid, even sordid criminal, history.
Although not a criminal, extremist Christian television host and fear monger, Rick Wiles is a sordid sot, and no kind of Christian. He parroted a real criminal, Donald Trump, and warned Christians that if Democrats are successful in the looming midterm elections, they will achieve their primary goal and “slaughter tens of thousands of Christians and tens of thousands of pastors.” In addition, Wiles warned that if Democrats are victorious they will burn Christian churches because like the cross, Democrats hate god, hate Christians, and hate morality. With their existence at stake, Wiles explained to conservative Christians “it is important to get out and vote Republican. Because if the Democrats get power they’re going to spill blood in America.”
Like Trump, Wiles exists on instilling fear in already frightened Christians and the faithful can trust anything Wiles says as if it is an utterance from their god. Because also like Trump, Wiles claims that his “ministry,” known as “TruNews,” is the “only news source in America that can be trusted.”
Wiles is a former marketer in media and is not privy to any political party’s “super secret” plans. But that did not prevent him from designating Democrats as leaders of a commie, anti-christ revolution who have only one purpose for competing in the current midterm elections. He explained why Christians had better get out for Republicans, warning:
“This Marxist-communist Antichrist revolution that is in full bloom in the United States of America, this thing is anti-Christian. They [Democrats] hate God. These people [Democrats] are against God. These people [Democrats] love to abort babies. They [Democrats] love to promote sexual immorality. Everything that drives them [Democrats] is in opposition to God and his moral laws. That is the centerpiece of their [Democrat’s] agenda.
Every nation that has been taken over by Marxist-communists, they immediately kill the pastors. They immediately kill Christians. They immediately burn the churches. Why? Because the cross is their enemy. Do not be fooled by what’s happening in America. The anarchists [Democrats] in America, their enemy is not the Republican Party. Their enemy isn’t corporations. Their enemy is the church. They’re coming against the church and you better get ready, you better be prepared, if these people ever get power, they’re going to slaughter tens of thousands of pastors, tens of thousands of Christians. They will spill blood in America. That is their purpose. That is their objective.”
Now it is almost certain that “real” Christians know everything Wiles said was a dirty lie, especially Christians who are also Democrats. But for the “faithful” that voted for and still worship Trump, all those dirty lies ring true. Particularly because a month earlier Trump issued a similar warning to members of the evangelical clergy about the impending violence targeting them if Democrats do well next week. It was at the same time he demanded the clergy break federal law. Trump said Christian preachers have to prevent Democrats, who are panting to get violent, from winning in November by actively campaigning for Republicans from the pulpit. In fact, Trump gave the gathered clergy some extra incentive to break federal law by asserting:
“This Nov. 6 election is a referendum on your religion, it's a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment."
Wiles may not be a “real preacher,” but he definitely took Trump’s directive to heart and parroted an insane concept that Democrats only want to win next week to slaughter “tens-of-thousands of Christians, tens-of-thousands of pastors, and burn churches.” The cretin may as well be an evangelical pastor, because he certainly know how to bring some Hell-fire kind of fear into the hearts of the faithful – like Trump knows how to instill fear into his racist and xenophobic acolytes. After all, it has been a wildly successful ploy dating back to before Trump’s poorly-attended inauguration.
Look, psychologists have known for some time that fear is the great motivator; Trump, Republicans, and extremist evangelicals (most religions actually) know and use it as well. For dog’s sake, without fear mongering, neither Trump, Republicans nor the religious right would exist as a potent political movement.
What this author fears is that Democratic voters will once again believe the hype about a Blue Wave and ignore the clear-and-present danger of a terrified conservative wave turning out to vote for Republicans like their lives, their preachers and their churches depend on it. If Democrats turned out to vote as religiously as the GOP’s religious and racist sects, this lying “Christian” television host Wiles spewing frightful prophecies about Democrats winning an election would be hilarious.
However, it is not even remotely funny. This bizarre concept that the Christian faithful are in existential jeopardy from, and under severe persecution by, “the left” has been parroted ad nauseam by the religious right, Republicans, and Fox News for well over a decade, and by Trump over the past two-and-a-half years. Of course the preponderance of faiths would not exist without fear, but these evangelical extremists in America are frightened silly. And while fear may motivate Trump’s racists and extremist Christians to turn out to vote, it also incites them to violence, as the past couple of weeks have demonstrated.
One hopes Democrats have instilled a real sense of urgency in their voting base because Trump and his religious right cabal certainly have done. Whether it is fear of being invaded by Central American women and children asylum seekers, or the frightful prospect of being one of the tens-of-thousands of Christians being slaughtered by Democrats, Trump’s base is highly motivated to vote. It remains to be seen if Democrats are adequately motivated, or if they fall for the hype that this election, like elections past, is already won.