Last month, Politico published a story focusing on Russell Vought, the Office of Management and Budget director during the Trump administration and current president of the extreme-right Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank pushing Donald Trump to adopt "Christian nationalism" in his potential next administration. The group also encourages Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act immediately upon regaining power in order to deploy U.S. military forces on possible protests and demonstrations against him.
Vought has an advisory role in the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025, and Vought is close enough to Trump that he is "frequently cited as a potential chief of staff," notes Politico. The notion of Trump returning to office with a chief of staff already frothing to put soldiers in the streets to enforce Trump's authority would be alarming enough, but Vought's ties to even more extremist voices are what's getting attention from Politico and other outlets.
To that end, journalist Jennifer Cohn has uncovered some remarkable documents authored by Center for Renewing America visiting fellow William Wolfe, who Vought has specifically called out as someone he was "proud" to work with "on scoping out a sound Christian Nationalism."
Cohn reports that she and the Bucks County Beacon have discovered a document allegedly edited by Wolfe claiming to be a draft "Statement on Christian Nationalism & the Gospel." The manifesto, which claims Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers as one of its authors, attempts to define what "Christian Nationalism" means—and envisions how it would work in practice.
So what's the vision laid out by Vought's "proud" contributor in "scoping out a sound Christian Nationalism," and by the document's other authors and editors? It's an absolutely batshit plan for full theocratic rule.
From Cohn:
The manifesto, titled “The Statement on Christian Nationalism”, begins with a definition of “Christian Nationalism” that strives to implement a Scripture-based system of government whereby Christ-ordained “civil magistrates” exercise authority over the American public. [...]
The manifesto then states that, pursuant to Scripture, these “civil magistrates” have “lawful authority to punish civil crimes like assault, murder, rape, theft, fraud, man-stealing, and false witness, and to ensure proper due process through the civil courts, payment of liability for verifiably proven harm, and proportionality of punishment.” (Emphasis added.)
So the short version of what Christian nationalism means, according to the people promoting Christian nationalism as conservatism's preferred path during a second Trump turn, is the installation of "Church"-ordained civil magistrates who will be given governmental power to punish crimes ranging from murder and rape to "man-stealing." And only those magistrates will be able to mete out punishments, apparently, because other civil authorities will be stripped of the power to enforce any laws except those recognized by "Christian Orthodoxy."
Under the heading, “Big Picture,” the manifesto claims to “affirm that this Christian Nationalist project entails national recognition of essential Christian Orthodoxy (Article II) as a Christian consensus under Jesus Christ, the supreme Lord and King of all creation, and the establishment of the general equity of the Ten Commandments as the foundational law of the nation.” (Emphasis added.)
The manifesto also claims to affirm that, “All truth, claims and ethical standards must be tested by God’s final Word, which is Scripture alone.” (Emphasis added.) [...]
The manifesto further denies “the authority of rulers to squelch civil disobedience if [in the authors’ opinion] the free and necessary worship of and obedience to the True One God is being hindered.” (Sounds like January 6.)
You should read Cohn’s whole report, but after several weeks of Vought's extremist allies pissing about in performative outrage over whether Vought’s and their own versions of "Christian Nationalism" count as extremist or not, it appears we have our answer.
The self-described Christian nationalists defining the term don’t envision some ambiguous version of "religious freedoms" that need to be protected. Instead, they are demanding our nation's government be torn down and replaced with a version in which their preferred "Church" will ordain public servants who will enforce Christian theocratic law and "squelch" any Americans who engage in "disobedience" against their plan, which is written in plain English.
It's a plan for violence-minded theocratic rule that’s little different from the one Iranians are victims of. It also mirrors what conservative religious extremists have long frothed about as the supposed future non-Christian Americans have been trying to bring about, simply by existing.
Donald Trump has surrounded himself with extremist allies who are gleefully insisting that if reelected, he has full authority to reshape the government in their vision and eliminate dissenters through military force. It is fascism, pure and simple.
From the focus on “renewal” and military oppression to Dear Leader’s own scatterbrained versions of vengeance and authoritarian power, the Trump campaign has been premised on visions of fascist rule.
And Republican voters and elected officials throughout America are signing up to enthusiastically endorse those plans.
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