Under Donald Trump’s presidency, the nomination of three extreme right Supreme Court justices cemented in place the current conservative supermajority. The nation’s Christian right movement prospered with recent high court’s rulings, including the overturning of the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision that provided federal protection for women’s access to abortion, as well as the June 27 Kennedy v. Bremerton School District case that further eroded the separation of church and state, shocking and angering a majority of Americans.
The Trump-provoked violent Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol appears to have galvanized many Republican legislators, religious extremists and armed white supremacist terrorist groups to embrace political violence as a tactic to take power, and overturn election results that don’t favor Republican candidates.
At the state level, this alliance of Republicans and religious nationalist groups have passed legislation that outlaws abortion even in the case of rape or incest; target LGBTQ and trans youth; ban books and the teaching of U.S. history of slavery and racism in public schools. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Frederick Clarkson, senior research analyst with Political Research Associates, and author of “Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy.” Here, he discusses how U.S. Christian extremist groups are threatening political violence as they pursue an agenda that threatens democracy imposed by federal, state and local governments across the U.S., and how this agenda threatens America’s democracy.
FREDERICK CLARKSON: After the failed coup on Jan. 6, some months later, there was an effort to begin to rally the kind of constituencies that came to Washington on Jan. 6. And they are concerned about a range of things. Some people are concerned about vaccinations and masks. Others are concerned about election integrity, as they call it.
But also, people are concerned about their particular vision of how to create a more theocratic society. Many of them are driven by conspiracist visions of demonic spirits controlling society and how to drive them off. The Christian Right has done very well politically over the last few decades. But one of the things they learned is that they can’t do it by themselves, or at least they can’t do enough by themselves.
So they’re involved with some of the kinds of people we saw on Jan. 6 now and at the ReAwaken tour, led by Michael Flynn and populated by headliners like Eric Trump and Mike Lindell, the My Pillow guy and election denier kinds of people. But also people who are important in the conservative Christian world who most people never heard of, like a man named Lance Wallnau now who’s a prophet in this world, who is also a smart political strategist, who is the guy who came up with a biblical justification for Donald Trump, who one would think would never have passed muster with with conservative Christians being the kind of man that he was.
So we are seeing this fusion of conspiracist thinking, the QAnon people, the anti-vax people, the theocrats rallying themselves, thousands of people at a time, 15 big rallies in big cities around the country. The most recent one was in Virginia Beach. So it’s kind of a rolling revolt and organizing and a cohering of this far-right ideology that’s ultimately anti-democratic.
SCOTT HARRIS: You know, I did want to ask you about Pastor Greg Locke. I think he got a lot of publicity recently when a clip of his just unhinged rant — I don’t think you could call it a sermon — where he was attacking Democrats as godless communists who don’t deserve to live, in essence, and warning about the next insurrection. Really threatening violence from the pulpit.
I don’t know if he’s typical of a lot of these folks in the extreme right in the religious movement in this country. But tell us a little bit about Greg Locke and his vision as compared to others in this same movement.
FREDERICK CLARKSON: Well, I think his vision is similar. I think he’s a much more of a fire-breathing provocateur than even some of the others offering the most violent, militant, vile and divisive, provocative language that he can think of. That’s that’s what Greg Locke is like. His church in Tennessee is actually a tent — you know, he’s brought the old time “tent revival style” to militant, contemporary theocratic politics.
And he’d be somebody you wouldn’t take that seriously, except that he’s been on the ReAwaken tour with Michael Flynn. So he’s given that stage and allowed to put out those kinds of messages. He’s also become notorious for organizing a big bonfire of Harry Potter books, which he sees as demonic witchcraft. How far he’s willing to go in terms of encouraging directly violence, I don’t know.
But he’s not alone in creating a vision in which violence is justified to carry out their aims. And we’ve always seen these people. I’ve seen them over many years, over many decades. But there are more of them than there used to be. And they’re better organized, and they’re being given platforms and alliances by the likes of Michael Flynn.
SCOTT HARRIS: Hmmm. We don’t have a lot of time left. But briefly tell us about Republican candidate Doug Mastriano, who won his party’s nomination for Pennsylvania governor in this November’s general election. He’ll be going up against Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro, the state’s incumbent attorney general. What would you want our listeners to first and foremost know about Doug Mastriano?
FREDERICK CLARK: Doug Mastriano is the Christian Right’s dream candidate. He’s in and of their world. I looked at the groups that are supporting him and some of the individuals, and they’re the very kinds of people that have been talking about through all of this — people who believe in taking the Seven Mountains of society. They like him not just because he agrees with them and these things, but also because he is a retired Army strategist and intelligence officer.
And he brings a skills and sensibility of leading armies right to the work of the state legislature and to the work of politics. Republican and Democratic campaign operatives can’t figure out why he’s competitive with a well-established candidate like Josh Shapiro, the Democrat in the governor’s race. But he is running a campaign in his own way, mobilizing the kinds of hidden forces that I’m talking about here, because most people don’t participate in the election processes, even a good year.
But he knows that he can turn out his people and be competitive.
SCOTT HARRIS: His vow to overturn election results he doesn’t like as governor. It’s frightening stuff.
FREDERICK CLARKSON: Well, it is, indeed. But also keep in mind that the world of Army intelligence is a small world. That’s where Michael Flynn came out of. And there’s a number of senior retired Army intelligence officers who are working the scene nationally. And it’s not just Doug Mastriano, not just Michael Flynn.
For more information, visit Political Research Associates at politicalresearch.org , Political Research Associates – Frederick Clarkson Page at politicalresearch.org/
Follow Frederick Clarkson on Twitter at @FredClarkson.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Frederick Clarkson (17:04) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the Related Links section of this page.
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