By Pastor Rasheed Z. Baaith
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)
We may be living in the denouement of American democracy. Especially as it touches free and just and fair elections. Degree by degree those driven by the Big Lie are determined to forego the democratic voting process for a virulent, extreme political allegiance.
Those who are part of this movement are prepared to evoke change through armed rebellion if what they want cannot be gotten through the vote. They want what they want coute que coute as the French say. Any means is acceptable at anyplace and any time.
Nor should we be guiled into believing that those who support this grievance guided political thought are those Hilary Clinton labeled “deplorable.” These people include elected members of Congress, members of the 1%, professional athletes, the financially successful, some who should know better and even people of color.
And whether they or anyone else wants to admit it, the bed-rock of this political movement is white supremacist beliefs. If you think that an exaggeration, just listen the Lt. Governor of Texas who is a Big Lie supporter. He blames the rise in Covid infections on Black people who vote for Democrats. No reach too far it seems.
But again, don’t be fooled. With these folk if your complexion is different from theirs, they view you as problematic. But the issues of wearing masks and taking Covid vaccines has shown that one can get branded un-American if you decide your life is just as important as theirs. Even if you’re the same color.
I do not believe, no matter how many new infections or how many children die or how many hospitals are over run, there will not be elected officials who will scream no mask mandates, no shut downs, no disease controls are necessary. Not because of issues of individual freedom although that’s the bush they hide behind.
James Baldwin once wrote, “American democracy has al-ways been at the mercy of the dollar.” He was right. It’s a money thing as in better dead than broke. Woven through this fanatical screeching about personal freedoms is the miasma of pretension and hypocrisy. Money to these folk is more important than even the lives of children.
American freedom, to many in this country, is both selective and exclusionary. Witness the howl against bringing in those Afghanis who have been at the side of American troops in their home country. Freedom is good for them but not for others. More than anything else they want to put the American government in the control of those who desire autocracy and despotism.
“This is the way people react to the loss of empire – for the loss of an empire also implies a radical revision of the individual identity.” (Again Baldwin) And isn’t what these folk are suffering? The belief that America is not the global power it once was, that we can no longer believe in her political, economic and technical invincibility?
We should make no mistake. This progeny of Trumps view themselves as a persecuted minority. They see themselves as the last remnant of true Americans who are holding on to what America was meant to be: white, exclusive, privileged.
And while they pretend to hate government, they want to control the power of government that they are able to enact laws and policies fitting their agenda. Whether it’s good for all Americans or not.
