My family and I were just on our big Mountain West/High Plains vacation (my wife needed Montana, North Dakota, and Idaho to round out all 50 states that she’s visited), and we went through WY, SD, ND, MT and ID on the trip. Generally beautiful country and nice people, but on the second-to-last day, we were trying to visit the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. Due to a mis-navigation, we drove to the actual Hagerman Fossil Beds NP, not the Visitors Center.
So as part of our detour to the actual visitors center, we drove straight through the small town of Hagerman, Idaho. There was the rather perplexing “Bullets and Brew”, which is apparently a combination gun store and coffee shop, but worse was a few blocks down the street at the Valley Baptist Church (yes, I’m calling them out by name) where the marquee said, and I shit you not, “Christian Nationalism is Following God’s Will”.
So that’s by far the most unhinged right-wing thing I’ve seen in a while. Plenty of generic Trump signs, but that was way beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Just right out in the open, with the implication that the nonsense is divinely sanctioned.
So what have you seen that’s wildly out there from the Right like that?
@bump, given the “deranged” in the title, and the further language in the Post, this is more a rant than a P&E discussion. As such, and before we get into a feedback cycle, I’m closing this. Please contact me or another moderator (I’ve sent you a DM) if you want this re-opened in the Pit, or if you want to clarify your position. Until then, this thread is closed.
ETA - After reviewing with the OP, this is now reopened in the The BBQ Pit.
I apparently got it a bit wrong. It’s “Christian Nationalism is Obedience to God’s Will”, not what I posted earlier from memory. And it’s definitely deranged! Even around here (North Texas), speaking openly about Christian Nationalism would get you weird looks and probably tagged as a neo-Nazi at the least.
I personally am quite tired of local Christian churches (and Colorado Springs is heavy in loud local churches!) giving pro forma criticisms of Trump’s many sins, but telling everyone and their congregations to “Render unto Caesar” and that it’s God’s will through a flawed man.
These are largely the same Churches who declared vendetta on vaccines, distancing, and avoiding large groupings a few years ago, so I find the hypocrisy staggering.
My observation is that they don’t put effort in thinking it through. It’s just “Team Christian” vs everybody else. Blissfully and pridefully unaware of the real battle that’ll take place of just what denomination or sect thereof will prevail if they ever do succeed in installing a Christian theocracy.
I didn’t know that beforehand. It does seem to be a somewhat strange place; knowing that it’s where Napoleon Dynamite was set makes a lot more sense now that I’ve actually been there. It’s got this weird feel to it that doesn’t remind me of anywhere else. Montana, Wyoming, and western South Dakota don’t feel all that weird coming from Texas, and the rest of South Dakota and orth Dakota reminded me more of Nebraska and Kansas than anywhere else.
They may not understand the ideology cognitively but on a visceral, emotional level it is the powerhorse of the MAGA movement. The belief that America is meant to be a white, christian, patriarchal ethnostate that is under siege from internal and external threats.
I grew up in extreme eastern South Dakota - I could see Minnesota from my bedroom window - and it was a running trope that there are two Dakotas: East River and West River, referring to the Missouri River (and to a great extent, Central versus Mountain Time Zone). West was cowboys and ranches, and East is farmland. It made going to Boy State interesting.
Back to deranged GOP practices: Kristi Noem’s horse statue on the state capital grounds at Pierre. The feedback had been very nasty, and very funny. I guess there’s something for every governor, but this is over the top.
Here in Missouri, we have this process wherein we can get amendments to the constitution put before a public vote. In the past few years we’ve used that process to legalize pot (first for medical and then for recreational), legalize sports betting, and to secure a woman’s right to an abortion. Our Republicans took the L on those first two issues, but abortion appears to be the hill they will die on, the will of the voters be damned. To that end, they snuck in their own two amendments. In November we’ll vote on another abortion amendment, this one to overturn the previous one. In other words, Missouri conservatives aren’t prepared to admit defeat on this one and are attempting a do-over. But we also just voted on another amendment, and this one is probably more insidious. It would change the amendment process so that we voters who don’t know what’s good for us can’t amend the constitution so easily. What’s more, they snuck it into an August primary where they thought no one would show up to vote on it. And the cherry on top: they put language on the amendment to “ban foreign money,” whatever that means, so they could campaign on saying that it keeps foreign money out of our amendment process.
We didn’t fall for it.
For starters, we defeated the amendment 80 percent to 20 percent. Second, we had a significantly higher turnout than we normally get for primaries. And third, some precincts ran out of Democrat ballots, so sure were they that no one would show up.
Missouri is the Show Me State. I hope that, in this November, the news will Show Me all of these coward republicans leaving Jeff City.
My friend and I went to 127 Yard Sale this weekend, which is a 690-mile yard sale on one route from Michigan to Alabama. We visited a small chunk up in northwestern Ohio near the Indiana border. Corn, soybeans and farms as far as the eye can see.
We were actually delightfully surprised at the near total lack of Trump shit out there. I don’t know that we passed more than 2 houses with any Trump stuff. A couple of the sellers maybe did have some Trump stuff.
One table had a full professionally printed copy of some report about I guess an FBI raid on Biden’s home, looking for papers? I assume akin to the Mar-A-Lago raid. I thought that was funny to see. It was just strewn about with other books and junk.
The only overtly gross thing we saw was, while walking through a field in front of a high school that was lined with vendor tents and tables, we had to clear the way to make room for some smoke-spewing old truck and trailer plastered with pro-Trump stuff. With “TRUMP TRAIN” painted on it. On a walking aisle for people, not trucks.
Someone hopped out and stopped real quick at a table then hopped back in and they left.
I don’t know if the Trump Train was there as a seller and this was them leaving for the day, or if this was their method of shopping.
We did notice that absolutely no one was cheering or clapping for this truck and people seemed kind of glad that they were gone.
Every time I’ve voted in the last … I don’t know, ten years? … they’ve printed my ballot on demand. Are there still precincts that use pre-printed ballots?
I live in Missouri. Of course, other precincts might run things differently, but given the ease of the system it just seems surprising that it wouldn’t be done that way elsewhere.
Definitely pre-printed ballots in Iron County, likely elsewhere, as I’ve seen claims that they ran out of Democrat ballots at certain precincts across the state. There were still plenty when I voted; of course, Iron County probably only needs a couple dozen.