Michelle Goldberg has a column in today’s NYT on the dangers presented by the declining Christian right. I have posted on this subject countless times, and the column doesn’t add anything to what I have said in the past, but she’s correct.
It occurred to me this morning that the problem can be expressed in the following formula: B x H=D. B is the belief in the righteousness of your cause and a divine right to rule; H is hopelessness resulting from an awareness of decline; and D is, of course, disaster.
So how can the disaster be averted? The white Christian nationalists can only be crushed or appeased. Crushing them is impossible at this time; they are too numerous and well-connected, and they have guns. The only other, if unheroic, alternative is appeasement: bathe them in prosperity; constantly assure them of their value to the country; and don’t complain too much about the Christian carve-outs that we know are coming from the Supreme Court. After all, in the long run, they are all dead.