I’m a Deplorable Part One
Understanding the ChristoGOP
As we go to press with this book, the 2024 election just took a huge turn. President Biden dropped out, and Vice President Harris (the living embodiment of diversity, equality, and identity/inclusion) is about to become the nominee of the anti-ChristoGOP party.
We ask you to consider the full range of harm done by Christian Nationalism (ChristoGOPs). This can only be done by understanding its origins, operating methods, and the idiocy of its adherents.
For you to reject a lifetime of propaganda that drove you into a fundamentally stupid and insane belief system is a big ask on our part. One way, maybe the only way, to really get it is to consider each part of what we present and to accept or reject our ideas through an honest examination of your conscience, reason, beliefs, and what you know in your bones to be true.
We are all some degree of ChristoGOP: deranged and deluded since childhood into believing “truths” about reality that are NOT true, accepting absurd “facts” that are actually magical thinking — utterly unsupported by any reality or common-sense grasp of reality. We’ve been lied to and propagandized and fed nonsense all our lives.
We are all on a journey out of and away from our deplorable state of being.
We are all deplorable, but we don’t have to stay that way.
WHO WANTS TO BE A CHRISTOGOP?
Who wouldn’t want to be a ChristoGOP? The best of the Grand Old Party, clinging to the southern myths of white Christian supremacy. Who wouldn’t want to be a ChrisoGOP? The best of the Christians gathered at churches discussing the “welfare problem” or “by the year 2050, white people will be the minority in their own country!” Who wouldn’t want to be a ChristoGOP? A proud man, with the opportunity (real or not) to be rich, to be free, to have guns to fend off “those people”, or just to live life the way Jesus intended.
ChristoGOPs stand for more than just ‘Christianity. They stand for strength in business, having divined success through conservative policies that make average people pull themselves up by their bootstraps while giving profit to the super-wealthy when times get tough. The ChristoGOP is success or hope of success defined by dollars.
ChristoGOPs stand for law and order. They believe in strict laws, like executing murderers but temper that justice with pardons for businesspeople convicted of fraud and white-collar crimes or to commute sentences for Rod Blagojevich, former Illinois governor who tried to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat.
Who wouldn’t want to be a ChristoGOP? When they have all the answers that make so much sense.
MAKING OF CHRISTOGOPS
The ChristoGOP origin holds no real complexity. This Frankenstein of religion and politics required only time to fully animate. One needs only the perfect religion and the perfect political party to breed a population of ChristoGOPs. More important are the orchestrators of this taboo relation. Of course, that would be the Power Brokers. Those who guide the ChristoGOPs to the polls, those who voice the words these followers need to hear (truth or lies), and those who benefit the most from the ChristoGOP compliance.
THE POWER BROKERS
Old money or new money defines the Power Broker. They are the multimillionaires or billionaires who actualized the American Dream, having ‘made it’. At least that is what they say. They are the entertainers, the entrepreneurs, the CEOs, and the executives; often, all wrapped in one. In a system that enforces scarcity, winners, and losers, these folks set the bar for success. Because they have ‘made it’, and as the winners, they perfectly prove the American Dream is a plausible reality dependent solely on one’s effort and self-efficacy — not some fantasy dependent on luck.
Still, the Power Brokers face challengers, those who wish to take their billions — namely, everyone as represented by the IRS. How will they hold the forces of the IRS at bay so they can continue making even more billions? They need to lower taxes at all costs, but how? They need to deregulate anything that stands in the way of moneymaking, but how?
Frustrating, yes!
Don’t the average, working Joes realize the only way to ‘make it’ is to stand on the Machiavellian principle that dictates the dollar justifies the means? Clearly, they do not. Clearly, they do not understand that everything is secondary to the goal of profit because if they understood this principle they would have ‘made it’. More so, they need to believe that an earner of $400,000 per year paying $140,000 in taxes, not counting deductions, will never ‘make it’ by only bringing home $260,000 per year?
Average Joes also need to believe that corporations can’t make billions when they are being taxed because they cannot expand, creating more jobs. They need to believe this despite the fact that companies, like Facebook, layoff 10,000 people in the same year the company earned $39 billion in profits. Obviously, those 10,000 people had to go to make way for the billions in profit.
That’s making it!
The Power Brokers will need the right people for the job of protecting their billions. Where will they find the people willing to believe that protecting the billionaire's billions ensures them the extremely plausible opportunity to be the billionaire? Who will have a mind malleable enough for the Power Brokers to inspire to protect their billions?
THE AMERICAN CHRISTIANS
If you need someone to believe rewarding a billionaire or corporation more money somehow makes life better for everyone, look no further than the American Christians. As if Jesus himself, handed the Power Brokers their answer, the Christians stand ready to fight the great fight for billions. In fact, they already did much of the work by attacking education, desiring to make their religion law, and simply exalting faith over reason.
The Christians proudly attacked education and science from the beginning of their religion with leaders or organizations intentionally spreading misinformation about their faith's history, practices, or teachings to maintain control over their followers. Examples abound historically, like the well-known suppression of Galileo's heliocentric theory because it contradicted the Bible's creation narrative. Forget ancient history, let’s focus on current issues:
Religious Education Curriculum: Many Christian groups push for religious curriculum to be integrated into public school systems. This not only violates church-state separation but also undermines evidence-based education by teaching religious ideologies as facts, sowing doubt in students' minds about scientific theories and historical events.
Book Banning: Some Christians attempt to censor books they deem 'immoral,' 'obscene,' or 'unsuitable for children.' This hinders free thought, exposes young people to limited perspectives, and suppresses critical thinking skills.
Textbook Alterations: Christian groups have lobbied successfully to change the content of textbooks in schools and universities. They've sought to remove or alter material they consider at odds with their beliefs, such as the theory of evolution, historical events that contradict Biblical narratives, and the inclusion of LGBTQ+ issues.
Anti-Science Legislation: Christian groups have pushed for laws against teaching controversial topics like climate change or evolution. This impedes students' understanding of essential scientific concepts, as well as their ability to critically analyze evidence.
Creationism in Science Classrooms: The belief that the world was created by God in six days contradicts scientific evidence. Nevertheless, Christian groups continue to lobby for creation science to be taught alongside evolution in schools. This not only confuses students about how the natural world works but also undermines trust in the scientific community.
Fundamentalist Charter Schools: Some Christians have established charter schools with curriculums based on their religious beliefs. These institutions often receive public funding while ignoring science education and critical thinking skills, instead focusing on religious indoctrination.
Homeschooling: Many Christian parents choose to homeschool their children in order to protect them from what they consider 'immoral' or 'obscene' information present in mainstream schools. This may result in students receiving limited and biased education, hindering their understanding of different perspectives and cultures.
Censoring Speakers: Christian groups have attempted to prevent the appearance of speakers and lecturers they deem unsuitable for schools or universities. These actions often arise from an effort to suppress ideas deemed 'anti-Christian,' such as atheism, LGBTQ+ rights, and women's reproductive health.
University Controversies: Christian groups have sought to influence university policies and curriculum. They have successfully pushed for prayer rooms on campus, censored research findings they deem 'offensive,' and restricted access to birth control or abortion services. This can result in a lack of inclusivity and freedom of thought among students.
Political Pressure: Christian groups often use their political influence to promote religious views in education policy, swaying public opinion through fear-based tactics like the promotion of 'family values' or 'moral decay.' This hinders the establishment of objective, evidence-based curriculums and policies in schools.
If resistance to education and critical thinking were not enough, Christians are blessed with faith to make them truly compliant since they will believe anything. Why will they believe anything? Because literally, they believe anything!
Christian beliefs can encompass anything because the only requirement to be a Christian is to have some form of belief in Jesus Christ and one of the many translations of the Bible. This is absolutely a fact of Christianity because every Christian will tell you, regardless of their sect, they are the true Christians, not those other Christians. To say Christians are fallacious is to vastly understate their nonsensical nature as a mere quirk when they indeed personify the No True Scotsmen fallacy. Christian groups range in belief from gun hoarding child molesters like David Koresh, to the staunch Catholic at the Knights of Columbus quietly fundraising to stop gay marriage.
Christians will argue this point all day, but they have no argument because people like David Koresh and the Catholic have equal right to call themselves Christians, and they will defend that right together regardless of their rejection of each other as Christians.
Replacing critical thinking and education with possibilities seen as facts due to the need to have faith in their bizarre religion makes Christians perfect followers. Willingness to believe a god made the earth and sent his son via an immaculate conception to be nailed to a cross to somehow save everyone from sin smacks of stupidity for the nonChristian, but for the American Christian, this is just a fact of life! Claiming Christians conflate plausibility with possibility understates the danger of believing running headlong into a brick wall will somehow allow you to pass through unscathed if performed fast enough.
A true miracle for the Power Brokers!
Christianity demands followers take this irrational, blind leap into life by replacing critical thought with pseudo-philosophy or junk-science — and they are wowed by Intelligent Design and scripture quoting. Knowing no better, the Christian nods in agreement as if these arguments proved anything.
Who could ask for a better group of followers, ready to run off a cliff like a lemming? No one, and if the Christian was not the answer to the prayers of the Power Brokers, most certainly it was the Republicans.
THE REPUBLICANS
Self-serving, seeking profit at all costs, these Power Broker wannabees are all about the business of business. To hell with the environment, the poor, and the sick. Profit takes a willingness to break some eggs whether it is spilling the yolk of the unfortunate or the planet — who cares! “Making it” takes dedication and hard work! Republicans get it! Even if most don’t know the impossibility of what they get. Best of all, and this point cannot be stressed enough, they see the Christians as dupes needed to get them the lower taxes needed to ‘make it’ and don’t care what the Christians do. Their thinking goes: When I’m successful, my billions will buy whatever I need and want. That includes bodily autonomy, religious freedom, a new car — it's all the same. Abortion, freedom, and commodities are for those who can afford them — those who made it!
THE BIRTH OF THE CHRISTOGOPS
The millions of ChristoGOPs took decades to breed into what we know to be half of America. It took a lynch pin cause of abortion to marry the Christians and Republicans but years of misinformation and lies finally paid off. Now, the Power Brokers look on with pride at their beast capable of believing anything, ignoring the behavior of leaders, and defending the very things causing the most self-harm. This is the ChristoGOP, a couple raising two kids on $50,000 a year, who believes the person making $400,000 a year with two kids needs more money. This is the ChristoGOP, the Right to Life protester hoarding guns in his basement, believing school mass-shootings are caused by lack of Bibles in public education, not arms dealers being given freedom to market their wares to anyone with a buck. This is the ChristoGOP, a couple raising four kids on $40,000 believing that lowering taxes on corporations and doing away with Obamacare is going to help them. This is the ChristoGOP, the manager slaving away, hoping for the promotion that will bring big success, even as the CEO brings his son onboard to be the next corporate leader. This is the ChristoGOP, who doesn’t look for the better answer but instead believes the propaganda that confirms their unshakable faith in Jesus or in ‘making it’ or both:
1. God is the only true source of morality and values, so without Christianity, society would collapse.
2. It's not rich people or corporations not paying their fair share of taxes, but the millions of illegal immigrants who come to America and steal social security.
3. God blesses those who trust in Him and follow His commandments with prosperity and abundance in their finances.
4. Through prayer, faith, and wise management of resources, Christians can achieve great financial success while still following biblical teachings on charity and stewardship.
5. Abortion is murder because life begins at conception.
6. Tithing (giving 10% of your income to the church) opens the gates for God's blessing, leading to wealth and financial stability.
7. Homosexuality is a sin and goes against God's plan for humanity.
8. Only through Jesus Christ can we achieve eternal salvation and everlasting life in heaven.
9. By supporting Christian businesses, you are helping further the Gospel message and receiving divine blessings from God in return.
10. The Bible holds all the answers to life, and its teachings provide guidance for every human being.
11. God's Word promises that if you serve Him with a generous heart, He will give you the desires of your heart, including wealth and prosperity for yourself and your family.
12. Evolution is a myth created by atheists to discredit God's existence.
13. It’s the immigrants taking the Black jobs, not racism.
14. Christianity brings peace and unity within communities, as followers learn to love one another unconditionally.
15. America is the greatest country in the world!
16. Satan is real, and he uses science and atheism to deceive people into doubting their faith.
17. Florida is the land where woke comes to die!
18. Public schools should allow prayers and Bible studies to strengthen children's faith from an early age.
19. Muslims shouldn’t be allowed in government.
20. The Christmas season honors Jesus Christ and should be celebrated by all Americans regardless of religion, as it brings joy and love to the world.
21. White people are being replaced by minorities.
22. It’s the liberal fascists who are destroying the country by enslaving everyone with their green policies.