Dual America
What does the future of the United States look like to you? How are the next five, ten, or twenty years characterized? Does progress triumph over resistance, or is a shadow of oppression cast over our nation?
No matter your political inclination, you certainly hope for the former and fear the latter. The person opposite you on the political spectrum holds the same feelings, though their utopia/dystopia is the opposite of yours. The conservative dream is the liberal nightmare, just as the liberal fantasy is the conservative dread. Neither future is aligned with the other, but both parties hope for the realization of their wishes with the ignorant belief that their vision is right.
They’re wrong.
It’s fairly obvious that conservatives are pushing the country towards an autocracy, and the democrats’ response is to turn their palms upwards and shrug. With the way the Overton Window has shifted to the right, one could assume that the two parties are collaborating, as if they were two wings of the same movement that is rapidly dismantling the rights of LGBTQ+ people and women’s rights to reproductive healthcare. However, there’s plenty of opposition to the aforementioned movement. But there seems to be no room for compromise between it and its detractors. Frankly, there shouldn’t be.
Gay rights and abortion are only the face of the irreconcilable differences between the two extremes. The labels of “liberal” or “conservative” can only go so far. The greater issue that I’m referring to goes beyond normal party politics: I’m here to discuss theocracy and the threat it poses to the unity of the United States.
Radical evangelism is no new concept, existing since before, and then onsetting the colonization of North America. In the political sphere and beyond, it controls the thoughts and actions of politicians, business owners, and common people who keep the aforementioned in power. In a society made up entirely of evangelicals, it would make sense to elect an evangelical government. But evangelicals make up a minority of the country, with estimates being anywhere between 6% and 35%. “Faith-based” laws written by a minority have no right to rule over the majority. To suggest so would be undemocratic, but that’s the point.
I remember a strange and naive time when the threat of “sharia law” had a small number of voters outraged, yet these same voters today have no qualms with imposing their beliefs on the nation. This could have been an excellent example in contradiction, had the outrage not been based purely in islamophobia. The same outspoken evangelicals claim that LGBTQ+ affirming bills are a persecution of their traditional lifestyle, entirely ignoring the countless bills proposed that suppress LGBTQ+ rights. The reason being: God’s rule is supreme. So long as evangelicals have God’s blessing, anything can be “the Lord’s work.” Democracy comes second to God’s will, no matter what they believe His will to be.
What would the consequences of religious rule be? Where do we draw the line? How do we resist? Speculation doesn’t count for much, but should the bills in an evangelical-dominated future resemble the bills being proposed now, I’d imagine anyone living an alternative lifestyle would be jailed, beaten to conform, and if they remain defiant: eradicated. With how apathetic law enforcement seems to be towards unsolved murders of marginalized people, such a future doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
In my own state of Oklahoma after the death of Nex Benedict, a trans teenager, senator Tom Woods said “We are a republican state… in the house and senate. I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma” referring to LQBTQ+ Americans. If the constituency that elected Senator Woods to office is represented by such a hateful statement, then the enemies to democracy are not just politicians, but the people who give them power as well. But the problem is not isolated to Oklahoma: from poll-goer to politician, the erasure of trans and gay people is a clear goal of extremists across conservative states. Make no mistake, an eradication of people who don’t conform to their vision is already underway.
In an evangelical theocracy, how long will it take to go from “businesses flying a pride flag will be fined” to “businesses are not allowed to fly pride flags” to “destroying pride-friendly businesses is decriminalized” to “pride-friendly business owners are blacklisted” to the shattering of windows and the detainment of pride-friendly business owners? We need not ask the Jews, though they are the authority on persecution, as homosexuals and other “deviants” were among the millions exterminated during the holocaust. Who’s to say a genocide can’t happen here?
The people, solely. In the question of “at what point do we draw the line?” the answer is to draw it here, before any of the aforementioned happens. The first and most peaceable option is to vote. Get involved in local, state, and national politics. Support secular candidates, oust the alternative. Deprive evangelicals of power and limit them to positions that would mitigate the harm they intend to do. So long as democracy and the will of the people is respected by our nation’s leaders, voting is a viable option in the fight against evangelical supremacy.
Should our leaders flaunt the will of the people, what would the people’s options be? And what would it mean for national unity? We might never have to answer these questions tomorrow if we act today. Vote now, while you still can. Should we lose any more rights, our options are living in bondage to a theocracy, or dying in the struggle against it. I pray that we can avoid such a tragic scenario, and the only way for now is to vote. It’s your choice between the dual Americas, which one will you choose?