God's Embarrassing Army

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

When Christian Nationalists speak of a Second Coming, chances are they are talking of Donald Trump reseating his flabby (but very white) butt on his former throne in the White House, the one on which he spent countless nights typing belligerent taunts, lies, and threats into his old Twitter account.  Ah, those were the days  - and many would do anything they could, whether their actions were technically "Christian" or not, to restore their idol to his throne.

With just two delegate-selection events having been completed thus far for the Republicans, and none for the Democrats, both parties seem to have already (psychologically, at least) coronated their winners and we are looking at a fall rematch of Biden versus Trump, a choice that a majority of Americans are indicating does not suit them.  Biden apparently wanted to run against Trump because he judges that Trump would be easier to beat than some of his GOP rivals, and Trump wanted to run against Biden out of vengeance.  Both men have an iron grip on their party's selection process.

The Democrats were handed their golden 2024 campaign issue by the US Supreme Court with it's infamous Dobbs' decision which overturned a half-century of American women having a constitutional right to have an abortion under the old Roe v Wade ruling.  It's a strong campaign issue, and in places where abortion issues have made it to the ballot, it has proven to be a winner.  

Republicans are making the migrant crossings at the southern US border their feature issue for the 2024 race.  Donald Trump made a lot of border noise in the 2016 election and learned that it does stir fear and racial animus - and he was fine with that.  He was going to build a massive wall to protect Americans from the hordes of dark-skinned people who were massing at our border and planning to rush in and clean our toilets, plant our rosebushes, and possibly even pluck our chickens - jobs that should go to hard-working real Americans, the sons and daughters of earlier immigrants.

(Trump's Great Wall never got built, but long stretches of a tall fence were erected at various locations, many of which were quickly scaled for photos on social media, and some of which blew over.)

There is a bill being drafted in the US Senate that would give the President more authority to control the migrant situation at the southern border, powers which Trump had requested but now seems to regard as unnecessary.   The bill is a bi-partisan effort, meaning that it was crafted by Democrats and Republicans, and is being touted by members of both parties as being a good step in the right direction for correcting and updating US immigration policy.  

But the new legislation has run into an obstacle.  Donald Trump has put the word out to Congress to kill the legislation because he wants to have the problems at the border as a campaign issue.  Senate support from Republicans is falling away, much to the chagrin of GOP Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, one of the architects of the new bill and one of the most conservative members of the Senate.  Lankford was serious about fixing the problems at the border, and he thought that his Republican colleagues were, too.  Silly man.

But Republicans weren't content with just killing immigration legislation in order to give Donald Trump a campaign issue.  They are also stoking a massive theatrical offensive in which the state of Texas is claiming, through its governor, to be under assault by "invaders" from south of the border, and the state is establishing its own "defenses" to counter the "invasion."  

As a part of his show, Texas Governor Greg Abbott barred US immigration officials from a stretch of the border near Eagle Pass, Texas, and also began stringing razor wire (concertina wire) along thirty miles the border.  The US government cut some of the wire and Texas went to court complaining that its wire had been disturbed by the feds.  The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Texas and told the US government to leave the concertina wire alone, so the US Justice Department appealed to the US Supreme Court.  Last week the US Supreme Court ruled that the United States government could remove the wire.  Unfortunately the 5-4 decision was only three sentences long and did not prohibit Texas form installing more wire, which it is doing.

It's a mess with the governor of Texas saying that he has a "right" to disregard federal law because his state is suffering an "invasion."  All but one* Republican governor has issued statements agreeing with Abbott's insurrectionist position, and Donald Trump is, of course, cheering on the political hullabaloo and encouraging Texas to keep defying the national government.  *(Vermont was the exception.)

And now the Christian Nationalists are rushing to join the commotion, too.  Convoys are rolling from various points in the US to staging grounds near San Ysidro, California, Yuma, Arizona, and Eagle Pass, Texas,  to join in border demonstrations and to "help to secure" the border.   Some organizers were predicting as many as 700,000 trucks would be in the convoys, but that doesn't appear to be happening.  Organizers are also saying that the border events will be peaceful and that if any trouble occurs it will likely be the fault of provocateurs who have infiltrated the gatherings to make the demonstrators look bad (the old "false flag" gambit).

There might be a wee bit of drinking (convoying is hard work, you know), there will certainly be weapons a-plenty (self-protection from the dark hordes at the border, mainstream journalists, and maybe even javelinas), and even talk of civil war and the South rising again.  What could possibly go wrong?

They're calling themselves "God's Army."