3 points I'd highlight:
1) It's part of a plutocratic reshaping of public Christianity.
2) DeMille claimed his film was historically accurate, but the bible is silent about most of Moses's life. So he cherry-picked non-biblical tales.
3).... 15/22
#3) is the rightwing gloss DeMille puts on the whole story, erasing the fact that Egypt had been a land of laws for thousands of years before Moses. The problem isn't lack of law, but abuse of power: 16/22
While Christian nationalism is a powerful ideology for believers, it's a powerful STRATEGY for politicians, Sam Perry, co-author of “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States,” explained. First they signal to their base: 17/22
Dr. Barbara Forrest, a veteran of such battles in Louisiana, drew attention to a key figure in the state, Gene Mills, whom she identifies a dominionist, making the state "a cautionary tale" for America: 19/22
Nationally, Trump functioned as a distraction from past Republican failures, and now that he’s got his own massive failures he badly needs the distractions Christian nationalism can offer & the support of activists like Mills: 20/22
An example @AndrewLSeidel cites: “America's justice system demands proof of guilt to avoid punishing innocence, the Judaeo-Christian god intentionally harms innocents to punish the guilty.” 5/22
And God punishing the innocent comes right out of the 10 Commandments--a part that's been EXCISED in the Hollywood/Louisiana version because it's so at odds with American values: 6/22
If this were an intellectual debate, that'd be the end of it. But it’s politics, full of absurdities, with Trump as both a symptom and a super-spreader of the underlying moral abyss: 7/22
The bible has three versions of the 10 Commandments--two that are similar & one that's NOT. It concludes with “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” No mention of Trump's major sins: 9/22
For guidance, I turned to biblical scholar André Gagné, the author of “American Evangelicals for Trump” (Salon story here: www.salon.com/2024/01/02/m...). The commentaries he directed me to only validated my concerns: there aren't better answers, just better coping w/o them: 11/22
Louisiana tried to pass a 10 Commandments law years ago, but couldn't agree on the version. Now activists have settled on a makeshift version Cecil B. DeMille used to promote his 1956 film: 12/22
This version offends all traditions in different ways. Members of multiple faiths & no faith sued. A Jewish parent was particularly worth noting: 13/22
The law itself follows from the Project Blitz playbook (first described here in 2018: www.salon.com/2018/04/29/o...), one architect of which, pseudo-historian David Barton, claimed credit for helping to pass it: 3/22
Can someone tell me where NYT hid Trump's attempts to disown Heritage's fascist project?
I mean, holy hell, that's the only reporting on Trump they do anymore?
Also, I had nothing to do with overturning Roe v. Wade, which everybody wanted for 50 years, but no one could do except me. Except I had nothing to do with it, wow! did you see that shark!
And they do it with doublespeak plus another lie: Congress didn't criminalize the President's conduct. They didn't single him out. Didn't target him. They criminalized CRIME.
SCOTUS supermajority MUST be impeached!
fundamentally being in the majority on Trump v US is immediately disqualifying for a supreme court justice. it declares yourself in opposition to the foundations of the American project of democracy and limited government. all six of them must be impeached and replaced.
They say it again in their opinion, but they're gaslighting. Not only do they immediately contradict themselves, they do it via a false construction: Congress didn't pass laws targeting the President. They passed laws targeting CRIME.
And they said it in a VERY Trumpy way, denying what they were doing & recasting it as if congress were criminalizing presidential conduct (Trump, the eternal victim!), when they were just criminalizing CRIME:
Honestly still in shock that the most crooked American President in history said "I need immunity" and the GOP Supreme Court said "well, it's nowhere in the constitution, but sure, why not? Whats the worst that could happen?"
Just want to remind folks the Trump immunity decision is nuts. Congress didn't criminalize the president's conduct. It criminalized CRIMINAL conduct that ONE president in our history just happened to do.
By this court's logic, no president could be impeached. Impeachment's ONLY for official conduct.
Trump asking Pence to steal the election for him is official conduct SC says, cuz NOT stealing it is part of Pence's job.
BUT IT'S NOT PART OF TRUMP'S JOB, DUMMIES!!!
Relatedly, see my review of Sam Moyn's "Liberalism Against Itself" which pretends to critique Cold War liberalism as a whole, but only critiques one facet & ignores leftists sharing similar attitudes: www.salon.com/2023/09/17/h...
