The “least credible history book in print.” That’s the honor voters bestowed on David Barton’s 2012 book about Thomas Jefferson, which rewrote the third president as a modern God & Country evangelical and distanced him from that whole slavery mess. The book was ultimately withdrawn from publication by Christian publishing house Thomas Nelson, but neither the withdrawal nor the spate of scathing reviews slowed Barton down. If anything, his star has risen even further: today, Barton is constantly found onstage alongside the biggest names in the Christian nationalist movement.
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DAVIS: Giving Thanks in Dark Times
Despite being a holiday rooted in a stone-cold historical myth constructed to provide an alibi for early settler treatment of indigenous Americans, I have always enjoyed Thanksgiving. As a child, I enjoyed it more than Christmas – which was typically dreary and gray in my native Nashville – but my enjoyment of Thanksgiving has grown as an adult. Now that I am rarely required to participate in dubious reenactments of the holiday’s self-serving origin myth, I can enjoy it for what it is: America’s only proper feast day, and it even comes with football.
DAVIS: Pete Hegseth & I Know the Same Christian Nationalists
When Donald Trump announced Pete Hegseth as his pick for secretary of defense, the initial public reaction was, understandably, something along the lines of, “A Fox News host is going to run the Pentagon?” It was only in the following days that the media fleshed out the public’s understanding of Hegseth and shone a light on one of his most prominent and controversial facets: his deep involvement with the Christian nationalist movement. As I dug into Hegseth, something deeper struck me.
DAVIS: Christian Nationalists Emboldened, Militant After Trump Victory
This was just a battle,” Woodland Park-based evangelist Andrew Wommack wrote last week, triumphant in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory. “The war is yet to be won. The left is not going away, because they’re inspired by the devil – and the devil has never quit!”
DAVIS: What To Do If Trump Wins
The chances of Donald Trump being elected President of the United States next week are only slightly worse than a coin flip. The polls are tight, and tighter still in the seven swing states likely to decide the election. Despite his criminal convictions, his disastrous first term in office, and his obvious unfitness for the role, there is a distinct possibility that American voters will return him to power.
DAVIS: Two Prosecutors are Bickering. They’re Both Wrong.
Two of the state’s most prominent law enforcement figures have spent the month bickering in the pages of the Phil Anschutz-owned Gazette. What started with a broadside from former and would-be future District Attorney George Brauchler against Denver District Attorney Beth McCann has devolved into a back-and-forth race to the bottom as the prosecutors take turns embodying the worst impulses of the American justice system.
DAVIS: They’re Going to Blame Immigrants
I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered,” the authoritarian aspirant tweeted, following his Friday rally at the Aurora Gaylord. “We will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell OUT OF OUR COUNTRY.” Over the rest of the three-paragraph screed, he promised to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel migrants, a law which was last used to intern 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.
DAVIS: Is Gabe Evans a Christian Nationalist?
The third highest-ranking official in the federal government has done little to conceal the extent of his Christian nationalism. House Speaker Mike Johnson has decried American culture as ‘dark and depraved.’ He has compared himself to Moses. He has called the separation of church & state “a misnomer.” And this weekend, he was in Colorado, stumping for Gabe Evans in the seat which Johnson says may decide control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November.
DAVIS: What the Media Still Doesn’t Understand About Christian Nationalism
A few months ago, I was cautiously optimistic that the national news media had started paying attention to Christian nationalism – a movement which I and many others view as one of the most pressing threats to American democracy, and which is a major animating force behind Donald Trump’s current presidential campaign, but is rarely discussed as either. After seeing how the national media covered Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s recent appearance at a traveling revival carnival helmed by one of that movement’s leaders, though, I realized my optimism was clearly misplaced. Some in the media are paying attention, but they still aren’t getting it; what they think is a sideshow is actually the main event.
DAVIS: Keeping Local Politics Local in Alamosa
An old adage insists that “all politics is local,” but it’s not true. The rapid advance of the internet age has flipped the adage on its head: these days, all politics is national. With Fox News, CNN, and Facebook blasting their signals into every corner of the once vast and untrammeled wilderness, truly local issues have fallen by the wayside. Now, local races are dominated by the headwinds of national political discourse, and local candidates are incentivized to rhetorically overextend themselves in service of signaling to the tribe. It is a politics of pantomime, with potholes and passing lanes supplanted by abortion and immigration as the issues du jour – in races for offices which will have no jurisdiction over either – and too few candidates speaking to the particulars and prerogatives of the positions they seek.