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.
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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.
DAVIS: Colorado’s Nicest State Senator Should Not Be Re-Elected
Politics runs on reputations, and when you hang around the state Capitol enough you get a feel for the reputations which have been cultivated – intentionally or otherwise – by the various state representatives and senators. There are dealmakers and backbenchers, cynics and wise men, work horses and show horses. And, in one way or another, these reputations impact how they interact with each other, and how laws ultimately get made.
DAVIS: New Study Links Political Violence & Christian Nationalism
I have found myself struggling to watch cable news during this election cycle, unsettled each time I turn on the television by the way pundits discuss the ongoing presidential race. But it’s not the bickering or bothsidesism that bothers me, it’s the business-as-usual tone; one increasingly at odds with the tone taken by the academics and experts I encounter in my professional life tracking and countering extremist movements. While the talking heads on the television are dedicating their time to polls, rallies, and horse race coverage as if nothing were amiss, the national security experts, legal scholars, political scientists, and law enforcement officials are warning of a surge in political violence. Far from business as usual.
DAVIS: Last Night in Woodland Park [WATCH]
Last night, I had the opportunity to speak to a crowd in Woodland Park about an investigative series I recently published. That series, “Fire on the Mountain,” was an examination of Charis Bible College, a controversial religious organization helmed by televangelist Andrew Wommack, which has locations in dozens of countries and is headquartered on a large compound just outside of downtown Woodland Park.
DAVIS: When Evangelicals Supported Abortion
There has been nervousness and hand-wringing in Christian nationalist circles this week, since Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance commented in an interview that Donald Trump, if returned to the presidency, would veto a national abortion ban, and Trump himself posted that his administration “would be great for women and their reproductive rights.” The comments followed the softening of anti-abortion language in the Republican Party’s official platform.
DAVIS: A Colorado Christian Nationalist Looks Back at January 6th
Last week, a sentence was handed down in a case that has taken more than three years to conclude. Rebecca Lavrenz – perhaps the most prominent of the 17 Coloradans arrested for participating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol – will not face jail time. Lavrenz, who has been dubbed the “J6 Praying Grandma” in right-wing social media circles, was convicted in April on four misdemeanor counts stemming from her participation in the Capitol attack. Instead of incarceration, the 72-year-old was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of house arrest, and a $103,000 fine. The judge also barred Lavrenz from using the internet during her six months of house arrest.
DAVIS: The GOP’s Gabe Evans Problem
The national Republican Party’s path to maintaining its majority in the House of Representatives this November runs straight through Colorado’s 8th Congressional District (CD-8). It’s a new district, created by the 2021 redistricting process, and this year’s contest will mark only the second time it has appeared on local ballots. Despite currently being represented by Democrat Yadira Caraveo, CD-8 also has the unique distinction of being one of the most evenly balanced districts in the country: of 435 seats in the House, Cook Political Report ranks Colorado’s 8th as the 221st most conservative.
Controversial Evangelist Announces ‘Transfer of Leadership’ After Colorado Times Recorder Investigation
Controversial Christian evangelist Andrew Wommack announced that he will transition out of leadership over his Woodland Park-based Charis Bible College next month.
DAVIS: A Gaggle of Weirdos
The gravitational pull of political discourse shifted last week with the use of one word: weird. As in “Republicans are weird,” or “J.D. Vance is a weird guy,” or “Donald Trump? Kind of weird.” It’s not clear who used the line first – whether it was Minnesota Governor and current contender to become Kamala Harris’s VP pick, Tim Walz, or Vice President Harris herself – but it has since taken off like wildfire. Currently, a Google search for the word “weird” turns up headlines from The New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and a dozen other outlets, all covering what is arguably the most concise and devastating hit on an opponent American politics has seen in at least two decades.