The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
“There is no present or future, only the past happening over and over again.” — Eugene O’Neill
In the famous Monkey Trial of 1925, John Scopes was prosecuted by the State of Tennessee for teaching his students the theory of evolution.
His trial became a national sensation when it was announced that the great politician-showman William Jennings Bryan would speak for the prosecution and the famous trial lawyer Clarence Darrow for the defense.
The trial held greater meaning than Scopes’ intentional violation of the state ban against teaching Darwinism in public schools. It became a showdown between fundamentalism and modernity. Scopes was fined $100, but in newspapers across the country, science won the argument.
Earlier this month in Dallas, a group named the Conservative Political Action Committee hosted former President Trump and other potential contenders for the Republican nomination in 2024.
The group also welcomed the founder of the Oath Keepers whose members were prominent organizers of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. Once a fringe operation, CPAC may now be the most formidable force in Republican politics.
In addition to the Great Leader himself, the show featured an endless list of Trump-wanna-be politicians and talking heads including a brand new star Maj Toure, founder of Black Guns Matter.
After the common refrain that the election was stolen, most speakers turned to an attack on science of all kinds but particularly related to climate change and a conjured-up new enemy called “the Nazi-vaxxers” whom they believe are injecting our children with computer chips.
Since the miracle vaccines have arrived on the wings of amazing science, 85% of Democrats and only 45% of Republicans have embraced them. The Party that has laid claim to the right to life issue now also owns a new one being played out in red states, the right to death.
Meanwhile that Sunday morning a few miles west of the CPAC meeting, in Fort Worth, an estimated 4,500 congregants packed three services at the Mercy Culture Church, a charismatic Christian sect that did not exist a decade ago. The packed two-hour services, media extravagances, are led by a jeans-outfitted pastor who speaks in tongues and directly to the Lord. Missionaries from the church aggressively preach their new form of fundamentalism with apparent success on the streets of the city.
Recently, Mercy Culture Church introduced itself as a political force by putting up a candidate for mayor. Before election, neither the candidate nor the pastor made any attempt to respect the core American belief in the separation of church and state. The 38-year-old pastor, a proud participant in the Capitol insurrection, reportedly pranced about the altar wearing a red T-shirt carrying the name of the Church’s candidate.
The candidate finished fourth and announced his intention to try again in the name of Christianity and right-wing dogma.
In Fort Worth, the line between religion and politics is no longer blurred but laid out in bold type on the ballot. The immediate question is whether we are paying for all this by continuing to subsidize the Church’s political action with a tax exemption.
Nearly a century after the Scopes trial, the nation’s periodic war on science, stoked by politics and fundamentalism is with us again. The tragic part is that Americans are dying because of it. The criminal part is that some Republican leaders, who graduated from America’s best colleges and law schools, may not even believe a word they are saying.
The net result of this shameless grift is to put American democracy at risk in a desperate attempt to hang on to the sunsetting age of white male rule.
Whether sniffing ballots in Phoenix or writing new Jim Crow laws in Republican legislatures, Trump’s party has become an anti-democratic instrument of destruction, and they are within arms reach of achieving their aims. We can only hope for a successful Biden Presidency and that the bravery of Liz Cheney will inspire establishment Republicans to battle for the restoration of true conservatism.
As delegates shuffled out of the decisive meeting of The Constitutional Congress in 1789, someone asked Ben Franklin what form of government American’s could now expect. Franklin responded:
“A Republic, if you can keep it.” He was acutely aware of the dangers posed by too much monkey business. It is past time for us to be vigilant, too.
