Brad is joined by guest co-host Annika Brockschmidt, a historian and journalist who has written a wonderful new book about Christian nationalism in the USA.
Brad and Annika begin by discussing the Texas GOP party platform, which claims Biden's election win was illegitimate, calls homosexuality "abnormal," promotes repealing the Civil Rights Act, denounces the ERA, pushes a total abortion ban, tries to set up an electoral college within Texas, and opens the door for secession from the Union.
They then analyze the Carson v. Makin SCOTUS decision, which opens the door for tax money to be used to fund and pay for religious schooling. This was a stunning decision that, in the words of scholar Finbar Curtis, revolutionizes the free exercise clause and essentially changes how religious freedom is conceived in this country.
In the third segment, Brad and Annika discuss an ad by Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens in which the candidate calls for hunting RINOs amidst a backdrop full of handheld killing machines. This dropped the week SCOTUS ruled a concealed carry law in NY unconstitutional, making it more likely that handheld killing machines will be carried in bars, restaurants, and other public places.
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Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Anishi, faculty at the University of San Francisco.
Our show is hosted in partnership with the Kapp Center at UCSB.
And today I have an amazing guest because once again, Dan Miller thinks it's appropriate to take vacation and be a healthy person and this kind of stuff.
And so I have a first.
We've had a co-host before on the Weekly Roundup, but this is the first time it's somebody who is coming from beyond the United States.
And that is Annika Brockschmidt, who's coming to us, or at least is a German historian and journalist.
So I'll just say first, Annika, thanks for being my co-host today.
I really appreciate it.
Well, thank you for inviting me.
This is very exciting.
So, Annika, you are a journalist, a historian, as I said, based in Germany, and just recently you released a book to high acclaim.
Lots of folks praising it in Europe and other places.
It's called America's Got Krieger, wie die religiöse Rechte die Demokratie gefördert.
That was awful, if you're a German speaker.
You're allowed to turn this off and email me right now and say you're the worst.
My German is about 20 years old and I have to admit I haven't done no more than read German in a long time.
So, I'm going to translate that.
So, I'll give you my translation and you correct me.
So, America's holy war or God's war in America, how the religious right endangers democracy.
How is that as a translation?
That was pretty good.
It's basically America's holy warriors, but the rest was correct.
So, yes.
That's the title, and not a lot of people were happy with the title, I have to say.
So I had to spend a lot of time explaining that it's not, in fact, me who's calling them Holy Warriors, but that it's, in fact, a description that they have chosen themselves.
So that was interesting.
We get that on this show.
I get emails that are like, how dare you call Jesus a straight white American?
And I have to.
So you also have a podcast called Kreuz und Flagge, the cross and the flag with Thomas Zimmer, who is a professor at Georgetown.
And so if you're a German speaker and want to tune into a show that covers things similar to ours in terms of just the religious right and Christian nationalism.
That's a great show and is is one of the only ones I can think of that is in German.
So check it out.
All right.
This is one of those weeks.
I'm not going to lie.
I feel like you're focusing on one of those weeks where there's probably like 19 things we talk about.
There's several SCOTUS court cases that we could spend the entire time on.
J6 hearings are ongoing.
And of course, There's some big rumblings in Texas, so we're going to start in Texas today.
We will eventually make our way to the J6 hearings and SCOTUS, but we're going to start today in Texas with the GOP platform that was released earlier this week, and it raised a lot of eyebrows because, well, just To put it simply, it is extreme.
Let me just go through some highlights, Annika, before I kind of get your thoughts.
So the platform from the Texas GOP declares that Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election.
Quote, We believe that substantial election fraud in key metropolitan areas significantly affected the results in five key states in favor of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
We reject the certified results of the 2020 presidential election.
And we hold that Biden was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States.
There's some other things, if that's not enough.
Talks about repealing and not reauthorizing the Civil Rights Act.
Discusses the ERA, of all things, and says we call upon the 88th Texas Legislature to adopt a resolution clarifying that the 1972 ratification by the 62nd Texas Legislature of the proposed ERA to the United States Constitution was valid only through 1979.
So, very clear on equal rights.
Wants to abolish, in some sense, the Department of Education.
Talks about reintegration therapy for those who are queer, and that's another word for conversion therapy.
A lot of folks discuss this, rightfully so, because the GOP platform calls homosexuality, quote, an abnormal lifestyle.
There's a call to end no-fault divorce.
And if you're like, what is no-fault divorce?
No-fault divorce is basically the idea that you can get divorced without having to give a reason.
You don't have to justify it.
It's simply you would like to divorce someone.
And so you can.
Ending no-fault divorce basically hearkens us back to a time when women had to have a substantial justification for leaving their husbands.
And so, yeah, there's that.
Wants to end all sex education in schools and it seemingly even abstinence only sex.
Just don't.
It's just a don't say sex platform that don't.
It's not don't say gay, it's don't say sex.
Ban all gender affirming health care for anyone under 21.
Calls for no gun-free zones.
Some other things here about the environment.
Remove the Endangered Species Act.
Abolish the EPA.
Call a convention of states to limit the power of federal government.
And I'll just mention one or two more because we have just this buffet of goodies here.
One is that it calls for an electoral college at the state level, meaning that you would vote in Texas.
But there would be an electoral college like there is federally and that the votes for president, for example, would be chosen based on that electoral college, which would significantly change things there.
And finally, if this is all not enough, there is mention of the desire to secede from the union if need be on the part of the Republic of Texas.
So we start with an illegitimate election.
We go through all of that other stuff and we finally get to the idea that Texas is going to secede.
Annika, I want to say first, I'm so glad you're here.
I also want to say you're a very bizarre person because you live in Europe, in Germany, and you could have had a very nice life there.
I've been to Germany.
If I'm not wrong, you studied at Heidelberg, right?
Am I right about that?
I did.
I did.
Yeah.
My very poor German I just practiced was in part learned in Heidelberg.
I spent some time in Heidelberg.
It's a wonderful... You could be in Heidelberg right now, sitting by a river, reading.
Holderlin or something.
And here you are talking with me about this Texas GOP platform.
From your eyes, from your expertise, what does this look like to you?
What are some things you'd like to discuss?
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