In the 2004 presidential election the most positive correlation predicting a vote for George Bush was the frequency of church attendance. In 2003 President Bush convinced Americans and our allies that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and the United States invaded Iraq. By the 2004 election, it became clear that President Bush had misled the American people and the invasion was intended to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Saddam was captured, tried, and convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. He was hung so violently he was decapitated.
The frequency of church attendance won Bush reelection because his campaign strategist found a fault line in the public perception of the future. Church-going people feared the rise of gay rights. Voting for Bush would result in the appointment of Supreme Court justices who would hold the line against gay marriages. Bush won reelection and when Obama ran in 2008, Obama also did not favor same sex marriage. Conservative Christians were keenly disappointed when the Supreme Court ruled the right to marry who you wanted to was not a sex-linked right but a constitutional one.
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In 2023 the former president, Donald Trump, is seeking the Republican Party’s 2024 endorsement. Again, Trump and Republican strategists are warning church-going people of the rise of civil rights once again linked to sex. They warn of the really bad things that will happen if the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade cannot be sustained and abortion is once again legal. They want church-going people to fear what will happen if transgender people are able to choose their sexual identity. The Trump diversion strategy even includes attacking mild-mannered librarians for exposing children to pornography in the kids’ section of the library.
Will Americans fall for this diversion strategy again? Many Americans saw the Jan. 6 insurrection on TV. They heard sworn testimony from operatives in the White House who described Trump’s state of mind and his attempt to force the Secret Service to take him to the Capitol, which they refused. The former president continues to say the election was stolen even though it was not.
The diversion strategy now includes attacking Republicans who do not support Trump. They can be taken out in the primary by angry conspiracy theorists who believe even sitting next to a Democrat is a disqualification from ever holding office again.
These are brutal lessons from the last 20 years of American politics. Blind political coherence to defeat an enemy, even if that enemy is entirely imaginary.
I hope the day comes when that strategy will no longer work. I hope people will find social and political cohesion for a clearly defined mutual benefit. Reducing suicides is a societal benefit. Reducing gun violence is a societal benefit. Making healthcare accessible and affordable is a societal benefit. Encouraging refugees and immigrants to move to rural places in North Dakota and repopulate our communities and staff our businesses and service organizations benefits everyone.
Can people of goodwill help design an escape from this death spiral of politics? I have some ideas about ways North Dakotans can change this ruinous political strategy of defining everyone outside the group as an enemy. I want to identify a common cause that brings us together. The designers of the common cause will not be paralyzed by their chosen career path, or their current position in a church, political party, or social order. They are people who believe there is a better way. People of goodwill, we need to get together, we have work to do.
