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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
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"How do you spell ICE in German? GESTAPO." (S. Jonas, May, 2025)
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First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
Pastor Martin Niemoller (c. 1946)
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Introductory note: This column is looong, even for me. That is because it includes a 3300- word excerpt from my 1996 future history book, The 15% Solution: How the Republican- Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022 (2013 re-printing available on Amazon). The central focus of the column is on how, at the funeral for Charlie Kirk, Republican leadership went out of their way to link Kirk and the Republican Party to what Vice-President J.D. Vance described as the Christian Faith. The excerpt below from my book is a fictional Inaugural Address delivered by a then-future-fictional Republican President, Jefferson Davis Hague, in which among other things he announces and provides the rationale for the conversion of the Republican Party to the American Christian Nation Party.
But first, back to reality.
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At the funeral for the assassinated Far Right leader, Charlie Kirk, on September 21, 2025, Vice-President J. D. Vance:
[D]elivered an emotional tribute to Charlie Kirk . . . He said in part: Charlie brought the truth that Jesus Christ was the King of Kings, and all truth flowed from this first and most important one. . . I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have in my entire time in public life, Vance told the audience. That is an undeniable legacy of the great Charlie Kirk. . . . For Charlie, we will rebuild this United States of America to greatness. For Charlie, we will never shrink, we will never cower, and we will never falter, even when staring down the barrel of a gun. The vice president closed his Arizona remarks with a call to action, declaring Kirk both a hero to the United States of America and a martyr for the Christian faith.
Just consider that last statement, from a Vice-President of the United States of America giving a funeral address for a member of his political party: [Kirk was] a martyr for the Christian faith.
At the same funeral, Stephen Miller, a Senior Advisor to Pres. Trump, in this context said in part):
Our enemies [emphasis added, for Miller appeared to be referring to the Republicans domestic political enemies, not rivals, presumably the Democrats and other] cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion, our lineage, and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello. Our ancestors built the cities. They produced the art and architecture, they built the industry. ... We stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble. And for those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us. What do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness, you are jealousy! You are envy! You are hatred! You are nothing! You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity. ...
To our enemies, you have nothing to give, you have nothing to offer, you have nothing to share, but bitterness. We have beauty, we have light, we have goodness, we have determination, we have vision, we have strength. We built the world that we inhabit now.
These remarks were delivered at a Christian funeral, by one of the highest appointed officials in the current Federal government.
And further: Some admirers of Charlie Kirk hope response to his death signals start of a religious revival, (from an article by David Crary, et al, Associated Press). With Vice President JD Vance calling Charlie Kirk a martyr for Christianity, and a Catholic cardinal calling him a modern-day St. Paul, some Kirk admirers suggest his assassination will galvanize throngs of people notably young conservatives to become more engaged in evangelical and Catholic churches. . . . Evocations of Kirk-inspired religious fervor surfaced almost immediately after his death on Sept. 10. . . Charlie had big plans, but God had even bigger plans, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the service in Arizona.
The Vice-President also noted that: The evil murderer who took Charlie from us expected us to have a funeral today, and instead, my friends , we have had a revival in celebration of Charlie Kirk and of his Lord Jesus Christ [emphasis added] . . . . He brought the truth that life was precious, and we must fight to protect it at all stages and at all times. And most of all, Charlie brought the truth that Jesus Christ was the King of Kings and that all truth flowed from this first and most important one . . . . You know I was telling somebody backstage that I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public as much as I loved the Lord and as much as it was an important part of my life. I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life. And that is an undeniable legacy of the great Charlie Kirk . . . . It is better to be persecuted for your faith than to deny the kingship of Christ. It is better to die a young man in this world than to sell your soul for an easy life with no purpose, no risk, no love, and no truth. . . . My friends, for Charlie, we must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America and he is a martyr for the Christian faith [emphasis added].
So much for the first clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; . . .
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In 1996, I published a book (in its current printing) entitled . In summary, it is a fictional history of the conversion of the United States from a democratic Constitutional Republic to an apartheid state governed by a dictatorship under the control of a successor to the Republican Party called the American Christian Nation Party. To give the reader some idea of what nation would be about in the then-future, I present the 2nd Inaugural Address of that party's President, J. D. Hague.
(The "J.D." in that President's name was entirely coincidental. After all, I wrote the book in 1994-95. Where did it come from? As it happened, his fictional parents were ardent segregationists who named their second son after Jefferson Davis. As for the family name, they were descendants of the at-the-time-of-writing-still-well-known 1940s Mayor of Jersey City, N.J., Frank Hague. Their first son was named after the former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the best-known founders of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan.)
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The 15% Solution: Chapter 10 - 2008: The Second Inaugural Address of President Jefferson Davis Hague, December 25, 2008
My fellow Americans under God. I stand here before you on the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, anticipating in all humility the opportunity you have so graciously given me to continue to do His bidding as your President. And I can tell you that His bidding now is to continue to fight the good fight, for the Lord, and for you the American people under God.
In fighting this fight, to the best of my ability, blessed by both our Lord Jesus Christ and you, the American people under God, I am both pleased and privileged to be able to announce today the first step we of the Second Hague Administration have taken to do just that. We have converted our nation's leading political party, the RepublicanChristian Alliance, the party of Godfearing people that has put you in complete control of the government here in Washington, into a brandnew entity.
This is an historic decision, comparable to the one that established the original Republican Party back in the mid19th century. For all of us, Christian and pagan American alike, it will usher in a glorious new era of peace and harmony under the blessings of our Lord and his only son whose birthday we celebrate today, Jesus Christ.
Reflecting the spirit of our times, and the best of all American traditions, we have named our new party the American Christian Nation Party. For yes, in truth, declaring and carrying out Christian policies is the only way that we will be able to continue to fight the good fight to rescue our beloved country from the forces of sin, Godlessness, and liberalism [2] that continue to drag her down.
For inspiration, in this never-ending struggle I have turned often to the great Keith Fournier, who sat at the right hand of our beloved Rev. Pat Robertson, as the Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice. As he said (1994):
"The challenge I have as a Christian is to bring people to Jesus Christ, to a personal decision to accept Him as Savior and Lord, to bring them to personal repentance and conversion. But for me that is only the beginning. That salvation must be sustained, nourished, and deepened. It must also lead to personal transformation and holiness through implantation into Christ's Body, the church. The church is not an option, an extra we can accept or reject. It is the ark, the ship of God, and her mission is to help rescue and restore the drowning. This has always been her primary mission. The church exists to evangelize and disciple toward personal and corporate transformation, a mission entrusted to her by her Head, Master and Lord, the evangel Himself, Jesus Christ." [3]
To our friends who are not Christians we say first, join us, for the Christian Way is the Godly Way. But for those Americans who choose to continue to exercise their right as an American to freely practice the religion of their choosing, a right we fiercely defend, we say ally with us, to carry out the work of the Lord. And let me make it very clear that no one has anything to fear from our new party or the new policies we will be carrying out, as long as he is a loyal American, devoted to God.
But let me also make it very clear that woe be to him who is Godless, or worships a false God, or does not accept the Holy Bible as the innerant word of our Lord God and his only son Jesus Christ. For upon him will fall the wrath of God and our wrath too. Let that be known [4]. For as the great R.J. Rushdooney has said (Sloan):
"Every social order institutes its own program of separation or segregation. A particular faith and morality is given privileged status and all else is separated for progressive elimination. . . . Every faith is an exclusive way of life; none is more dangerous than that which maintains the illusion of tolerance."
Let me now turn to sharing with you the genesis of our brand new American Christian Nation Party. It sprang from the God-inspired minds of the forefathers of our movement [5]. And it is the thinking of some of them, both great and small, that I would like to share with you now.
To set the stage as it were, I will first turn to the writings of Thomas P. Monaghan, a Senior Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (1994):
"In human existence there is only one moral order. This is an order that, through the grace of God, has been revealed to all human beings. The Lord gives us reason and faith so that at all times and in all places we are called to the good, which is ultimately God Himself. We all, Christians, pagans, and others, have this law engraved on our hearts, . . . The choice before us today is what it has always been: Christ or Caesar. Caesar can never give the human heart that for which it hungers. Christ can."
And how in our country, with our valued Constitution, do we reconcile Caesar and Christ? The Rev. Pat himself told us (ACLU, 1992):
"The Constitution of the United States is a marvelous document for self-government by Christian people [emphasis added]. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheist people, they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society."
And the Rev. Pat told us how Christian governmental control is to be achieved and maintained (Freedom Writer, 2/95):
"Christians founded this nation, they built this nation, and for three hundred years they governed this nation. We can govern again. That's why I founded the Christian Coalition. . . . The mission of the Christian Coalition is simple: to mobilize Christians one precinct at a time, until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than the bottom of our political system." [6]
And finally the Rev. Pat, in 1993 speaking at his Regent University law school, predicted that what we have now achieved would indeed be achieved by us (Clarkson): "One day, if we read the Bible correctly, we will rule and reign along with our sovereign, Jesus Christ."
But let me refer to other of our forefathers besides the good Reverend Pat. Being just plain forthright about it, the 1990s Republican Governor Kirk Fordice of Mississippi put it thusly (Berke, 1992): "The United States of America is a Christian nation. . . the less we emphasize the Christian religion the further we fall into the abyss of poor character and chaos. . . "
And our revered Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, the prototype of those many organizations which now militantly protect and defend God's Way, said back in August, 1993 (Foxman): "Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
And he said further (Porteous):
"You better believe that I want to build a Christian nation, because the only option is a pagan nation. . . . A Christian nation would be defined as 'We acknowledge God in our body politic, in our communities, that the God of the Bible is our God, and we acknowledge that His law is supreme.'"
The great Rev. Jerry Falwell, writing in 1993 under the headline "America is a Christian Nation!":
"Our pledge of allegiance declares we are 'one nation under God.' Our currency states 'In God We Trust'. The Declaration of Independence says we have a God-given right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. [7]
"Yet today, we find our religious heritage under attack. Ungodly forces in society seem intent on removing God from every area of public life. . . . But despite what the Supreme Court and radical liberal activists may say, AMERICA IS A CHRISTIAN NATION!"
Mr. Robert Flood of that God-serving organization "Focus on the Family" said in 1992 (Freedom Watch): "The Constitution was designed to perpetuate a Christian order."
Mrs. Cheryl Gillaspie, a right-thinking Councilwoman from that font of Right Thinking, Colorado Springs, CO [8], said in a November, 1994 speech to the local chapter of the Christian Coalition (Freedom Watch): "There is no validity to the doctrine of separation of Church and State . . . America was established as a Christian nation by believing Christians."
Mr. Robert Simonds, president of Citizens for Excellence in Education tells us (Freedom Watch):
"Government and true Christianity are inseparable! There can be no morality (right or wrong) without the Bibleman's only reliable book on right and wrong. Christians can properly apply Bible principles to government, because they are the ones who read the Bible."
And finally, my friends, in an early version of Focus on the Family's Community Impact Curriculum, we are told (Freedom Watch): "[T]his was really a Christian nation and, as far as its founders were concerned, to try separating Christianity from government is virtually impossible and would result in unthinkable damage to the nation and its people."
It is this thinking and these thinkers and their successors that have provided the foundation of our new Party. But I want to tell you that our Party has not been formed with Christian leadership alone. The ACNP provides nothing if it does not provide a "Big Tent" [9] to accommodate many differing views on how we can best move our nation forward.
Thus I am pleased to announce that we have been joined by and welcome as integral parts of our new Party, among others The Order, the Ku Klux Klan, the Leadership Coalitions for America, the Skinheads Factions, the Militias, Jews for Christ and Tradition, the Aryan Nations, the Men of Liberty, the Posse Comitatus, the Armed Survivalists, and Christian Identity.
The Republican-Christian Alliance has been strong, and it has brought us a long way. But we have yet a long way to go, and it is the American Christian Nation Party that will get us there. In closing, my friends and fellow Christian Americans, let us join together in pledging allegiance to our new Christian flag [10]:
"I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Saviour, for whose Kingdom it stands, one Saviour, crucified, risen, and coming again [11], with life and liberty for all who believe."
Thank you my friends, God bless the Godfearing, and good night.
References and notes from the published book (with apologies for their length):
ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union fundraising letter, quoting Rev. Pat Robertson, 1992.
Berke, R.L., "Religion Issue Stirs Noise in G.O.P. Governors' 'Tent," The New York Times, Nov. 18, 1992.
Berke, R.L., "Dole Works on Expansion Of a Conservative Resume," New York Times, April 12, 1995.
Blumenthal, S., "Christian Soldiers," The New Yorker, July 18, 1994, p. 31.
Bradsher, K., "Gap in Wealth In U.S. Called Widest in West," New York Times, April 17, 1995.
Butterfield, F., "New Prisons Cast Shadow Over Higher Education," New York Times, April 17, 1995.
Clarkson, F., "Neither a Juggernaut Nor a Joke," Freedom Writer, October/November, 1993.
Egan, T., "Many Seek Security in Private Communities," New York Times, Sept. 3, 1995, p. 1.
Falwell, J., "America is a Christian Nation!," Drawing Closer, Vol. 1, No. 7, 1993.
Foxman, A.H., Fundraising letter, New York: Anti-Defamation League, Jan., 1994.
Freedom Watch, "Exploring the Myth and Reality of 'Christian America'," Vol. 4, No. 3, March, 1995.
Freedom Writer, "Reed Masks Coalition's True Agenda," Feb. 1995, p. 3.
HRC, House Republican Conference, Contract With America, Washington, DC: September 27, 1994.
Fournier, K.A., A House United?, Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 1994, p. 33.
Judis, J.B., "The Jobless recovery," The New Republic, March 15, 1995, p. 20.
Kramer, M., "Will the Real Bob Dole Please Stand Up?" Time, November 30, 1995, p. 59.
Monaghan, T.P., "Nosophobia," Law and Justice (American Center for Law and Justice) Vol. 3, No. 1, 1994.
Niebuhr, G., "Gramm, on Stump, Invokes the Second Coming of Christ," New York Times, September 20, 1995.
Porteous, S., "OR founder calls for a 'Christian nation,' " Freedom Writer, Sept., 1995, p. 1.
Rich, F., "Bait and Switch, II," New York Times, April 6, 1995.
Sloan, J., "A hidden agenda?" Freedom Writer, April, 1995, p. 1.
Thurow, L. C., "Companies Merge; Families Break Up," New York Times, September 3, 1995.
Time, "Chronicles: An Olive Branch," April 17, 1995, p. 16.
Toward Tradition, "Should Jews Fear the 'Christian Right'?" (an advertisement), New York Times, August 2, 1994.
Wright, R., "Who's Really to Blame?" Time, November 6, 1995, p. 33.
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Authors [ Jonathan Westminster] Notes on the text (with further apologies, for their length):
1. There is no indication or evidence that the Christian Coalition, Keith Fournier, R.J. Rushdooney, Thomas P. Monaghan, the Rev. Pat Robertson, Kirk Fordyce, Randall Terry, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Mr. Robert Flood, Mrs. Cheryl Gillaspie, Mr. Robert Simonds, Focus on the Family, or any other organization, or any of the other historical personages mentioned in the "Hague Second Inaugural," elsewhere in this chapter or elsewhere in this book in a similar manner, would have supported or approved of any of the thoughts, positions, or actions taken by Jefferson Davis Hague or any member, employee, or associate of his government, either of the U.S. or the NAR, or of any of the events that occurred in the United States or the New American Republics subsequent to the delivery of the Hague Second Inaugural Address and the implementation of the policies carried out pursuant to it.
2. Liberalism," however one wanted to define it, had long-since lost whatever force it once had to influence the direction the country was taking. Nevertheless, it and its supporters, the "liberalniggerlovers" as Curley Oakwood liked to call them, were still blamed by the Right-Wing Reactionaries for virtually all of the ills of the time they cared to identify. As noted previously, during the Transition Era Righ-Wing Reaction had used something they called "The Counter-Culture" in much the same way.
3. Right-Wing Reaction's common political strategy, described previously, was to first demonize and then blame "the other" for whatever troubles they wished to focus the public's attention on. At the same time, as we have noted previously, they neither defined precisely what they were talking about as "the enemy" nor proved in any way that whatever or whomever the identified enemy was had in fact caused the harms Right-Wing Reaction identified with it.
Whatever the "Counter Culture" really was or had been, by the time of the Reagan Presidency it had lost whatever national influence it had had. However, absent people and absent movements both find it difficult to either defend or promote themselves. That was the case for both the "Counter Culture" and the "liberals" during the times they were, respectively, the leading targets for Right-Wing Reaction. But my, what convenient targets they did provide.
3. At the time Fournier wrote this passage, the church he was referring to was the Catholic Church, a fact omitted from the quoted passage. But by the time Hague was quoting the text, the dominant Christian Church in the old U.S., supported by most members of the old Religious Right, Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish, was that of the homogeneous, but definitely Far Right, New American Religion.
4. As a past chairman of the House American Morality Committee (see Chapter six), Hague would speak with special feeling on this point.
5. Hague was referring here not to the traditional "forefathers" from the time of the founding of the nation, but rather to prominent Transition Era figures representing Right-Wing Reaction, especially of the religious variety.
6. Some extensive sleuthing found Robertson originally making this statement on a 1990 Christian Coalition recruiting video called "America at the Crossroads." The nascent campaign Robertson was describing lead directly to the development of "The 15% Solution." The creation of the ACNP can be seen as the eventual, logical, outcome of the whole process.
7. Neither the Pledge nor the currency said precisely which or whose God was being referred to. The Declaration mentions God but once, in the context of Nature, but emphasizes "our Creator," a rather different concept, popular with the Deists who wrote and signed the document. But that didn't stop Falwell from making a leap of faith from "Creator" to "God" to a "Christian God" to a "Christian God with the characteristics I, Jerry Falwell, attribute to Him." And it was a "him," you can be sure.
8. Colorado Springs was a central focus of Right-Wing Reactionary activity in the old U.S. For example, it was the home of the organization that in 1992 put together the famous homophobic "Amendment 2" that became the prototype for much of the homophobic legislation that spread nationally over the following two decades (see the next chapter.) Colorado Springs was also home to the courageous early Constitutionalist organization, the "Citizens' Project."
9. During the Transition Era, some members of the old Republican Party had developed the "Big Tent" concept in an attempt to keep both pro and ant-freedom-of-choice-i-the-outcome-of-pregnancy but otherwise reactionary elements in the party. That attempt ultimately proved to be in vain, as the "Rightward Imperative" (see below) took effect. This second Big Tent strategy of Hague's was much more successful.
10. The "Christian flag" at this time was the old U.S. flag with a Christian cross emblazoned on the field of red and white stripes. At a January, 1994 training conference for Religious Right activists called "Reclaiming America," looking at such a flag, a former Vice-President of the old U.S., J. Danforth Quayle, lead the crowd in reciting the Pledge with which Hague concluded his speech (Blumenthal).
11. The apocalyptic concept of the "Second Coming" of Jesus Christ, based on the Book of Revelation and part of the theology of many an evangelical preacher like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, had begun to make its appearance in the rhetoric of Republican political candidates late in the Transition Era. For example, Senator Phil Gramm, a Far Right candidate for the 1996 Republican Presidential nomination, said in a 1995 fundraising letter (Niebuhr): "I ask you to fight tirelessly and when you are too tired to go on, remember that there is only one person who has ever lived whose values we would be willing to see imposed on America. And when He comes back, He's not going to need Governments help to get the job done."-
12. "Off the shelf" is a term the arch Right-Wing Reactionary William Casey, President Ronald Reagan's first Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, used to describe an extralegal rightwing foreign insurgency instigation and support group he had put together during his tenure at the CIA.
13. The swastika or hakenkreutz ("crooked cross" in German) was the symbol of the German Nazi Party between 1933 and 1945.
14. The Hagueites commonly referred to that tiny, but very visible, vocal, and influential minority of the American Jewish community that supported Right-Wing Reaction as "Real Jews." Their leading organization by this time, "Jews for Christ and Tradition," was officially welcomed into the ACNP coalition by Hague in his speech. The traditionally Constitutionalist Jewish community, representing a majority of American Jews, was referred to as "the Renegade Jews."
15. The phrase "a wink and a nod" came from the practice President Reagan had used to give his approval for "unofficial" governmental activities of questionable legality without committing anything to paper, and oftentimes not saying anything directly at all to those on the operational level, even privately.
16. Poughton had no way of knowing what the country would have coming to it for many more than four more years of Hague.
(Article changed on Oct 10, 2025 at 10:47 AM EDT)