Okay, I watched a couple of things this week that reminded me of the Red Scare. Can you guess what they are? To refresh your memory, Wikipedia describes the Red Scare this way:
A form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise of left-wing ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism. Historically, red scares have led to mass political persecution, scapegoating, and the ousting of those in government positions who have had connections with left-wing movements.
There were actually two of them, one after WWI, and another after WWII, which you may know of as McCarthyism, named after the Republican Senator from Wisconsin who was its most visible advocate. Anyway, this week I watched The Way We Were, Redford died this week and I revisited a few of his films, and I’ve always loved that one. I mean, c’mon, Malibu, walks on the beach, sailboats, those sweaters, and Babs. The movie, while pretty loose with its timeline of events, talks about how the Redford character (Hubbell), a conservative Hollywood screenwriter, was blacklisted during the Red Scare after WWII. The Streisand character (Katie) wants to fight it, but Redford advocates for just riding it out and letting it pass. Basically, leaving it up to others to take a stand. Their opposing views are an endless strain on their marriage, culminating in that gray day near Central Park, where a chance encounter on the street reveals that after everything they’ve been through, even a casual get-together is now impossible. But they have love and understanding for one another, and they agree to just let the other live their life as they see fit. Gets me every time.
The second thing I watched was Charlie Kirk’s memorial. But was that actually a memorial? Parts of it kind of felt like a memorial, but given the pyrotechnics and all of the merch and overall vibe, it felt more like an infomercial for Turning Point USA. Or maybe more like a political rally disguised as a memorial. One that talked less about Charlie Kirk and more about how his vision for America could be realized by supercharging his martyrdom. And there was a lot of talk about what was wrong with too much of America. Or better put, what was wrong with too many Americans. Especially those who adhered to what many of the speakers considered to be part of the radical left. And that’s the part that reminded me of the Red Scare.
Now I’m not a biblical scholar, in fact, I’m a bible school dropout. That’s right, at nine or ten, I decided to skip out on my last few weeks of bible school and I never made my communion. So even if I don’t identify as a Christian these days, like many Christians who do, I still pick and choose the parts I want to pay attention to. And mostly, I just love the peace and love parts where Jesus does all that amazing stuff for the poor and gets mad at the greedy bums keeping them down. I love that Jesus. So to be fair, I don’t pretend to fully understand the self-described ‘conservative’ vein that runs through many Christian faiths in this country. I’ve paid attention to them, I’ve listened to them, I’ve tried to understand them, but I don’t pretend to actually understand them, or fully know all the variations within these groups. Turning Point, for example, claims to have thousands of church partners across the country with millions of members comprised of all kinds of Christian flavors. And they all seem to share some version of this ‘conservative’ blend of Christianity, which I assume aligns with much of what I saw Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA talk about over the years. And it was on full display at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where an estimated 63,400 people attended, with an overflow event of 20,000 more not too far away.
What was apparent in watching the speeches at the memorial, or infomercial, or rally, is that to many of the speakers, and apparently to the cheering audience, America is in the midst of a spiritual war for its survival, and Charlie Kirk had sacrificed his life fighting in that war for the sake of his country. And that in his name that fight must continue, and in his honor that fight must be won. Now, I do not doubt that many of the speakers fully believe this narrative, and I say this because I agree with them. Based on their speeches, it seems that their version of America requires institutionalizing their vision of America and imposing it on the rest of us, whether we like it or not. And to them, if that doesn’t happen, well, then America as they think it should be, will cease to exist. So I suppose, if that’s their take on things, then yes, they have an existential crisis on their hands.
Now, because we are supposed to have a separation of church and state, I would normally say that their holding this belief is fine, because the rest of us are protected from them ever succeeding in imposing their religious worldview on the rest of us. But here’s the rub: President Trump and Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, all spoke at this memorial, or infomercial, or rally, or whatever it was, and furthered that same narrative. The narrative that America was in a spiritual war for its survival against what they perceived to be an internal threat from the ‘radical left’.
And that’s a problem, because that’s not how this is supposed to work. The way this is supposed to work is that we have freedom of religion and freedom of speech. They’re free to think that the country is in a spiritual war for survival, and I’m free to think that they are out of their frickin minds, and that I’m free to advocate for my belief’s, namely that all people are created equal and that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. And these rights, beyond being granted by our creator, are also protected in our constitution, something that Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Pete Hegseth all swore an oath to. Only, they don’t seem to be upholding their vows.
And neither are any of the elected republicans in Congress, who, as a whole, have mostly ceded power to the Trump administration. They have ceased to fulfill their role as a check on the power of the Presidency, and as a result, he has been issuing what should be considered illegal executive orders that are being treated as law. As just a few examples, he has illegally redirected billions of dollars in congressionally approved funds for everything from our National Parks, to our IRS, to our education system, our university system, our military, our agencies designed to keep our food and air and water safe—I could go on and on. And if the Senate were doing its job as outlined in the Constitution, all of that would have been stopped immediately. The same goes for the Supreme Court, they’ve also ceded power to the Presidency and are allowing all of this lawless behavior to continue.
But here’s where the Red Scare comes back in. Trump has now issued an executive order declaring Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, giving him the right to treat American citizens and organizations that he deems to be part of this group as terrorists. Like the rest of his executive orders, there’s no legal authority behind it, and beyond that, there is no Antifa organization. It’s a loosely defined ideology that stands against fascism; that’s it, there’s no membership, there’s no headquarters, there’s no leadership, nothing, nada. While most who use the term have practiced non-violent activism, there have been a handful of people who have deployed what can be considered violent action. Destruction of property, doxing, etc. All crimes that we already have laws against, and in many instances, the few individuals who have done these things have been tried in court. So, given that there is no official organization and the vagueness of the illegal executive order, in theory and soon to be in practice, anyone can be labeled Antifa in a manner that would make McCarthy jealous, because at least the communists actually had an organization and kept lists of its members. What Trump just made possible was a way to make an enemy out of anyone or any organization at any time. It’s like the Red Scare but times infinity.
And that brings me back to the memorial, or rally, or infomercial, or whatever that was. Many people have spoken of the compassion that Erika Kirk showed by stating that she forgave her husband’s killer. Well, I have a different take. It’s a noble thing to say, but what does proclaiming that forgiveness serve when she shared the stage with a dozen people screaming that we’re in a spiritual war against an implied ‘Radical Left’, and that our very civilization is at stake, and that in her slain husband’s name, retribution must be dealt out upon some amorphous enemy? In my view, whether it’s what she meant to do or not, what she was saying to her audience was that they have moral cover in accepting the violence that is being threatened by the people she invited to speak at her husband’s memorial. She was giving them the feeling of some kind of moral superiority by offering forgiveness, something she also implied their enemies would not afford to them—and the audience cheered her for it.
But they also cheered when Trump said this:
Charlie’s murder was not just an attack on one man or one movement. It was an attack on our entire nation. That was a horrible attack on the United States of America. It was an assault on our most sacred liberties and God-given rights. The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us. That bullet was aimed at every one of us.
And they cheered when Steven Miller said this:
Erika is the storm. We are the storm and our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion. Our lineage and our legacy it 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. Erica stands on the shoulders of thousands of years of warriors of women who raised up families, raised up cities, raised up industry, raised up civilization, who pulled us out of the caves and the darkness into the light. The light will defeat the dark. We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil.
They cannot imagine what they have awakened. They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us. Because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble. And to 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. You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk. You have made him immortal. You have immortalized Charlie Kirk. And now millions will carry on his legacy. And we will devote the rest of our lives to finishing the causes for which Charlie gave his last measure of devotion.
Okay, okay, one sec here, you can plainly see the racist undertones, right? The whole coming out of caves and light of civilization and all that stuff. Yikes. Would you want this maniac speaking at your loved one’s memorial in front of millions of people? My God. Anyway, let’s wrap this up.
And they cheered when JD Vance said this:
For Charlie, we will remember that it is better to stand on our feet defending the United States of America and defending the truth than it is to die on our knees. 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.
And when Pet Hegseth said this:
Charlie started a political movement but unleashed a spiritual revival. My pastor texted me the day after that horrific event and said, Pete, the devil overplayed his hand. Charlie started with liberty but ended up lighting our country on fire for Christ. He started Turning Point USA, but this moment is the turning point for the USA. Right now.
So who is this enemy, this devil, that our President, our Secretary of Defense, our Vice President, our cabinet members, et. al., keep talking about? It was a lone gunman, right? Well, apparently, to them, it was more than that. It was an opportunity. The whole memorial was designed to tell their base that they are on the right side of god, in a spiritual war against an enemy that threatens their very existence. The crowd cheered every time some version of that was brought up.
So who are their enemies? And what are they willing to do to vanquish them? And how much is their base willing to accept being done to whoever these enemies end up being? I wish we could all agree to live our lives as we see fit, as Hubbell (Redford) and Katie (Streisand) did at the end of The Way We Were. But right now, it seems, that a significant part of our nation doesn’t think that’s a choice that they can accept. And we have a government that is hell bent on weaponizing that sentiment.