Everyday Erinyes #121

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

I’m confident everyone here is familiar with ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council – which has for decades (45 years, to be precise) been drafting what they call “model” legislation at the state and to some degree local levels and getting it passed while we weren’t paying attention.

In fact, the only sense in which ALEC legislation is “model” is in that it’s what I would call “horrible examples.” Or possibly, in the words of an old joke, “a small and inferior copy of a real thing.” But by golly, they get it through. However, they may have to move over – there is a new kid on the block – “Project Blitz.”

Now, you might be forgiven for thinking that Project Blitz is a men’s clothing retailer, because it is that too. But the Project Blitz I am referring to is the one being pushed by the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, in coalition with the National Legal Foundation and Wallbuilders (which seems to be a subsidiary of the ProFamily Legislative Network.)

What Project Blitz aims to accomplish is to do for Dominionism what ALEC has so thoroughly done for Corporatism – or was, until we found out about it and started fighting back.  And they aim to do it by using “religious freedom” language. Because of course they do.

Though it was only launched in February 2016, it is being taken very seriously by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Starting with allowing or requiring schools to display posters of “In God We Trust” alongside any motto the State has adopted, which we all know is as likely as not to mention “God” in some way (this being in what they call “Category 1,”) they plan to work up through 116 pages of playbook to Category 3-c legislation such as the “Teacher Protection Act,” which would require the state to foot the defense bill for any teacher or school sued for making religion compulsory, or discriminating based on their “sincerely held religious belief.”

Speaking at the launch of the Project, and referring to Category 1 issues, David Barton (whom you may have heard of – he’s with Wallbuilders) said the bills in this category are

“kinda like whack-a-mole for the other side. It’ll drive them crazy that they will have to divide their resources out in opposing this… they won’t know what to do with this and it’ll be great!”

What a mensch. /S

One expert, Dr. David R. Brockman, is a Nonresident Scholar at Rice University’s Baker institute for Public Policy. He sees Project Blitz this way:

 … a covert campaign for conservative Christian dominion over law and public policy.”

“As I’ve written elsewhere,” he added, “dominionism as I understand it seeks to align law and public policy with conservative Christian beliefs.” Part of the significance of the Project Blitz playbook is that it links Christian nationalism with the antiabortion and anti-LGBTQ agenda, and finally with a broader and deeper theocratic vision called Dominionism, which has been the subject of much interest in the political, journalist and scholarly communities in recent years.

Brockman observes that the authors frame religious freedom resolutions (on heterosexual marriage, birth gender, and adoption) as intended to advance “biblical values,” although, he says “they caution policymakers not to frame legislation in biblical terms,” because “courts have frequently found such justifications ‘unreasonable’ or ‘irrational’ and not based on ‘reason’ or ‘science.’”

“They contend,” Brockman says, “that the state has a ‘compelling’ health and safety interest in promoting heterosexual relations, maintenance of birth gender, and adoption by married heterosexuals. Whatever the merits of those health-and-safety arguments, what is critical is intent. And the authors make their dominionist intent quite clear: to ‘define public policies of the state in favor of biblical values concerning marriage and sexuality.’”

Tisiphone, why don’t you get started on David Barton, the slimy sadist, and Megaera, you can look for others who are prominent in this “Project.” Alecto, you’ll probably need minions, but someone needs to keep an eye on the state legislators who are open to this seduction – and un-seduce them.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.