From “The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy” by Jim Wallis
The process of sabotaging democracy has now become mainstream – with a whole political party committed to undermining free and fair elections. Harvard University political science professor Steven Levitsky, coauthor of How Democracies Die, says democracy can die at the ballot box. He makes the case that one of our two major political parties, the Republican party, is no longer committed to accepting the results of elections, or even the peaceful transition of power.
In August 2022, Levitsky told me: “There is a powerful authoritarian reaction to the emergence of…a multiracial democracy, and that reaction is likely to lead us to a pretty serious constitutional crisis in years to come…There is real risk of a stolen election in 2024.”
And, voting is a problem for white Christian nationalism. In their book The Flag and the Cross, Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry explain that the more closely someone identifies with Christian nationalism, the more likely they are to agree with the statement “We make it too easy to vote.”
The authors add, “Even after accounting for partisanship and political ideology, the more strongly white Americans affirm Christian nationalism, the more likely they were to respond to Trump’s election loss with a view that voting access should be restricted even more.” The research shows this same group believed “It’s too easy to vote” after the 2020 election.
And, of course, white Christian nationalism wants to make it harder to vote in ways that most directly affect the most marginalized. The Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights (LCCR), an organization that tracks these issues over time, tells us, “Voting eligibility laws disproportionately burden communities of color, naturalized voters, and low-income individuals. Many states require additional documentation to prove voting eligibility, such as a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers.” Efforts to make voter registration easier and voting more accessible are routinely blocked by Republicans in Congress and state legislatures.