And here we are

20 years ago it all seemed like conspiracy theories. I discovered Theocracy Watch, founded by Joan Bokaer from Ithaca, NY, and thought it couldn’t be true. The more I researched dominionism and Christian reconstructionism and the complex network of foundations and individuals involved, I realized it was true. I created a seminar on the dangers of what we still called the Religious Right, but most people thought that movement was losing its power and influence. And here we are.

The next Secretary of Defense could be Pete Hegseth, author of “An American Crusade” where he says that if Democrats remain in power, “America will decline and die. A national divorce will ensue. Outnumbered freedom lovers will fight back. … The military and police, both bastions of freedom-loving patriots, will be forced to make a choice. It will not be good. Yes, there will be some form of civil war.”

The man whom President-elect Donald Trump has nominated to be in charge of the U.S. military, in his books and public interviews, imagines a scenario where the U.S. military might be used against American citizens because of the “enemies within.” Timothy Snyder, an American historian who has written extensively on tyranny and fascism writes that:

“It is not hard to see why Trump wants Hegseth as his secretary of defense. Trump plans to purge the armed forces of high officers who care about the United States and leave only loyalists. Trump wants to use the armed forces in operations inside the United States, including the oppression of “enemies within,” which is to say, his political opponents. Hegseth gives every sign of being a person who would embrace such actions as an American crusade.”

In a blog post today, Snyder explores historical background for Hegseth’s views based in patriarchal white Christian nationalism. He writes more about what Hegseth says about “the enemy within”:

“The enemy within, broadly defined as ‘the Left,’ is presented as already having a plan to annihilate everyone else. This is, of course, what fascists always say: it is legitimate to destroy the other side, because however invisibly and conspiratorially and secretly, it is planning to kill you first. Thus for Hegseth, the Left has the goal of ‘erasing America’s soul, culture, and institutions. We are the ones standing in their way—and have been targeted for annihilation.’ Hegseth does not dwell, for some reason, on the actual countries that actually want the American system to break.

”Only the ‘enemy within’ captures his imagination. Hegseth enjoins his readers to ‘remember the plan the Left has for you—utter annihilation.’ And again: ‘In more ways than you can imagine, leftists have surrounded traditional American patriots on all sides, ready to close in for the kill: killing our founders, killing our flag, and killing capitalism. The only option for survival in a near ambush is to charge; to close with, and destroy, the enemy.’”

Many people have talked about Pete Hegseth’s tattoos that represent a centuries-old history of white supremacy and Christian nationalism. (It’s not new.) Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), says that “Pete Hegseth is a poster child for literally everything that would be the opposite of what you would want to have for someone who’s controlling the technologically most lethal organization in the history of this country.”

Hegseth has close ties to an Idaho-based Christian nationalist church that aims to turn America into a theocracy. He is a member of a Tennessee congregation affiliated with Christ Church. In an appearance last year on the Christ Church-connected streaming show “Crosspolitic,” “Hegseth talked about how building up fundamentalist Christian education systems is important in what he sees as a ‘spiritual battle’ with the secular world. He sees Christian students as foot soldiers in that war and refers to Christian schools as ‘boot camp.’

‘We’re in middle phase one right now, which is effectively a tactical retreat where you regroup, consolidate and reorganize and as you do so, you build your army underground with the opportunity later on of taking offensive operations – and obviously all of this is metaphorical and all that good stuff,’ he said on the show. He may call it metaphorical here, but he was written and spoken elsewhere about this “spiritual battle” becoming a physical fight, even using the U.S. military against “the enemy within.”

Even as I write about all of this today, it does at times still feel the same as 20 years ago – like some kind of conspiracy theory. It’s not. It’s a movement funded by billionaires, with deep roots in groups such as the Heritage Foundation (Project 2025), and with a base of support in white Christian nationalism. With Theocracy Watch in 2005, I warned about it in my seminar – and here we are.

How do we know?