We recently attended the county fair. here in mid Michigan. I was told Michigan county fairs discourage political activity (unlike Ohio county fairs) and I suppose that’s a good idea (although I don’t know how it conforms with the 1st A). We did see this religious booth setting up, however.. You may recognize the Appeal to Heaven flag from a controversy a couple of years go - Alito’s wife was flying a US flag upside down (to show her and her husband’s objections to Biden’s election). Justice Alito then lied about not knowing this blatantly partisan protest was displayed at his house. The Alito’s also fly this pine tree flag to symbolize their devotion to Catholic dogma over US law.
The Appeal to Heaven flag is now also associated with American far-right movements and supporters of President Donald Trump. The flag has appeared at Trump rallies, and it appeared among crowds at the January 6 insurrection. It is also ingrained into the rhetoric of Christian Nationalism.
The Appeal to Heaven flag has been adopted by far Right religious zealots like Alito and his wife all over the country, Alito’s enacting and enforcing Catholic law has resulted in women dying after being denied medical care:
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Which brings me to an essay written by a reader about authoritarians and art and how fundamentalist religious views are incompatible with diverse, thriving democratic states that rely on a secular rule of law to function:
With right wing White Christian nationalism on the rise in America, I went looking for paintings celebrating it and, to my surprise, I found very few. Do they not like art at all?
The most popular painter seems to be Jon McNaughton, one of whose paintings is above. It's obvious what McNaughton's kitsch paintings are saying: it's about enforcement of conservative values. These values. The same thing is occurring elsewhere: in Germany, for example, the AfD is promising a "patriotic culture policy" (.). But, I think the more important question is why do right wing conservatives around the world feel this way? Why are they so miserable? Why do they want to impose their values on everybody else in an authoritarian way? Why do Jewish conservatives behave the same way? What are they all so afraid of?
To some degree these fears are genetic: certain people are simply wired this way. There are plenty of genetic studies confirming this and, while we can prove just about anything with genetics, I find the idea convincing that authoritarian personalities are "wired" to be threat minded, to see the negative in things rather than the positive, and to seek out scapegoats. They do not do empathy, but they do fear and judgment well and they really like censorship. So right wing art, like the McNaughton paintings or Fox TV or online influencers or evangelical Christianity or Zionism, aims to be an enforcer of religious nationalism, to present the "right" way of thinking to prevent backsliding: the flag, the Bible, the military, Whiteness, family values, Israel, etc. Us and Them.
Thanks to blog reader Martin Blythe for the essay and, well, read the whole thing. It’s worth your time.
