Katherine Stewart has a chilling piece in the New York Times all about how a group of conservative Christians have embarked on a new endeavor called Project Blitz.
True to its name, the goal is to inundate state legislatures with as many bills as possible promoting conservative Christian views. Since critics may not have the time or resources to stop every single bill, at least a few have a chance of scraping by conservative legislatures without much of a fuss.
Christian pseudo-historian and guy-who-lied-about-having-a-Ph.D. David Barton is one of the four members of the project’s “steering committee,” and he’s absolutely giddy about the prospects of this plan:
… “It’s kind of like whack-a-mole for the other side; it’ll drive ‘em crazy that they’ll have to divide their resources out in opposing this,” David Barton, the Christian nationalist historian and one of four members of Project Blitz’s “steering team,” said in a conference call with state legislators from around the country that was later made public.
…
“They’re going to be things that people yell at, but they will help move the ball down the court,” Mr. Barton said in the conference call.
Specifically, there are three kinds of bills these Christians hope to jam through the states: Symbolic ones (like putting “In God We Trust” everywhere), pro-Christian ones (like passing “Christian Heritage Week” resolutions), and anti-everybody-else ones (like bills that allow Christian business owners to discriminate against gay customers).
We’ve already seen the passage of several bills that fall into these categories, whether or not they were connected to the actual project. But if church/state separation advocates aren’t vigilant, many more will follow.
Stewart argues that this dominion approach to politics, in which certain Christians seek to impose their biblical beliefs on all aspects of our lives, is effective even if most Americans would oppose it:
What Christian nationalists know — and many of us have yet to learn — is that you don’t need a majority to hijack a modern democracy. You just need a sizable minority, marinating in its grievances, willing to act as a bloc, and impervious to correction by fact or argument. Make this group feel good about itself by making other people feel bad about themselves, and dominion may well be in reach.
It’s frightening stuff. And it only works because most sensible Americans aren’t paying attention to these issues in their states. If no one sounds the alarm, the fire flourishes unimpeded.
If you really want to see the nuts and bolts of this project, you should read their playbook. Frederick Clarkson of Religion Dispatches also has a thorough writeup about the project.
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