Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
The Religious Landscape is Undergoing Massive Change. It Could Decide the 2024 Election.
The 2020 U.S. Religion Census, which was released late last year, reveals that religion is taking a beating across the middle part of the country. When comparing the rate of religious adherents in 2020 versus 2010, a fascinating pattern emerges, illuminating the political relevance of the shifting religious landscape: Democrats are making gains in areas where religion is fading (the census defines non-religious as the percentage of a county’s population that does not show up on the rolls of any religious organization in that county) and Republicans are increasing their vote share in places where houses of worship are gaining new members.
Christian leaders warn once again about the ongoing ReAwaken America tour
“This pro-Trump tour is one of the most egregious examples of Christian nationalism we have seen since the Jan. 6 insurrection. Some have called it QAnon 2.0 or a Who’s Who of the new Christian right. I like to call it ‘Jan. 6 goes to church.’ Each ReAwaken America tour is a toxic, extremist, heretical and harmful blend of baptisms, praise music, election denial and QAnon misinformation — things that do not belong together — all presented to an audience of thousands in Jesus’ hijacked name.”
“What the Reawaken America Tour attempts to do is to make Christianity about America first. That means it’s not the church of Jesus Christ and they are taking the Lord’s name in vain,” he said. “We have to be very clear that all attempts to use religion for the sake of violence … are not only false religion, but they’re also false politics. We’re at an important point in human history.”
The Right-Wing Money And Influence Behind Moms For Liberty
Among M4L’s financial supporters and profile boosters are some of the most influential organizations, media operations, and wealthy donors in the vast theater of the right-wing propaganda machine.
And it would be a mistake to believe M4L’s agenda is exclusively about maternal concerns over what children learn in schools. Instead, most of the organization’s purported success seems to be in helping to advance a much broader right-wing political agenda through electoral politics. In its short history, M4L has already been credited with helping to engineer a “massive victory,” according to Salon, and ensuring a string of wins for a number of Republican candidates in school board elections across Florida.
Trump and DeSantis 'mark' anniversary of Buffalo massacre in the worst ways possible
Many in the country, including President Joe Biden, took some time this weekend to recognize and honor the 10 Black people murdered by a white supremacist shooter in Buffalo last May. The shooter, who was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year, reportedly published an online document that aligned with Christian nationalist extremism. But Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, likely foes in the upcoming GOP presidential primary, chose to ignore the anniversary.
Instead, DeSantis spent his Friday night promoting a fundraiser for Daniel Penny, who was recently recorded on video choking a young man named Jordan Neely to death.
New Mexico gunman who killed 3 randomly shot at cars and houses, police say
The shooting was "honestly one of the most horrific and difficult days that Farmington has ever had as a community," he said, adding that investigators are searching for a motive for the attack, including talking to the shooter’s family.
"But at this point it appears to be purely random, that there was no schools, no churches and no individuals targeted," Hebbe said. "During the course of the event, the suspect roamed throughout the neighborhood up to a quarter of a mile. At least six houses and three cars were shot in the course of the event, as the suspect randomly fired at whatever entered his head to shoot at."
Here Comes the “Biden Kill List”
For conservative media consumers what Bartiromo et al. are trying to get across is unmistakable. It is part of a long history of vague and not-so-vague accusations that Democratic political elites and the Deep State are willing to go so far as murder in order to silence whistleblowers who might harm the Democratic Party. This tactic was employed most notably against the Clintons with the “Kill List” rumormongering in the 1990s. In the last decade, it was most prominent in the slander surrounding the Seth Rich murder in 2016.
That this was not missed by its intended audience is clear by the response you can see in certain corners of the MAGA internet.
DeSantis’s celebration of vigilantism is a new low in MAGA extremism
Like all defendants, Penny should be presumed innocent of the charge until proved guilty. A lot remains unknown about what happened. It would be one thing if right-wing figures were merely reminding people of this presumption and urging them to allow the justice system to do its work.
Instead, some are valorizing Penny as a hero and the victim of a prosecution that has been decreed inevitably unjust, no matter what the facts prove. They argue that Neely was a threatening figure who needed to be restrained, and that subway riders who fear for their safety have been unfairly victimized by political and societal failures. Therefore, not only was Penny’s apparent use of lethal force justified, a jury cannot legitimately decide it was excessive.
Planned Parenthood Finally Endorses Expanding the Supreme Court, Setting Term Limits
The Supreme Court “hasn’t been expanded for 150 years,” Planned Parenthood notes, while “the U.S. has become much more diverse” and “the population has multiplied by more than 10.” Adding justices and balancing the court is also essentially our last hope for the restoration of abortion rights, or just about any human right you can name that the Supreme Court has gutted in recent years.
As it currently stands, a third of the bench consists of Trump picks, and the majority were chosen by right-wing presidents who lost the popular vote and vetted by fringe right-wing groups. The 52 Republican senators who voted to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the high court in 2020 represented 13.5 million fewer people than the senators who rejected her. Not exactly a sign of a thriving democracy!
Conservative pundits are increasingly open about who they think should be killed
Conservative media figures cheered on DeSantis’ signing of the bill, often in language mirroring anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that is now ubiquitous on the right. Over the last year, right-wing media have revived a longstanding myth that LGBTQ people are dangers to children, frequently referring to them as “groomers” or pedophiles and endorsing violence targeting their events and communities. Conservative commentators have adopted eliminationist rhetoric toward trans people, openly calling for them to be expelled from public life entirely.
Daniel Penny shows how much the right loves white vigilante violence
You could argue that this is an example of conservative hypocrisy: The GOP claims to support law and order, and then turns around and rallies behind homicidal violence when it’s convenient. They don’t abide by their own principles.
But I think in this case the GOP is upholding their core beliefs. That’s because the law they promise to uphold is the law of white supremacy and impunity, and the order they want to impose is one in which Black people are deferential, on pain of death.
Senate Democrats ask Biden to ready 14th Amendment, bypass GOP on debt limit
Some Senate Democrats were circulating a letter urging Biden to prepare to invoke the 14th Amendment to resolve the debt ceiling standoff without involving Congress, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its release. Meanwhile, House Democrats start to collect signatures for a discharge petition to move legislation that would raise the debt ceiling without any other policy changes, a long-shot procedural move aimed at bypassing the chamber’s Republican leaders.
The letter reminds Biden that the 14th Amendment says “the validity of the public debt, authorized by law … shall not be questioned.”
Exclusive: New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
In a May 16 letter obtained by CNN, acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall writes to Trump, “The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records.”
The 16 presidential records, which were subpoenaed earlier this year, may provide critical evidence establishing the former president’s awareness of the declassification process, a key part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.
Southern courtesy, the ‘mail business thing,’ and other surreal moments from the abortion pill argument
The Supreme Court will likely have the last word in the case, which challenges the FDA’s original approval of mifepristone and its subsequent policies that expanded access to the drug. But in the meantime, the medication’s defenders faced a hostile reception from a highly conservative three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
States Fights
BREAKING: Gov. DeSantis Signs Extreme “License to Discriminate” Healthcare Bill
“Religious beliefs are fundamental rights in our country. These core values have shaped our nation and strengthened our union. Unfortunately, bills like SB 1580 distort our foundational freedoms into tools to limit the rights of others, including the LGBTQ+ community and other vulnerable people. Personal beliefs should not be wielded as a sword to deny critical medical care. The Human Rights Campaign strongly condemns Gov. DeSantis for signing this dangerous bill.”
Church and state: Republicans revel in divine plan to turn Kansas into ‘conservative sanctuary’
With supermajority control of both the Senate and House, Republican lawmakers routinely entertain policy ideas shaped by fringe religious views — restrictions placed on transgender residents, anti-abortion propaganda, tax dollars for private schools, a refusal to acknowledge systemic racism.
A religious pulse shakes every pillar of the Statehouse, from invocations that begin daily sessions to competing morning prayer groups to a spiritual adviser who roams the halls to the Bible clutched in John Brown’s hand in the famous mural on the second floor.
The application of religion takes various shapes in legislative debate — as justification for attacks on marginalized people, or a rebuke to the prevailing vote.
GOP state lawmakers try to restrict ballot initiatives, partly to thwart abortion protections
Last week’s striking scene came as Ohio joined a growing number of Republican-leaning states that are moving to undermine direct democracy by restricting citizens’ ability to bypass lawmakers through ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments.
The trend has taken off as Democrats and left-leaning groups frustrated by legislative gerrymandering that locks them out of power in state legislatures are increasingly turning to the initiative process to force public votes on issues that are opposed by Republican lawmakers yet popular among voters. Only about half the states, mostly in the Western U.S., allow some form of citizen ballot initiative.
Idaho’s murky abortion law is driving doctors out of the state
Doctors like Lauren Miller, who has been treating women and performing abortions in Boise for the last five years. Her greatest fear? “Being tried as a felon simply for saving someone’s life,” she told CNN.
Miller specializes in maternal-fetal medicine at the hospital where she works and handles high-risk pregnancies. She treats complications such as ectopic pregnancies, where a fertilized egg is outside the uterus, pre-eclampsia and other dangerous conditions.
After Idaho passed a near-total abortion ban, Miller and other doctors like her say they are unsure about how to continue to do their job.
Penguin Random House and Florida parents sue school district over book bans
The plaintiffs alleged that the district and the board violated the First Amendment by “depriving students of access to a wide range of viewpoints, and depriving the authors of the removed and restricted books of the opportunity to engage with readers and disseminate their ideas to their intended audiences.”
They also argued that the removals violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment “because the books being singled out for possible removal are disproportionately books by non-white and/or LGBTQ authors, or which address topics related to race or LGBTQ identity.”
Ron DeSantis Signs Law Allowing Trans Kids to Be Taken From Their Families
The new law will allow the state to take custody of a child if they have been “subjected to or [are] threatened with being subjected to” gender-affirming care, which includes puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy. Florida courts could modify custody agreements from a different state if the minor is likely to receive gender-affirming care in that second state. The text refers to gender-affirming care as “sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures” and qualifies this care as a form of “physical harm.”
DeSantis sees both endorsed candidates lose
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) saw both of his endorsed candidates lose their races Tuesday, while the Florida governor is rumored to be readying for a possible presidential bid.
Disney rocks DeSantis ahead of expected White House bid announcement
As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gears up for an expected jump into the 2024 presidential race next week, his powerful adversary, Disney, trampled his pre-launch buzz by scratching a $1 billion plan for an office campus that could have brought 2,000 jobs to the state.