It’s rarely worth a scintilla of our time to dwell on the depravities of MAGA lowlife and Putin fanboy Michael Flynn, who served all of 22 days as national security adviser and who later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. These days he spends much of his time on the road, disgorging addled nonsense that would embarrass a mentally-challenged homeless person.
But his latest outburst warrants our attention, if only because it stinks of the Taliban.
At a rally last night in Texas, sponsored by a right-wing “faith” group that rails against Covid vaccines, Flynn wielded the mic and said unto them: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God. Right? All of us together, working together.”
I’ll take a wild guess that Flynn’s one-religion-only policy would exclude Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam and all other faiths that comprise the American mosaic. It’s a wonder that this sick puppy, a retired military careerist, ever agreed to serve and defend a nation that was founded on all-religions-welcome. Assuming that he swore to uphold the U.S. Constitution, surely he couldn’t have missed the first provision in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” And surely he must be aware that our founding document prohibits religious tests for public office.
Jewish Americans, in particular, might have reason right now to wince at Flynn’s remark, because they just had a bad week. In Ohio, a Republican senatorial candidate, Mark Pukita, targeted rival candidate Josh Mandel with this critique: “He’s Jewish. Everybody should know that though, right?” (Pukita was defending one of his radio ads, which said this about Mandel: “Are we seriously supposed to believe the most Christian-values Senate candidate is Jewish?”) Meanwhile, in Kansas, a bunch of anti-vaxxers showed up in a public forum wearing yellow stars, thus comparing their plight to the victims of the Holocaust. (That tactic seems a tad insulting to the six million people who lost their lives.)
But I digressed.
I know it’s a waste of energy to parse a lunatic, but I just wish Flynn would avail himself of the Founders’ wisdom. Like when Thomas Jefferson said, “Whether a man believes in 20 gods or no God neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Like when James Madison said, “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.” Like when John Adams, as president, approved a treaty that said, “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
So since he prefers to feed crap to the credulous, we must pose the key question: Why does this guy hate the Constitution?
To answer that, we first need to remember that Flynn has morphed into a QAnon nut. He has taken QAnon oaths, hawked QAnon merchandise, and told QAnon followers that he pined for a U.S. military coup. But somehow, in recent months, a rumor started circulating in QAnon circles that Flynn worships Satan. How that happened, who knows; I won’t waste keystrokes going down that rabbit hole. It’s sufficient to surmise that he feels compelled to fight the rumor by shoring up his right flank, by buttressing his Christian creds to the max, ranting for a theocracy at odds with our founding values.
So even Michael Flynn isn’t conservative enough for some people? That tells you how nuts we’ve become.
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Actually, Flynn’s one-religion remark wasn’t even the nuttiest we’ve heard lately. The prize goes to his old boss.
Journalist Jonathan Karl, in his new book, recounts a post-Jan. 6 conversation with Donald Trump. He asked the 2020 loser whether he was upset that some of the insurrectionists wanted to hang his vice president. This was Trump’s response, verbatim (the asterisks are mine):
“Because it’s common sense, Jon. It’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect. How can you – if you know a vote is fraudulent*, right? – How can you pass on a fraudulent* vote to Congress? How can you do that? And I’m telling you: 50/50, it’s right down the middle for the top constitutional scholars when I speak to them. Anybody I spoke to – almost all of them at least pretty much agree, and some very much agree with me – because he’s passing on a vote that he knows* is fraudulent*. How can you pass a vote that you know is fraudulent*? Now, when I spoke to him, I really talked about all of the fraudulent* things that happened during the election. I didn’t talk about the main point, which is the legislatures did not approve – five states. The legislatures did not approve all of those changes that made the difference between a very easy win for me in the states, or a loss that was very close, because the losses were all very close.”
*He’s lying.