The War on Democracy: A View From Ground Zero

 

Photographer: Kent Nishimura for the Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2021

On January 25, 2024, I sat down at my computer with a mission to understand how this country had fallen under the spell of the hatred spewed by MAGAts; hate-speech that I have long recognized as parroting Christian Nationalist discourses typical of Colorado Springs’ leadership and policymakers. Colorado Springs is ground zero in the Christian Nationalist war on democracy and the People.

Living in Colorado Springs is like living in a version of the Truman Show written, produced and narrated by Christian Nationalism (CN). If you’ve read Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming, then you have some idea of the context I’m describing. If you haven’t read her book, I highly recommend it. The CN ‘church’ on the north end of Colorado Springs that those of us not under its spell refer to as the cult, is not the only source of hateful rhetoric which is nothing close to being Christian but is very nationalistic in the sense of white nationalism. No, there is another well-funded, well-organized, and highly active CN branch in Woodland Park, about 40 minutes west of Colorado Springs. It was their annual disinformation revival that I suffered through that January, at least as much as they archived on their website. I want to share what I learned with you here because the snake oil they were selling, and continue to sell, serves as the framework of Project 2025. I am sharing because they have declared a war and I am not hearing enough about CN and its threat to our country. As Sun Tzu said, know your enemy; so, here they are.   

Truth & Liberty 2023: How to Kill a Democracy

With the White House’s dissemination of inflammatory disinformation about an imagined “radical Left,” I invite anyone reading this to watch and listen for yourselves to the vitriol and hatred of a cult in Woodland Park that supported and hosted TP USA at its so-called conferences. Do they sound like they are to the left of anything? The WH is disseminating dangerous rhetoric, meanwhile this “conference” in Woodland Park is underway yet again. You can find it yourself at truthandliberty dot net. Below is my summary and analysis of the 2023 conference.

Summary: The conference ticked all the boxes of cult leadership tactics described in The Cult of Trump by Steven Hassan, PhD, a former Moonie turned writer, scholar, and psychotherapist. The Wommack Truth & Liberty coalition have created their own worldview through which all events are interpreted; established their followers as the in-group opposed to the evil out-groups (democrats, LGBTQ+, etc); requested donations or “offerings” and solicited volunteers for future events/protests; created myths establishing their credibility, especially of family members who died and came back to life through prayer; established multiple campaigns, such as recruiting school board candidates, registering church congregations to vote, etc.; distracted attendees from thinking critically by using rapid-paced speech stringing together every sentence with “and,” using repetitive phrases, and altering historical facts to fit their objective; and they one-up the MAGA chant with one that “re”establishes this country under one religious belief, a theocracy. All efforts, every political and issue campaign, need to focus on responding to the lie that the U.S. was once a theocracy, a Christian Republic.

This is a cult and they know what they’re doing. When session speakers, for example Faridi and Porter, delivered loaded language about stolen elections and racist tropes about Muslims, I noted their lack of conviction or belief in what they were saying in contrast with their smirks and smiles as the crowd of around 40 attendees clapped and cheered. Watch a portion of a session and look at the speaker’s eyes, their body language; they are toying with people, manipulating them. Did you ever watch The Manchurian Candidate? This conference is the real-life version.

I noticed a lot of mirroring, Hassan’s word, but pundits use the term “flagging.” Mirroring or flagging is when the speaker accuses the other side of doing something the speaker is actually doing. For example, Connelly talked about the holocaust implicitly equating Nazis to democrats; he stated that lying to people and creating fear was the key to Nazis killing 11 million people and democrats did the same through covid quarantines. It’s actually Wommack et al. lying and creating fear, their objective is to restore the country to what they claim is its original single-religion and religion-based education, to establish a theocracy. The establishment of a theocracy would of course dismantle democracy and result in violence and death of far more than 11 million people.

Throughout the sessions, the cult uses mirroring to delegitimize election processes, education, and other foundational elements of our democracy. However, I sense they are one component of a larger strategy under the old Tea Party apparatus to defund the federal government, specifically the departments overseeing education, healthcare, energy, and environment as promised by several republican presidential candidates in recent history. The Convention of States Action is led by Mark Meckler, the founder of the Tea Party movement. COSAs intent is to establish republican control of the necessary two-thirds of the states per Article V of the Constitution to call a convention and enact their agenda to defund the federal government, specifically the departments responsible for education, healthcare, energy, and environment. COSA, the Freedom Caucus/Tea Party and Truth & Liberty converge on defunding the department of education. This is not to say that cult members are not also engaged in defunding other departments, consider climate change deniers, they likely are, but taking the larger view exposes the broad base of overlapping interests in taking down our democracy. Christian nationalism is driving the anti-government agenda that is rooted in the Southern states going back to the Civil War. It’s not a coincidence that most of the Truth & Liberty speakers are residents of the deep south.

Returning our focus to education, it is imperative to understand that higher education is being used to disseminate disinformation which has a ripple effect on local school districts and other campaigns. There are at least two disinformation spreaders at UCCS, one funded by Koch and the other by Turning Point USA. Koch funded a “research” center at UCCS, headed by faculty of the Political Science Department, in appreciation for inviting and sponsoring Trump’s campaign rallies on UCCS campus in 2016. Koch’s influence is called The Center for the Study of Government and the Individual and is supported by several of Koch’s extremist factions. The first incident that peaked my awareness of Koch’s access to our campus was the dissemination of The Epoch Times to all UCCS email users after 2016. Fast-forward to January 6, 2021, that disinformation rag, Epoch Times, was in the pockets of thousands of insurrectionists. For a few months immediately after the insurrection, I assisted Insurrection Hunters with the identification of symbols, military patches, documents, vendors, and organized groups among the participants. I flagged some papers sticking out of the back pocket of a “cowboy” with a gun tucked into his waistband. Another Hunter identified the papers as The Epoch Times that had been circulated at a rally that morning. The “cowboy” I had worked to identify was later arrested for stabbing someone to death in a park sometime after he returned home—drug deal gone sideways. The feds made a deal with him for information about 1/6. He’s free. I have moved on, but many continued to identify insurrectionists and their work contributed to the arrest and conviction of hundreds of Americans who have been brainwashed. Until the leaders are processed by the justice system, the public, and our democracy--which depends on a well-informed public--teeters on the brink.

In addition to the Koch bros on our campus, a Wommack collaborator Turning Point USA has established a student group at UCCS. I have observed clapboards on campus advertising bible study groups and prayer groups, but I do not recall the name of the student group that organized it. More likely, Turning Point USA at UCCS would recruit protest participants for the upcoming Kingdom to Capitol marches as well as local protests, school district actions, and to serve as poll watchers. Note the word choice, ‘kingdom’; it suggests dominion over the state, aligned with their theocracy over democracy objective.    

The Wommack cult made it very clear that this is a war, they have declared it. Therefore, I am using their war framework to analyze their plan of action. Below, I have outlined the order of battle starting with the strategic level, moving on to the operational level including organizations and leaders, and finally, the tactical level detailing their methods as described by the operational leaders during the conference. I categorized and color-coded the major campaigns: Red denotes congregation voter registration drives, legal action, and policy writing; Orange indicates all direct actions opposing public education; Gold represents anti-abortion actions and dovetails with education on anti-LGBTQ, anti-CRT, etc.; Blue signifies protests/counter-protests and disruption. The campaigns directly involved in the attack on education include a cross-collaboration between the National School Board Coalition/Ted Mische, Christian Home Educators of Colorado/Carolyn Martin, Family Policy Alliance/Autumn Leva, Nehemia Institute, and Faith Wins/Chad Connelly.

    

Truth & Liberty Objective: To control communities through the church, ultimately (re)establishing a theocracy.

OOB:

Unit	Task	Leader
Faith Wins	Register church congregations to vote, targeting all “early states”	Chad Connelly
First Liberty	File religious liberty lawsuits to roll back previous Supreme Court decisions on religious displays in public spaces/government buildings, and schools	Unk (attorneys)
Wallbuilders	Draft “pro-family” legislation & review education standards for legislators & lobbyists	David Barton
Pacific Justice	School board policy templates, in 31 states	unk
National School Board Coalition	School board candidates, propaganda about sexualizing kids	Ted Mische
Christian Home Educators of Colorado	Homeschooling, bible-based education, parental rights, propaganda about original theocracy	Carolyn Martin
Family Policy Alliance	Defund public education, religious liberty lawsuits	Autumn Leva
The Life Network	Anti-abortion actions	Rich Bennet
Turning Point USA Faith	Protests	Lance Williams
American Pastor Project	Train pastors to organize churches	Lucas Miles

 

 

Strategies:

·         Elect leaders with a “biblical worldview”—congress, state legislatures, school boards, etc.

·         Defund public education, replace it with home-schooling and bible-based education

·         Engage government/teachers/school board in lengthy, expensive court processes

·         Disorient the public with disinformation and protests across all operations and campaigns

Operations:

·         Christian voter registration drives in churches--Chad Connelly, Faith Wins

·         File lawsuits demanding religious liberty—First Liberty

·         Lobby legislators and monitor education legislation in all 50 states—David Barton, Wallbuilders’ ProFamily Legislative Network; Pacific Justice; First Liberty

·         Recruit, train, and vet school board candidates—Ted Mische, National School Board Coalition

·         Privatize education--Carolyn Martin, Christian Home Educators of Colorado; Autumn Leva, Family Policy Alliance attorney; Nehemiah Institute

·         Close all abortion service provider locations—Pueblo pastor Quinn Fryberg; Rich Bennet, The Life Network

·         Kingdom to the Capitol marches--Lance Williams, Turning Point USA Faith and Shawn Foit; Book bans, school board action--John Amanchukwu

·         Provide resources and networking for pastors to organize churches--American Pastor Project, Lucas Miles   

Tactics:

·         Collaborate with pastors in churches to register their congregations to vote, prioritize all of the early states

·         Use poll watchers to target voter turnout and challenge validity of every ballot cast in real time, but charm election staff with offers to help and to pray for them so they collaborate willingly

·         Harass school boards with fear messaging (“they’re coming for your kids” “they’re coming for your churches”), book bans, and oppose sex education

·         Lobby for parental rights, pathway to homeschooling and defunding public education

·         Collaborate with a legislator to challenge education standards that do not comply with “biblical worldview”

·         Spread gospel in Muslim nations

·         Broadcast alternative facts about a time when America had common values and a common faith

·         Recruit school board candidates through face-to-face interaction in the community, churches, and both political parties

·         Frame unwilling candidates as “imperfect people” but with righteous intent

·         Recruit through propaganda about RFID chips in student IDs so predators can track your kids, lies about kids being taught to make illicit drugs in chemistry class and satanic temples teaching in school classrooms

·         Establish homeschooling as an alternative to public schools, pathway to privatizing public education

·         Repeat message that America was established on one religion, taught in the home, the school, and the church

·         Advocate for parental rights as opposed to public education, religious liberty as opposed to secular/inclusive education, and home schooling as opposed to public education

·         Organize anti-abortion protests, file lawsuits against abortion providers, force closure of women’s health clinics that provide abortions

·         Promote ideation that life begins at inception

·         Advocate for Heartbeat legislation across the country in collaboration with Janet Porter the election denier

·         Train pastors to respond to social issues using Charis as a model to gaslight authorities, meaning government and police, with prayers for their souls instead of protesting their order-following behavior

·         Oppose globalism and one-world doctrines with sovereign nation doctrine, specifically the sovereignty of the U.S. and of Israel    

 

Summary of The Propaganda Team (platforms range from Fox News to Truth & Liberty radio and their followers’ blogs and podcasts):

Lucas Miles, American Pastor Project—pastor at Influence Church, and propagandist for epic times church and church boys podcast

Alex McFarland—propagandist Truth and Liberty radio

David Barton, Wallbuilders—propagandist on early American colonies and bible-based education

Jeff Anderson—Cong. Lamborn’s Senior Adviser for Community Outreach, pro-Israel propagandist and political insider

Elizabeth Muren—propagandist and screenwriter on banning abortion

Janet Porter—legislative activist/organizer for abortion ban, election-denier

Mohamad Faridi, Destination USA—propagandist for one-world Christian religion, anti-Islam

Richard Harris—propagandist in chief of Truth and Liberty radio

There you have it. As we face the 250th birthday of this country, sullied by a cult working from the inside to complete the insurrection it started in 2021, whatever the motivations and faults of its beginnings, this country is ours and no one will take it from us if we don't let them. Check often that you are registered to vote. Expect shenanigans and act accordingly.