Keep your eyes on the ball

It's cool to freak out about the debate for a minute but there are bigger things lurking

Yeah…that wasn’t great

You may have heard the debate didn’t go too well for President Biden. I certainly did as friends and colleagues from around the country were blowing up my phone with concerns. I get it. It wasn’t a good performance by Biden. Of course, it was a decidedly on brand one for Trump. A firehose of lies and anger that was only drowned out by everyone’s obsession with Biden’s age.

It is funny how we worry more about that than the vicious convicted felon who never answered any questions at all and avoided directly saying he would accept the results of the election this fall. He endorsed a host of the most awful aspects of Project 2025 and made promises that will turn this entire country upside down. He is getting beat to hell right now by black Americans’ for his emphasis on how migrants are taking “black jobs” away. I have seen a whole lot of folks asking what exactly is a “black job?”

But wait…there’s more

But, here’s the thing…there are more awful things lurking than just those two men up on stage. Trump has attracted some of the most extreme followers imaginable and their machinations are continuing even as we’re all focused on Trump’s lies and Biden’s stutter. There are truly undemocratic and evil plans being written and executed in places we don’t often look. One of the most extreme is the growing Christian Nationalism movement and it’s unlikely epicenter is a place called Moscow, Idaho.

For the last year journalist’s Heath Druzin and Jason Dawson have been deep into the movement for the NPR podcast ‘Extremely American.’ The first season of the show one a regional Edward Murrow Award for its work focusing on the growing Patriot Movement of militias and extremists. This season titled ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ follows Christian Nationalism and one of it’s most powerful leaders Doug Wilson who is pastor of Christ Church in Moscow.

Heath dives deep into the movement and the truly scary things they believe should be implemented to make Moscow a ‘Christian town’ and our entire country a ‘Christian nation’ including women losing the right to vote, non-Christians not being allowed to hold office, and a host of truly dark ideas dog out of the Bible and interpreted by these adherents in ways that will turn the clocks back hundreds of years.

The first two episodes of the podcast are available now here on NPR’s website, and I had the chance to chat with Heath for this week’s On Democracy. I hope you will check them both out.

I urge you to watch the first five minutes of this episode right now. These aren’t soft little ideas they are pitching. The Ten Commandments in the classroom is a beach head for much more extreme ideas. They aren’t hiding it.

The Show

Heath Druzin

Long time journalist Heath Druzin has spent the last year following the movement right in his home state of Idaho for the second season of the Extremely American podcast on NPR titled ‘Onward Christian Soldiers.’ He and his co-writer James Dawson focus on the rise of Christian nationalism, a conservative religious movement with a rapidly expanding epicenter in a surprising place: the college town of Moscow, Idaho. Across eight episodes they zero in on Christ Church, a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches based in Moscow. Heath is the host and creator of Extremely American, a sound-rich podcast series that looks at the intersection of extremism and politics. In the first season, he took listeners inside the militia movement, from weapons training to the campaign trail. Heath has covered extremism since 2018, first as a reporter with the public radio project Guns & America. He has reported for outlets such as NPR, BBC and the Daily Beast. Previously he spent more than six years as a war correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan for Stars and Stripes.