Why so many are now talking about an American theocracy The search for ex-RAF terrorists continues: police search another apartment in Berlin

Mafia rule is widely seen as the greatest threat to democracy and the rule of law. But the other way around it also becomes a shoe. In their latest book, the two political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt warn against a dictatorship of the minority.

According to the two Harvard professors, this danger is currently particularly acute in the US. They write: “Social diversity, cultural backlash and right-wing extremist parties are widespread in Western democracies. But only in America have such extremists gained partial control of the national government and can attack democratic institutions.”

Francis Fukuyama also comes to this conclusion. In an op-ed in the Financial Times last weekend, he said: “American institutions have been crumbling for some time and now we are in a serious crisis. (…) Political disintegration begins when social institutions can no longer adapt to changing circumstances. This process began a generation ago and is now culminating in a massive crisis, the consequences of which we will experience over the next eight months.”

The current greatest threat to a militant, anti-democratic movement does not come from bald, loose-lipped neo-Nazis. It comes from good Christian nationalists. For example, right-wing extremist activist Jack Posobiec stated at the CPAC conference, Woodstock of the Conservatives: ‘We must bury democracy and put an end to what started on January 6, 2021. All glory does not belong to the government, all glory belongs to God.”

A clarification at this point: only a minority of Christians in the US can be described as Christian nationalists. According to a PRRI/Brooking Christian Nationalism study, their share was about ten percent in 2023. Many Christians are liberal and socially active. The most famous example was Martin Luther King Jr., a famous Baptist priest.

David French, a conservative columnist for the New York Times, says, “The problem with Christian nationalism is not that Christians participate in politics. Rather, Christian nationalists are convinced that their faith is above politics and law.”

The example of the state of Alabama shows what consequences this has in practice. In this very conservative southern state, the very God-fearing chief justice has ruled that abortion is not the devil’s only thing. Even in vitro fertilization (IVF) is at risk in Alabama. The Supreme Court has ruled that fertilized but surplus embryos may not be discarded, even if parents and doctors have jointly decided to do so.

This judgment is justified as follows: Life begins with the fertilization of the egg. Consequently, fertilized embryos are babies. The fact that the vast majority of Americans support IVF leaves Judge Tom Parker cold. He refers to the Bible, or rather to the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote about God in the seventh century BC: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born, I blessed you.”

Christian nationalists want to turn back the wheel of time. Not only should abortion be banned again – even in cases of rape, incest and the mother’s life is in danger – contraception should be restricted and same-sex marriage abolished. In their eyes, all this is a sign of decadence.

They therefore turn the previously valid view of the US upside down. While conservative President Ronald Reagan spoke of America in the 1980s as a “shining city upon a hill,” Christian nationalists today see the US as the epitome of secular decadence and moral corruption. This view has prevailed in the highest offices. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, is an evangelical. He describes abortion as an “American Holocaust.”

This brings him into a meeting with Donald Trump and the MAGA crowd. The ex-president also constantly refers to the decline of the US. He also wants to sweep away the alleged decadence of the global elite with an iron broom. It is now common knowledge how Trump wants to establish an authoritarian regime in the US. He not only wants to fill his cabinet with absolutely loyal employees, but also with the administration. He wants to use the courts and the Justice Department for his revenge, and he wants to shut down the critical media.

Although Trump leads anything but a model Christian lifestyle, this makes him the messiah of Christian nationalists. They want a dictator and spit on democracy and the rule of law. The fact that they blatantly violate the US Constitution and the separation of religion and state does not bother them.

Nor does it mean that America is quickly approaching a dystopia, as so chillingly described by Margaret Atwood in her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” or by Robert Harris in “The Second Sleep.”