On the Brink, We Must Unite

Guest Opinion

As an independent voter and confessing Christian, I oppose the following:

The degradation of our democratic institutions, including a disempowered Congress and corrupt Supreme Court. The violent, masked, paramilitary force known as ICE. Extrajudicial killings of people in boats. The Epstein criminals. The destruction of USAID, and the catastrophic, ongoing results. The incessant assaults on Gaza and Ukraine.

Violent dictators, including our own wannabe dictator, his rapacious incursions into Venezuela and Iran, and the criminality of his administration. Taxation that fleeces working people, rewards billionaires, and balloons the national debt. Proponents of white supremacy. Christianity as our national religion. Turning our federal government into a private corporation.

In short, I oppose kleptocratic authoritarianism. But it’s not enough to know what we oppose. We must also embrace a vision for our nation moving forward, and unite to pursue that vision.

I am in favor of the following: Diversity, inclusion, and equality for all American residents—citizens and immigrants alike. An immigration system that secures our borders while allowing law-abiding immigrants to pursue citizenship without interference. Freedom to worship as I choose, honoring both the validity of other faith communities and the right to worship nothing at all.

Economic justice for all Americans, to include government support of veterans, schoolchildren, farm families, the elderly, and the poor and disenfranchised—especially American Indian tribes and the descendants of slaves. Enforcing a tax code that obliges individuals and corporations to pay their fair share. A criminal justice system that rehabilitates prisoners, prosecutes the Epstein criminals—whoever they may be, and indicts murderers who masquerade as federal agents.

I require the reversal of Citizens United. Campaign finance reforms that cast filthy dark money out of our politics forever. A free press that challenges the powerful and wealthy. A healthcare system like those in the civilized world. Foreign policy that addresses climate change and shares the wealth of our great nation with the neediest around the globe.

In short, I favor the return of government that serves humanity.

Christianity is consistent with the peaceful restoration of our crippled democracy, but only if we unite to resist claims that our religion is the only one with legitimacy. God, embodied in the human Jesus and ever-present in the transformative and timeless Christ, offers grace, hope, and love to all existence, without exception. The Trinity is not threatened by other belief systems. The Holy Spirit transcends mere religion. American Christians must reclaim our faith from Christian Nationalists who would pervert it and plant the seeds of totalitarianism.

MAGA elites foment thinly-veiled white supremacy disguised as Christian faith. We’ve already witnessed the results of their violent retribution against “vermin”—people of different faiths and/or darker skin. Synagogues and mosques attacked. Tens of thousands of innocent people imprisoned in internment camps. Countless wounded. Many dying while interred. Murdered citizens.

Our government has been historically corrupt on both sides of the aisle. Our two-party system is morally bankrupt, but in this moment, it’s all we’ve got. Sadly, extremist MAGA elites hijacked the GOP. Good Americans have supported MAGA, hoodwinked by leaders who implemented the deeply unpopular Project 2025 and reduced our federal government to a fascistic crime family.

The time has come to unite against this rampant corruption. That mission must transcend partisan politics. Republicans, Independents, and Democrats must band together to defeat this scourge of governance if we are to restore and improve our democratic republic. Like it or not, the Democrats represent our only hope of accomplishing that goal. We have no choice but to unite and return them to power, but then hold their feet to the fire and mandate reforms that terminate runaway corruption.

MAGA leadership demonstrated the depths of their depraved brutality on Jan. 6. They will attempt to overturn the results of our upcoming elections if those results compromise their grip on power.

This is why our unified, partisan-transcendent opposition is essential. We must vote in record numbers, overwhelmingly win this election, and snuff out any oxygen that might fuel MAGA leadership’s predictable lawlessness. We must cast every MAGA-enabling candidate out of public service. Period. Full stop. They are poisonous to representative governance and completely antithetical to Christian and American values.

Now more than ever, we must raise our voices as one, in support of restorative justice, existential reforms, and the return of our federal government to its rightful role as an engine for the public good. Our votes are our voices. Vote like your lives and those of your children and grandchildren depend on it—because they most certainly do! Or capitulate to corrupt, interminable barbarism and the death knell of democracy.

Walt Wood is a retired mailman and current Lutheran who writes about the intersection of faith and democracy.

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