What comes to your mind when you hear the words “Christian nationalism?” If it’s anything positive, James Carville, a famous political commentator, would strongly suggest otherwise.
During his Drew forum that took place on Jan. 23, Carville expressed that due to the rise of this ideology, it is an especially crucial time for our demographic to pay attention to global and local politics.
Sponsored by the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, this informative event was structured as an interview conducted by Patrick McGuinn, a professor of political science and education. McGuinn combined his own questions with questions from the audience, causing Carville to touch on a myriad of political topics.
Carville discussed his stance on the current state of politics and the most prominent current events, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and provided suggestions for improvements moving forward. Christian nationalism is one topic he spoke particularly passionately about because of the dangers that lie within it.
“Every responsible person, I think, needs to make themselves aware of what’s going on,” said Carville. So, what exactly is going on? When considering the words “Christian” and “nationalism” separately and in their most basic sense, you may be wondering: What could possibly be so bad about it? These complex terms can make it easy to misinterpret this ideology, but its dangers should not be taken lightly.
When McGuinn asked why Carville believes Christian nationalism is so dangerous, Carville responded, “It’s anti-democratic, it has a completely flawed narrative of what the constitution is and what the country is, it’s wealthy beyond imagination, it sounds benign but it’s anything but that, and it’s a hard thing to run against.” Christian nationalism has already taken hold in the federal government: Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, and Amy Coney Barrett, a Supreme Court associate justice, have described themselves as Christian nationalists.
Ironically, Reverend Ryan Dunn from the United Methodist Church agrees that this ideology is a cause for concern because “to assume that being American means being Christian and that being Christian means holding to a narrow view of what it means to be American is limiting to all of the above.”
Another hot topic that Carville discussed was Joe Biden’s presidency and the main issue that some people, especially within younger generations, seem to have with him. No one can deny that Biden’s age impacts the way many people view him. After all, he is the oldest president to date.
“Young people just see this as ‘these people never leave,’” said Carville. This is concerning to him because he is “afraid that a whole generation of talented young people are just gonna say ‘there’s not a place for me in politics.’” He explained that this is why it is more crucial now than ever before for people to be inspired and get involved in politics.
Carville also briefly touched on the current efforts to ban Trump from the ballot and why they may be a bad call. “I want to beat this thing. I don’t want to beat it in the courts, I don’t want to beat it on a technicality, I want us as a country to beat this electorally,” he said. Despite the reasons for these efforts, he believes that “there’s nothing worse than telling people you can’t vote for someone.” This method is not going to discourage people from using divisive political appeals such as those found within Christian nationalism.
In regards to the future of politics, Carville is hopeful and anticipates changes, such as the rise of the third party because of the high levels of dissatisfaction with both Democrats and Republicans. His main hope is that we stop pitting people against each other because this tactic has become far too appealing to many politicians. Climate change will especially have a major impact on American politics because it will soon affect everybody at every level.
Carville warned the audience that “democracy is a very difficult thing to build, and it’s a much easier thing to tear down.” This is why, at the very least, we need to vote in our elections.
Robin Gindhart is a junior majoring in English with an emphasis in writing and communications.
