In Afghanistan, the Taliban offer us a view of what life would look like in the United States if Evangelical Trump Christians get the power and influence they would like to acquire.
Marcos Moulitsas founder of Dailykos.com, wrote a book, American Taliban. I interviewed him to discuss it in 2010.
Now that the Taliban has taken Afghanistan back, I'm thinking about the Taliban more, and what I'm thinking is that most Trump supporters, who are Evangelical Christians, are the American Taliban. It's not a new idea, but seeing how the Taliban waited patiently for 20 years for the US to leave, it makes me realize that our American Taliban would like to do to all of America what the Afghani Taliban are doing to Afghanistan-- create an ultra fundamentalist, patriarchal, religion ruled nation.
We know what that looks like-- women submissive to men, restricted from education and jobs, stuck at home serving their husbands needs dressing in "modest" proscribed ways. Kathryn Joyce wrote an excellent book about this, Quiverfull; Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement.
What Is The Quiverfull Movement? What is the Quiverfull movement? How did it start? How does it differ from traditional christianity? Who are the Duggars? Why do they have so many kids?
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I interviewed Joyce in 2015. Here are some of my notes from the interview:
"Women are responsible for "dying to themselves." and that seems to me to be what narcissists want for people in their lives.
Not only is your body not your own, your life is not your own. It's a different idea of freedom-- you can either be a slave to sin or a slave to god. There is no idea of freedom in that dual view of the world and the nature of life. You can be a slave to yourself and your passions. Women who show signs of independence or spirit are treated as though they are evil, possessed or witches.
I have a real problem with ultra-fundamentalists, whether they are Afghan Taliban, Christian Evangelicals and Quiverfuls or Haredi ultra Othodox Israelis. They all have patriarchal, authoritarian, religion-based rules and cultures that are highly intolerant of others.
Patriarchy and male domination over women plays a major role in ultra-fundamentalism all over the world, across all religions.
When you have thoughts about the Afghan Taliban, about their culture, their values, their Patriarchy and the way the treat not only women but children, do a simple flip in your thinking and apply the same thinking to American ultrafundamentalist Evangelicals, Iranian, Afghan and Pakistani fundamentalist Shia Muslims, Saudi Arabian Wahabist Muslims and Israeli and American ultra-orthodox Jews.
If you think there are problems with the Afghan Taliban, shift your gaze to these other groups. They would act the same way if they could, if we don't stop them at the polls. Perhaps it is time to start calling Trump supporter cult members the American Taliban, particularly their cult member politicians. And I mean that almost all Trump supporters are cult members.
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