Fighting Authoritarianism with Knowledge and Resources - August Edition

This month's spotlight is The Port Huron Statement, the landmark manifesto written by Tom Hayden for Students for a Democratic Society. Drafted in an era of war, conformity, and state overreach, it still cuts sharply into the present. At its core is a demand for something both radical and necessary: a democracy that is participatory, accountable, and rooted in human dignity. What makes the document endure is not nostalgia but its moral clarity. It names the gap between official ideals and lived reality, and it refuses to treat people as spectators to their own futures. That vision feels especially urgent now, as vulnerable communities are too often met with suspicion, exclusion, and harm. For immigrants—and for all whose rights are treated as negotiable—its insistence on voice, due process, and public accountability remains profoundly relevant. It reminds us that democracy is not only about laws on paper, but about whether those laws are applied fairly, humanely, and with accountability. It is a document of protest, but also of possibility. It is hopeful because it believes ordinary people can organize, speak, and build something better. It speaks to those who are tired of silence, who understand that dignity is not a privilege to be granted but a right to be defended—and that collective action is one of the few forces capable of meeting this moment. Why we recommend it: Sixty-plus years later, its closing warning still lands. The authors feared not just injustice, but "a poverty of vision, and a poverty of political action to make that vision reality." This is an invitation to refuse both. Quote: "It is to this latter yearning, at once the spark and engine of change, that we direct our present appeal."

History does not repeat, but it does instruct. If heeded, it can allow us to identify when bad actors are preying on vulnerabilities inherent to the human condition - which is why they recur. The reduction of choices when the masses are exhausted by war, famine, or intense political divide is enticing, which brings with it the tendencies towards obedience. It drives a desire to secure personal safety with the least effort. This creates conflicts with our contemporary moral code which are often managed by turning a blind eye to the logical fallacies used to justify harmful actions.

For example, when trying to understand Nazi obedience to the abhorrent crimes against fellow humans, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram led an experiment where participants were instructed to administer increased levels of electrical shock to people they believed were other participants. Despite actors portraying genuine suffering, and at times even death, participants continued administering the shocks when urged by an authority figure. Milgram observed that people can defy their moral compass in service of an authoritarian figure. As Timothy Snyder warns: “history shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary men can find themselves standing over death pits with guns in their hands. It would serve us well today to understand why.” History provides us with the necessary insights to resist manipulation and uphold our moral bearings, if we can find the courage and resilience of our character to do so.

In the United States today the term “Christianity” is weaponized to mobilize the current fascist movement by people who do not follow Jesus Christ’s teachings. White nationalism and fascism stand in direct opposition to core Christian values, yet Trump and his MAGA movement openly embrace both. Relying solely on the documented record of Trump’s statements and actions, these conclusions are certain. People who publicly identify as white nationalists or fascists openly recognize him as aligned with them. Measured against the teachings of Jesus as recorded in scripture, Trump’s conduct is the antithesis of Christian ethics. You cannot rectify advocating for Christian values while supporting policies that mandate ruthless killings. Nor countless people being terrorized, and forcibly and wrongly detained without cause, because of the color of their skin. The us vs them tribalism and the racism injected in it, which fuels the MAGA movement, are fundamentally unchristian. Yet people who claim to be devout followers support it. Jesus didn’t teach caring for white people. Jesus didn’t teach hate for your fellow people because of where you were born. Families are being destroyed, and people as young as 5 are being racially profiled and abducted because of the color of their skin. This is undeniably white supremacy, and there is nothing further from the teachings of Jesus than racism. Timothy Snyder warned, “[if people] confuse their ethics with the emotions of the moment… they can find themselves saying and doing things that they might previously have thought unimaginable.”

Mike Pence has clear and demonstrated commitment to his Christian faith; Trump does not. Yet it was Pence who Trump's supporters chanted they wanted to hang. That is because the white christian nationalist agenda that fuels Trump's supporters is based on control, and not Christian virtue, just as the history of white christian nationalism is a story of racist power control, and not Christian piety. The “deep story” of white christian nationalism, that tells of this country being founded by traditional Christians who based the founding documents on Christian principles, is a myth. As Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry observed in The Flag and The Cross, “The United States was not founded by Pilgrims and Puritans. Ninety-eight percent of America’s inhabitants were not evangelicals at the founding [of the United States]...And the Constitution says absolutely nothing about God, the Bible, or the Ten Commandments.” Below are examples of what the Founders did write. True records that ground the American project in limits on power, civic virtue, and individual rights rather than sectarian rule.

1. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson provided justification to world leaders for the colonists declaring independence from English rule. In reference to King George III, he said:
2. 1. “He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries”
   2. “He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation: fore quartering large bodies of armed troops against us: for protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states: for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: for imposing taxes on us without our consent: for depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences.”
   3. “For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments.”
   4. “He is at this time transporting large armies of mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the head of a civilized nation.”
   5. “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us”
2. The bill of rights states:
3. 1. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”
   2. “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated”
   3. “No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

The founding fathers condemned the very form of authoritarianism Trump embodies. They aimed to prevent a tyrant like Trump from gripping our country and aimed to “prevent misconstruction or abuse of powers” by creating the Bill of Rights to limit the government’s power to infringe on rights afforded to its people, regardless of citizen status - the very rights Trump and his policies make a mockery of every day. Trump is explicitly and unapologetically following a fascist playbook. Here are clear examples of how:

• Hans Frank was the Nazi Minister of Justice who, in 1934, said: “Nazi Germany will never surrender the principle of race legislation and German law will never surrender it as a fundamental basis for a racial life.” He claimed the law was to serve the race, and so what was good for the race, therefore, should become the law.
• Trump posted on Truth Social, “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Stating that ‘fraud’ permits the termination of constitutional articles is a declaration of personal sovereignty over law, which is textbook fascism.
• Trump lost the election and subsequently tried to falsify the results while his followers attacked our capital to try to stop the peaceful and constitutional transfer of power. It was a violent coup attempt enabled, stoked, and allowed to continue, by Trump. The objective on January 6 was clear: halt certification, nullify the democratic process, and retain power outside the law.
• Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt made it clear that their strategy was to employ emergency as a method. The Nazis manufactured a general conviction that their circumstances were exceptional and justified their actions as necessary for the artificial emergency. They sold citizens on the idea that all the atrocities were necessary for their safety. The same strategy Trump employs today.
• Trump brands unfavorable facts as “lies”, calls journalists “enemies of the people” and often decries “fake news” when a story he doesn’t like is published. Nazis used the term “Lügenpresse” with the same intent. Trump delegitimizes independent media, openly attacking and working in earnest to silence the free press.
• Vaclav Havel said, “If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living in truth.” Authoritarians and fascists fear investigators and fear truth; a leader who punishes scrutiny behaves as a tyrant.
• When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, when party violence is fused with state force, you are under a fascist state.
• Timothy Snyder elegantly put it: "Fascists despised the small truths of daily existence, loved slogans that resonated like a new religion, and preferred creative myths to history or journalism.”

We must critically see what is happening through a renewed lens and challenge that against Christian values. This administration openly flaunts hate, racism, greed, and gluttony. Matthew 7:15 warned of false prophets exactly like Trump.

No one of any just moral character who has witnessed what is happening can abide it – regardless of their political party. This is not a matter of partisan preference - despite the MAGA movement’s efforts to convince you otherwise - employed so you ignore their collapse of moral virtue. As Philip S Gorski and Samuel L Perry put it, “There are moments when political principles are more important than policy debates.” The support of Trump by many Christians is evidence of a vulnerability in moral discernment.

Victor Klemperer (1881-1960), a German literary scholar who chronicled life under Nazism said truth dies in 4 phases:

1. Open hostility to verifiable reality. Such as calling January 6th a “peaceful protest.”
2. Shamanistic incantation or endless repetition of the lies, propaganda and manipulation.
3. The open embrace of contradiction. For example, sanctioning the murdering of fishermen in the name of drug intervention while promising “full and complete” pardons to allies convicted of large‑scale drug crimes (e.g., Juan Orlando Hernández).
4. The final mode is misplaced faith. Trusting the leader’s will over evidence, law, and conscience; a surrender of truth for belonging.

Trump, his administration, and his base have followed these four phases to the letter. Oppressors must first destroy truth to enable manipulation and distort our moral bearings.

If this reinforces your existing beliefs, know that many brilliant people over millennia have fallen under the spell of propaganda. To combat a fascist regime built on hate, one must support others who have fallen victim to its grip through compassion. No one is immune to it - understanding this allows for the necessary empathy. If you are reading this in disagreement, I ask you to try looking at the world through a new lens. Reread the examples provided and try in good faith to stitch together a cohesive alignment between Christian ideals and the current administration. You will see the way modern secular nationalists have weaponized “christianity” as a means to an end; the tools of misinformation being used against you. See the fascism playbook being unapologetically deployed.

This message is not aimed at convincing white christian nationalist as it is unlikely to affect their entrenched fantasies. It was written for Christians. People who intend for their actions to align with the teachings of Jesus and the bible's scripture. Understand that when you delineate between the white christian nationalist agenda and an agenda that aims to build sustained peace, you also delineate between evil and hate, and the Christian faith.

Christians are called to embody love, not to canonize power. The work now is to discern, name, and reject what is unchristian: agendas built on hate. Jesus Christ would be supporting the most vulnerable in our communities and condemn Trump and his administration.