So lately I\u2019ve been noticing some rhetoric on the right that seems at odds with what had been more standard claims to a great devotion to the constitution. I\u2019m probably not as linked into these networks as many others, so I\u2019m curious what additional information T&S readers may know.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d heard some rhetoric like the \u201cFlight 93\u201d concept and others, but was particularly struck by the popular clip of Medhi Hassan debating<\/a> young conservatives and the statements made by a young white Catholic man. He said he didn\u2019t mind being called a Fascist, that he loved Francisco Franco as the ideal ruler, and wanted to get American law aligned with Catholic standards including imposing blasphemy laws.<\/p>\n This came across as an odd combination to me.<\/p>\n Steve Bannon\u2019s continual insistence on Trump serving a third term seemed equally adrift from the constitution and I was interested to learn<\/a> that Bannon is a conservative Catholic. To be clear, me noting this trend isn’t a critique of Catholicism as a whole for which I have a lot of admiration. Clearly Catholics Integralists only form a portion of American Catholics (I have no idea what portion).<\/p>\n In this context, I was particularly struck by a claim from Mike Cosper on the Dispatch<\/em><\/a>. Cosper, a former Protestant minister, was speaking with a Protestant son a friend who attends Columbia University, and Cosper expressed to the kid his condolences over the difficulties a conservative religious kid would going to school there (around minute 16).<\/p>\n \u201cIt is but not for the reason that you think,\u201d the student responded. \u201cWhen I go to the young conservative gatherings on this campus, it\u2019s full of hardcore monarchists, Catholic Integralists; these people who are essentially saying that democracy was a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n