See If You Can Tell The Differences Between The Republican Convention and A Nazi Rally

Last year, Tennessee’s theocratic Governor Bill Lee signed Senate Bill No. 3, which has become known as the “Anti-Drag Bill.” It makes it illegal to engage in “adult cabaret” in any location where a person who is not an adult could view the performance, and even though the word “drag” appears nowhere in the bill, it goes on to describe performers as “male or female impersonators” and makes it a crime to do this where it might be “harmful to minors.” Basically what happened is this: As christian conservatives caught wind of drag queens reading to kids in libraries, white evangelicals did what they do in red states: They clutched their collective pearls, cried out for somebody to “think of the children,” and went on to pass a law to enforce their religion’s sexual ethic on everyone else. Yesterday, a trump appointed circuit court judge just reversed a lower court ruling against the unconstitutional Anti-Drag Bill. So as of right now in Tennessee, if someone dresses in drag in public and there are children around, they are in danger of being arrested. Because for MANY people, a person who is in drag just sitting on a couch and EXISTING can be harmful to kids… As we see here where Mom’s For Liberty member Beth Bourne accosts drag queens who were just waiting in a Waikiki hotel lobby.

So yeah… That’s what these folks think is harmful to children. Just their kids SEEING a man in makeup and a dress is an existential threat to them and the precious eyes of their children. Where they can, christians pass laws to make it illegal for drag performers to be places where kids might even see them (even though kids are about 1000 times more likely to get sexually abused at church than at a drag show… but I digress). In the state I live in, if men in drag—wearing dresses & makeup—march for their right to dance and express themselves, they can be arrested for that. Fast forward from June to July…

Earlier this month, multiple different white supremacist and neo-nazis groups marched through the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, shouting their hatred & bigotry through bullhorns and cowardly identity-hiding masks (while talking about “pride,” ironically). Disaffected and angry white men took to the streets of Nashville to protest their perceived dwindling privilege. And the people to blame? Black & Brown people, immigrants, and Jews apparently. They believe there is a white genocide happening… A “Great Replacement” conspiracy designed by powerful people to use immigration and interracial marriage to dwindle the numbers and power of white Americans.

Unlike drag queens in public places, THESE people playing dress up were not worried about being arrested for their actions. Quite the opposite—they had police protection as they marched. Because dressing up and marching is USUALLY protected actions in America. Genuinely, it feels like the GOP enjoys these sorts of glaring hypocrisies. It feels like a flex. Like, “Yeah, I SEE that it’s hypocritical… We’re going to do it anyway, so you fear how powerful we are.” One of the slogans that the white supremacists and neo-nazis shouted as they marched was the phrase “DEPORTATION SAVES THE NATION.” Fast forward from the nazi marches in early July to this week’s Republican Convention...

And I would bet you that 100% of the throngs of white people at the nazi rally Republican Convention holding up those Deportation Saves The Nation “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!” signs identify as christians. They probably go to church that supports Tennessee’s Anti-Drag Law, and the pastor backs up his bigotry by quoting a Bible verse that says, “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lᴏʀᴅ your God.” But something tells me that same church is not giving a lot of time to the many verses commanding God’s people to be kind and hospitable to the alien, immigrant, & stranger… Verses like, “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God.” But again—The hypocrisy is a flex. It’s the same sort of hypocrisy that has an executive of the gay hook-up app Grindr refer to the republican Convention as “basically Grindr’s Super Bowl.”

It’s said that “When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” This week’s Republican Convention is a testament to that saying. We are on the precipice of a very, very dangerous time. People really didn’t think that Trump would win in 2016, so there wasn’t a plan in place for what to do with him in the White House. 2024 is different. If you haven’t watched this segment from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, PLEASE take the time to do it now.

We are living in a time where a white supremacist billionaire literally BOUGHT the platform where hundreds of millions of Americans got their news, he changed the rules to encourage the views of avowed racists & neo-nazis (where you can now drop the N-word with impunity, but you can’t say “cisgender”), and he changed the algorithm to boost his own conspiracies while he donates $45million a month to trump’s super pac. Mere minutes on social media can make you feel so defeated and hopeless… And people who are hopeless are a lot less likely to vote. But I’ve got some good news for you that I swear is true: There are WAY more people who are disgusted by the Republican Party and the cult of trump than there are people who support it. All that needs to happen to prevent America’s slide into fascism is for those people to vote.

So listen… I realize you’re scared. I’m scared too. I realize you’re tired & frustrated. I’m tired & frustrated too. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably angry… Angry at the utter failure of the American church in this time… Angry at the way so many of our neighbors seem to embrace the hateful ideology of trump’s Republican Party… Angry that our choice for president—once again—comes down to two very old white men. But we MUST allow that anger to turn to ACTION and not APATHY. I really don’t care if you think that the fact that Joe Biden is 3 years older than the narcissistic rapist felon conman he’s running against somehow makes him too old to be president. We are not voting for one man. We are voting for an ADMINISTRATION. One is an administration that is trying to improve worker’s rights, provide Americans with affordable healthcare, and ask more from millionaires and billionaires to give back to the nation & system that allowed them to amass such wealth.

The other administration includes a VP who referred to trump as “America’s Hitler” (which I feel like SHOULD be a negative, but turns out it might be a selling point). They want to get rid of the Department of Education. They want to get rid of NOAA, OSHA, the FDA and any other agency that regulates or protects workers. They want to get rid of non-partisan specialists and experts within the government, and be able to replace them with MAGA loyalists. They want a nation-wide abortion ban, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or even cases where the life of the mother is in danger. They are running on MASS DEPORTATIONS, for God’s sake. And they want to reduce taxes on the super rich while increasing taxes on the poor and middle class… even though trump added nearly $9trillion to the national debt while in office.

One administration is trying to help working people by pushing policy which protects us from the whims & power of an aspiring oligarchy. The other is working directly on behalf of that oligarchy.

One is led by an old white man who has a stutter. The other is led by an old white man who’s a convicted felon whose name appears all of Jeffery Epstein’s flight records, was found liable by a jury of his peers in a court of law for rape and slander, incited and insurrection and then waited HOURS before telling his followers to stop, bragged about sexual assault and “grabbing them by the pussy,” took the side of Putin over the American intelligence community, lies so much it’s nearly impossible to fact check him in real time, and has a convention that is almost impossible to tell apart from an actual nazi rally.

You. Me. WE have a responsibility to vote. Whoever’s name is at the top of the democratic ticket… THAT is who we must vote for. I don’t care if it’s Joe Biden, Joe Biden’s ghost, or Joe Biden’s shadow. Hell, I would vote for Donald Trump’s bloated & soiled Depends Undergarments before I’d vote for Donald Trump. We’re voting for an administration. If Biden says he’s staying in the race, then that’s who we are voting for. We are voting for FILL IN THE BLANK, because the other option would be unthinkable, and he’d do harm that could take decades to repair. We can & will do this… Do NOT lose hope!

If you are feeling hopeful right now, please don’t forget to take the time to encourage the people around you. These are dark days, but it’s far from over. In both France and England, voters overwhelmingly rejected fascism and right-wing extremism in their most recent elections. The news wants to paint a picture of hopelessness, because people without hope don’t stand in line to vote. But there IS hope. In the words of Winston Churchill, “I am an optimist. It does not seem of too much use being anything else.” Anyway, f you’d like more of me in your life, you can follow my on Facebook or on Twitter. And if you’d like to support my writing, leave a tip, or pass on some financial encouragement, you can do that on PATREON, on PAYPAL, or Venmo at chris-boeskool. Love y’all.