John Humnicky is a retired computer engineer from Woodinville. A few days ago he wrote an opinion piece for the Seattle Times. It began:

“Our country is bankrupt, fiscally, morally, and mentally. Courts have been prostituted, and sometimes law enforcement is not even attempted. Congress is a heterogeneous conglomerate of diversified interest and when it adjourns there is a general sigh of relief from the populace. It commands no respect from anyone and its chief function seems to be subject to uncomplimentary cartoons and comedians jokes. We already have chaos. Will the people’s discussed manifest itself in revolt revolution? Is there decency enough left in this country to preserve our way of life? Do we want to? Is it worth person preserving?”

I know that many people besides me, think that this is an accurate description of our country in 2023. However, it turns out that it was written 56 years ago by his grandfather who was 75 years age at the time he wrote it.  We are still dealing with the problems that existed half a century ago when it was written.  At time it was written there was no governmental safeguards such as Social Security or welfare. Everyone was pretty much “on their own. But, President Franklin D.  Roosevelt was elected with government providing assistance as well as other action . By the 1960s the “new Deal” and Lyndon Johnson’s “great Society” were still in full flourish.  So, why are facing the same kinds of national problems today? As I write this, we are teetering on the edge of catastrophic national financial default. Why? Because congress has stopped functioning as it was constitutionally intended to function and government has spent taxpayers money recklessly and corruptly. As evidence of this fact the Republicans played a dangerous game of Russian roulette in an attempt to blackmail political positions or let the country go bankrupt.

The First Amendment provides “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Yet, the judiciary is selected and elected not on the basis of the most qualified and objective person to make sure laws are fairly forced. Instead, they are elected and selected for their political and religious views making the judiciary as much a part of partisan politics as the legislature. A prime illustration is the fight over the selection of supreme court judges which focused upon their views about evangelical Christian religious issues such as abortion. The essential and historical bright line of division between religion and government is virtually gone. For example, the Texas legislature debated a law which would have required the ten Commandments to be posted in every school classroom. This is one example of similar laws favoring conservative Christian beliefs proposed or passed by state legislatures as well as rulings by the Trump Supreme Court.

In addition, we are involved in a movement advancing white Christian nationalism. Their belief is  that America is a white Christian nation and that government should keep it that way. The evangelical Christian church followers support the Christian nationalists efforts to pass laws and regulations that conform to their religious views. They do so in spite of  fact other citizens have their own differing views and the clear Constitutional prohibition. The most glaring illustration is that dealing with political war over abortion. At its essence, the preponderance of the opposition to abortion is belief that it is the taking of human life prohibited by Christian teaching. As a religious belief, legislatures and the judiciary have no Constitutional role in the subject and do so is imposing religious views by law on all citizens.

It’s been pointed out that this Christian nationalistic  movement can trace its history of  extremism from “the John Birch Society’s rabid anti-communism in the 1950s through the Moral Majority’s anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ backlash in the 1980s, to the recent MAGA vigilantes attacking the Capitol while holding “Jesus Is My Savior—Trump Is My President” flags.” They believe that America was founded by Christians who modeled its laws and institutions after Protestant ideals with a mission to spread the religion and those ideals. But, they see threats from non-whites, non-Christians, and immigrants from accomplishing this.  They believe the United States is on the “precipice of catastrophic decline.” These Christian nationalists think they have a righteous justification to “save the nation.”  They are preparing for the collapse of the our Constitutional government and the chance to rebuild a government based on their white nationalistic religious views.

I have no solutions to any of these issues.  I can only hope we can somehow restore the full spirit of the Constitution of the United States. to our government. I do think if  we could limit the amount of political contributions allowed to be paid to ,political candidates, and end life time appointments to the federal bench, especially the U.S. Supreme Court, that would be a small start.