We get so easily caught up in the political game. Will Biden drop out? Harris is gaining in polls. Who will she pick for VP? Will Trump accept defeat? or start another coup attempt? Will state secretaries of state certify the votes? While we ponder the moves of the game, all the while the real issue remains hidden beneath our level of consciousness. And that issue is simply this: why are so many Americans planning to intentionally abolish their democracy and vote for a dictator? The latest data tells us that 30% of the population agree with the aims of Project 2025 [white male Christian rule], including a majority of Republicans and 2/3 of evangelical Christians [formerly known as fundamentalists]. Those are huge numbers, which means that even if Harris wins the election, almost 1/3 of Americans will feel disenfranchised and, under devious leadership, will continue to plot the demise of our democracy. The rest of us will live under the constant threat and fear that our whole lifestyle will be stripped away. 

The motivation for the billionaire class is obvious. Money. Trump brazenly asked fossil fuel execs to give him 1 billion dollars in exchange for total regulatory freedom to do as they liked. We don’t know that the offer has been rejected. Peter Thiel, a billionaire white Christian nationalist, believes that freedom and democracy are incompatible. The Maga crowd believes he speaks of their freedom from immigrants, whereas in reality, he is speaking of the oligarch’s freedom from regulations. In a conversation that I once had with a Texas oil billionaire, he referred to New Zealand as a wonderful country—wonderful because they let you do whatever you want. The lesson is clear: what the Maga crowd hears and what the boys in power mean are two different things. But if we think beyond the rich elite misleading the gullible crowd, the question remains: what is it that motivates magas to endorse a dictator? 

A decade of planning a coup has taught the greedy, super-rich, and powerful that the immigration card trumps everything. They’re coming for your job, taking aim at your family, your home, your religion, your country, and you need a strongman to protect you. Trump uses this fear all the time, and it is questionable whether the Democratic promise of building out the middle class can counter the fear, much less erase it, even with all the support from unions and independents. But digging deeper, we discover that something else is going on. I have argued on many occasions that human beings create their own perception of reality and that as time goes on, we less and less allow the outside world to educate us, instead forcing that outside world to conform to our expectations and desires. The inevitable result is that, cut off from reality, we feel as though something is missing in our life, as indeed it is. Blind to the fullness of life that surrounds us, we search for meaning while we live in a void. That emptiness being a most uncomfortable feeling, we seek to escape the void in a variety of ways. We get lost in the omnipresent screen, be it a phone, a computer, or a TV. Some escape in shopping, or extreme sports, or the insatiable search for wealth. And some escape in a semi-religious political frenzy, a self-defining mass hysteria. That’s where we are today. The Maga movement is an escape people use to fill the emptiness in their lives, the hole in their spirit. They meet up with friends at rallies, see the celebrities, send their hard-earned dollars, blame everything bad on the immigrants who want to transform our white male Christian culture and go home feeling good about themselves. Put on your red hat, and you got friends.

But the story has another chapter. The current surge of enthusiasm for Kamala is a dam broke loose. The 70% of the population who have loved their democracy for too long have been hunkering down, trembling and demoralized, waiting and waiting for something, anything that would release and galvanize the pent-up energy. And then it happened. Support came from everywhere. Politicians joined in. Donors, big and small, stepped forward en masse. The enthusiasm is contagious. The Democratic promise of a good job, health care, and education is essential to the hope of a brighter future, but just as important is the fact that the Void has been lifted, the emptiness filled, and a new community is on the march. Maintaining and invigorating the camaraderie will be a priority, and helping folks find meaning in making life better for all will turn void into vision. The common good, to which Biden often refers, making life better for all, will be the momentum that sustains the movement and embodies that vision. Some call it kindness, some respect. Others call it love. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carl Krieg, Ph.D. received his BA from Dartmouth College, MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of What to Believe? the Questions of Christian Faith,   The Void and the Vision,  The New Matrix: How the World We Live In Impacts Our Thinking About Self and God and How The Rich Stole Jesus. As professor and pastor, Dr. Krieg has taught innumerable classes and led many discussion groups. He lives with his wife Margaret in Norwich, VT.