American Fascists--Chris Hedges

Last year, I read Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming, about the rise of "Christian Nationalism," the political movement of evangelical Christians. I said it was the scariest book I had read in a while. Strike that, American Fascists is the scariest book I have read, possibly ever. Picking up on the same themes, but with more alarmism, Hedges describes the twenty-five year progression that began with Pat Robertson's and Jerry Falwell's early televangelism, and has led to enormous political influence over government from the local school board that mandates the teaching of creationism to the establishment of the Republican Party. Hedges makes a number of arguments, but his most paradoxical is that liberals who value a free society are harming that very ideal by tolerating the intolerant "Dominionists". He likens the movement, whose ultimate political goal is an American theocracy, to the Nazi party. Hedges--the son of a Presbyterian minister, graduate of Harvard Divinity School, and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist--has the street cred to know of what he speaks. If this interests you, read it, along with Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming. It will send shivers down your spine.