Betty Cracker

In that way, the coming election feels like a referendum on the role of conservative Christianity in American public life. And some conservative Christians worry that it is a race that is harder and harder to win.

Forcing women who are miscarrying to bleed out in hospital parking lots until local theocrats are satisfied patients are close enough to death to warrant medical attention isn’t broadly popular! Nor is using the apparatus of the state to harass queer people, whitewash history and ban books.

It’s not surprising that social conservatives are whining about their dwindling cultural relevance even as they hatch anti-democratic plots to impose their views on people who don’t share them. That’s who they are. It’s always been who they are.

But their access to power is more durable than they let on in that article, unfortunately. The SCOTUS majority’s whiny, entitled and thoroughly corrupt justices (most notably Alito and Thomas) perfectly embody the larger SoCon movement. They will be a millstone around America’s neck until they die off during a Democratic administration (with a trifecta) and/or are diminished by an expanded court.

In a sense, this makes their whining and aggrievement even more insufferable. It would be lovely to see voters resoundingly reject the radical clerics who have a growing portion of the country under their thumbs, so here’s hoping their worst nightmares come true with regard to their cultural influence. May the “everything Trump touches dies” axiom apply to this group.

That is necessary, but it’s not sufficient. We’ll be battling the already embedded SoCons’ pernicious authority for the rest of our lives, in the courts and in antimajoritarian institutions like the U.S. Senate. And our children after us. Maybe this resentful group’s fears about the future are justified because more people see that now? November will provide important clues on that.

Open thread.