James Madison–my favorite Indiana historian, not my favorite Founding. Father–has recently written a column documenting what many of us have come to recognize: White Christian Nationalism is the contemporary KKK.
Madison should know. He wrote the book tracing the history of the Klan in Indiana.
The inauguration of Gov. Mike Braun and Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith sparks thoughts of the similar inauguration 100 years ago, on January 12, 1925, when Edward Jackson and Harold Van Orman took their oaths. The past never repeats itself exactly, but in this case there are lines that rhyme and questions that cause concern.
At the dinner following Gov. Jackson’s inauguration, William Herschell recited his beloved poem, “Ain’t God Good to Indiana.” In the reception line next to the new governor stood Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson, the man who boasted that “I am the law in Indiana.” The two men had plans.
Madison notes that Jackson is considered the worst governor in Indiana history, and most Hoosiers know that Stephenson–Madison calls him “vile”–was a murderer and a blot on an already dark Indiana history.
The forces that created these two men remain with us. Indiana’s new governor and lieutenant governor are not Klansmen, but in the religious and political culture around them are scents of a century ago, when the Klan dominated the Hoosier state.
Those white, native-born Protestants who flocked to the Klan in the early 1920s called themselves 100% Americans. They boasted that only they were the real Americans. They created enemies to exclude and people to hate. Jews, African Americans, immigrants and, above all, Catholics were “the others.” By 1924, one political operative lamented, “Ideas of race and religion now dominate political thought.”
Those Klan boasts sound eerily like the rhetoric employed by MAGA cultists. Madison tells us that fear of Russian Bolsheviks and German Huns widened to include all immigrants and non-White Christians. The Klan repeatedly insisted on “America First.”
In rhetoric that sounds a lot like Trump’s, the Klan claimed that the country was going to “hell in a handbasket.”
A Christian crusade was the remedy. The Klan promised to enforce prohibition, censor Hollywood films, stop backseat sex, end political corruption, and keep women closer to the kitchen, nursery, and Sunday school room. Giving women the ballot, reported the Klan’s weekly newspaper, The Fiery Cross, “would foster masculine boldness and restless independence, which might detract from the modesty and virtue of womankind.”
Shades of today’s “tradwives.”
Madison explains that Klan members were convinced that they were the real, “100% Americans.” Much like today’s Christian Nationalists, they were motivated by White Supremacy. “Onward Christian Soldiers,” became the “beloved hymn of the Klan.”
Indiana had (and I think it is fair to say, still has) what Madison called “low expectations for government and high tolerance for corruption” –an environment that invited the state’s descent into a Klan stronghold.
Along with a governor, a majority—perhaps a supermajority—of the 1925 General Assembly were Klan members or sympathizers. Nearly all were white, Protestant and native born, joined by only four Catholics, four foreign born, and not a single African American or Jewish member.
The 1925 Klan legislature was mostly a bust. Internal divisions and self-aggrandizement led to only modest success in pushing through the Klan agenda. All assumed there would be other sessions to make good.
Madison’s column includes information about the resistance to the Klan. Stephenson’s conviction for rape and murder in 1925 added to the growing awareness of the Klan’s threat to basic American values, and Madison tells us that by 1930, the Klan was mostly gone in Indiana. “Nobody wanted to admit he’d ever belonged,” one reporter recalled.
Perhaps the most important observation in Madison’s essay is the following:
The intolerance in the last 50 years has come not from an out-of-date Klan but from a potpourri of sprawling and amorphous groups and movements, often linked to versions of Christian nationalism. As with the old Klan, today’s Christian nationalists tend toward binary choices of good and evil, toward a willingness to force their religious and cultural views on all of us, and toward use of government power in undemocratic and authoritarian ways that Indiana’s pioneers would have found appalling. Those pioneers wrote a Constitution in 1816 that contains the finest words ever penned on Indiana soil, including such commitments as “no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious societies, or modes of worship.”
Too many of our lawmakers have failed to heed that state Constitutional provision.
You really need to click through and read the whole essay–and then join us at tomorrow’s rally to kick off resistance to the re-emergence of the Klan, this time wearing red hats rather than sheets.
I’ll be there!
What is it about the human psyche that so many feel compelled to us hate, prejudice and bigotry as their basis for existence? Tribalism? Probably partly responsible. Economics? Slavery in America preceded our nation’s founding and created a massive slaughter when it was repealed. Capitalism? Certainly unregulated capitalism embraces all prejudices that keep maximum profits from destroying the entire society.
Marx saw this coming 160 + years ago. And here we are, too stupid to see that we’ve created the very tools and philosophy to destroy ourselves. And some people think that my doom-saying is invalid. Maybe. But I don’t see any intellectual restraints coming from any Republicans anywhere, Indiana included.
I’m glad I’m old and have hobbies.
“Constitution? We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitution!” – IN GOP (and MAGADOGE)
It is vital that newsletters and other sources of factual information be preserved as testaments of truth that can stand against the onslaught of lies and “alternative facts” that are bound to be flooding the zone.
One other point I would like to make is that while Braun was our Senator he proposed some legislation that I support, namely S. 2990, the “Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area and Wilderness Establishment Act of 2023”, and in 2020 he introduced “The Trillion Trees and Natural Carbon Storage Act“.
Whether these were sincere efforts to address climate change and reduce deforestation or a cynical manipulation of public opinion in order to gather votes is a legitimate question, but on their face I support them.
Beckwith, on the other hand, is that “bat-sh*t crazy book-burnin’ son of a b*tch” and he is indeed a frightening throwback to a dark time in Indiana history.
I will also state that Beckwith was not Braun’s choice for Lt Governor, but was picked by the Indiana Republican Convention, for whatever that is worth.
Speaking of hate. Why has the Biden administration normalized genocide?
It appears that hate isn’t exclusive to the Republicans.
We are in a world of hurt.
“Indiana’s new governor and lieutenant governor are not Klansmen…” They may not be dues paying Klansmen and they may use their sheets only on their beds but KKK is a mindset that effects millions in this country and they turn to the GOP for reciprocal support. It has always been and it shall always be!
White Christian Nationalism is the contemporary KKK who have simply expanded by adding groups to their list of “others”. Sadly; their choice of “others” includes women of all colors, physical health conditions, and those whose sexual orientations doesn’t meet their standards along with religious choice, economic situations, political affiliations, age levels…in other words most of us who are not MAGAs. Those of us who support the “others” are included on their list of “others”.
Lawmakers nation wide are ignoring their own state level Constitutions as well as the Constitution of the United States of America to brainwash our youth through the education systems. Like “Hitler’s Youth” they are supported via the voucher system in private (religious) schools using public school funds for financial support and a return to segregation.
The KKK mind set has never left Indiana and has expanded to infect red states. It will become the Rule of Law at noon on Monday, January 20, 2025.
It is very obvious that the zealots read past the 2nd commandment given to Moses.
Saw this a couple of days ago….. If Paul saw the church in the United States today, we’d be getting a letter.
We all love to see ourselves as the final creation of the Universe, and, thanks to the work of a few scientists, knowers, and rulers of that Universe.
We are indeed more advanced than mushrooms.
The rest is pure hubris, a primary feature of our species.
Of course, other scientists have developed AI, which is nascent and capable of acquiring what we believe only we can possess—more hubris.
We are “trads,” locked in our private worlds wholly defined by our unique DNA and the culture we emerged into.
In a single month in 1964, I graduated as an engineer, we got married, and I started an engineering career. All I had to offer was what existed back then in Herkimer, NY—nothing but the traditions of the time. I am sure our kids and theirs, locked in their traditions, think we are strange.
I muse about our journey through life, knowing that we are normal and everyone else shares unique stories of human life on this planet so far. Someday, the me that everyone I know sees me as will be consumed by fire, and what I am made of will undoubtedly be recycled into another life.
Trads are temporary fashions. None is better or worse than any other. Even mushrooms have them.
Ian, hate isn’t exclusive to Republicans, but it is exclusive to Homo Sapiens. Biden didn’t normalize genocide. It’s been a human thing for thousands of years.
Now on to the point of the blog. The Klan never left Indiana and anyone who thinks it did isn’t facing facts. Admittedly the focus changed to racism, but the Grand Dragon lived in Martinsville in the 60s and 70s. One summer in the early 70s, I had the pleasure of working for a company that sold encyclopedias door to door. One of my co-workers was a very sweet young African American. She was sent to Martinsville to knock on doors. She was shot and killed in broad daylight in the middle of the city. Nobody saw a thing. The next day we were told by our managers about the murder. I asked why on earth they had sent her to the heart of Klan Land? They said they had no idea that the Klan was still a thing. That was my last day at that company. If you want more stories, I have more.
Indiana has a long history of bigotry. Until we admit that who we are today is who we’ve always been, it isn’t likely that significant change will happen.
There remains a predominance of the Klan mindset in Indiana and possibly most other midwestern states, if we are to judge based on the outcome of the recent elections. The new Klan was smart enough to pack the court system to prevent a judgement that would undermine their narrative. Ethical behavior is harming the defense of democracy.
The first time I ventured out to New Palestine back in the 80s I found out that’s where the grand dragon lived. I learned the high school mascot, the Red Dragons was a direct link to that heritage. You can still drive out US 52 and see the red dragon on the side of an old barn letting you know to turn.
There’s been attempts to change the name of the mascot more than once but the good people of New Palestine (all white mostly)are proud of their traditions and have strong feelings about keeping that connection.
The Karen at the airport last week is a preview of the racists emerging and they are going to take the n-word back
We are in for some shock and awe verbal abuse that is sadly going to lead to violence. Indiana is always first to the bottom of everything bad.