Tag Archives: Mike Braun

Indiana’s “Christian” Soldiers…

Elections have consequences–and in Indiana, those consequences are potentially frightening.

Thanks to gerrymandering and the refusal of rural voters to cast a ballot for anyone who doesn’t have an R by their name, the state is currently “governed” (note quotation marks) by  a slate of pathetic wanna-bes and Christian Nationalists. We have a governor who is clearly more interested in the title (and in staying in Trump/MAGA’s good graces) than in policy; an Attorney General who evidently skipped his law school class on ethics, and who has turned the office into a performative culture war outpost; a Secretary of State who was elected despite obvious incompetence and corruption and has continued to exhibit both.

And then, of course, there is our Lieutenant Governor, Micah Beckwith, who consistently displays his ignorance of the Constitution and Bill of Rights while working to turn Indiana into a Christian theocracy.

The Statehouse File recently reported on meetings Beckwith has been having with others in the Christian Taliban.

At a closed-door meeting in April, Micah Beckwith and members of what the Indiana lieutenant governor called his Anti-Woke Advisory Committee laid out an aggressive strategy to expand conservative influence in public schools and push back against what the group identified as “woke policy creep.”

The committee detailed plans to launch conservative student clubs, reshape teacher training programs, and identify school districts where diversity and pro-LGBTQ+ policies are in place, according to meeting notes obtained by The Indiana Citizen and verified as authentic by a person familiar with the committee. Many of the discussion topics were aimed at ramping up political pressure on school boards.

Attendees at the meeting included the Executive Director and Education Director of the far-ritht Indiana Family Institute, Former Attorney General Curtis Hill ( you will recall his law license was suspended over groping allegations),  Jay Hart, a Morgan County conservative who unsuccessfully challenged state Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray in a 2024 Republican primary, State Senator Craig Haggard, a Republican from Mooresville, and several other Christian Nationalist activists.

The committee was formed by Beckwith, who self-identifies as a Christian nationalist, and the Statehouse File reports that the meeting focused on “specific steps to launch conservative clubs in schools and target teachers, education colleges, and programs they see as promoting pro-LGBTQ+ content or “leftist ideology.”

Beckwith’s animus toward the gay community and his efforts to marginalize the members of that community are longstanding, and the committee spent considerable time focusing on potential anti-gay measures. Participants noted that some teachers continue to display LGBTQ+ flags and classroom décor to signal inclusion, which they described as a way to “push agendas.”

I guess it’s only an “agenda” when it isn’t consistent with your effort to “Christianize” the state, an effort that somehow isn’t an “agenda.”

The committee extended its focus beyond classrooms to nonprofit organizations, recommending audits of groups with state-issued specialty license plates to ensure they were in compliance with what they called “anti-DEI executive orders.” The Indianapolis Youth Group, which provides services and support to LGBTQ+ youth, was specifically named for review.

The linked report also documents Beckwith’s relationships with figures of several national far-right groups.

During the meeting, members proposed a quarterly “Woke Radar Report” to track what they consider “problem districts” and suggested mechanisms that would give Beckwith a platform to pressure local school boards. According to the article, the institution of such a report “would function both as a watchdog tool and a political instrument, spotlighting schools where progressive policies are growing.”

The article has much more–all pretty terrifying, and absolutely none of it consistent with the job description of the office of Lieutenant Governor. That office is charged with heading up the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, and the Office of Community and Rural Affairs. (I believe it also heads up efforts to increase tourism.) Nowhere does that portfolio include the Christianizing of the schools.

Of course, the Lieutenant Governor also becomes Governor if the sitting governor dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to serve. I’m no fan of empty suit Mike Braun, but I certainly hope he’s healthy…

These sorry excuses for state “leadership” sure don’t make me proud to be a Hoosier….

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And In Trumpy Indiana

I’ve been seeing calls for a national protest on February 5th–to take place at all 50 statehouses. I believe from noon to 2:00. If anyone can confirm, or identify the original sponsors, please post that information. If you need something tangible and Hoosier to protest, today’s post should deliver…

If you wondered whether Indiana’s new Governor, Mike Braun, would follow the agenda of his running mates–Beckwith, Banks and RoQuita, all of whom are “out and proud” White Christian Nationalists–there’s no longer any doubt. Braun is slavishly following Trump’s assault on anyone who isn’t a straight White Christian Male.

Mike Leppert has accurately described Braun’s assault, which consists of “othering” any group that doesn’t fall into that slice of Hoosier citizenship. Braun immediately followed Trump’s lead by purging state government of any DEI efforts. Then his budget proposal took an ax to disfavored “others.”

He began with the Indians.

In 2025, new Governor Mike Braun, in his first budget proposal in office, proposes to end funding for the Native American Indian Affairs Commission. The cut comes as part of his 15% cut to the Indiana Civil Rights Commission. That may sound like a lot of money, but it isn’t. The state is spending less than $3 million a year on the ICRC in the current budget.

It got worse from there.

As Leppert quite accurately noted, budget proposals from a newly elected governor are a marker, defining his priorities– and in this case, defining his character as well.

In addition to withdrawing from his predecessor’s agreement with the Pokagon Indians, Braun’s budget eliminates funding for the Indiana Commission for Women, an organization created to assess the needs of Indiana women and their families and promote their full participation in Indiana society. Also gone is $10 million earmarked for Martin University, and the College Success Program. Martin University is Indiana’s only predominantly Black institution; the Success program assists minority and first-generation college students.

These cuts by Braun won’t change the lives of any white, male, Christian. Except for those comforted by real or perceived harm to the other. It’s a foundational change in governing philosophy that is still taking shape…

Braun isn’t managing money with these cuts, he’s managing messaging. These moves are proclamations of what he supports, or in these cases, what he opposes. And the fallout is not simple addition and subtraction in this one document.

As Leppert says, the message is obvious: Native American, Black and female populations are now officially “the others” in Indiana. Those populations now join the GOP’s ongoing attacks on trans people–and by implication, all LGBTQ Hoosiers.

We certainly won’t see any pushback on “othering” from a legislature that owes its GOP dominance from persistent gerrymandering. Senate Bill 235, for example, co-authored by the odious Mike Young, gleefully prohibits “state agencies, recipients of state contracts or grants, state educational institutions, and health profession licensing boards” from taking account of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Indiana’s legislature has also continued and deepened its all-out assault on education. Senate Bill 202–a sweeping bill attacking academic freedom in Indiana’s public colleges and universities– has been joined by HB 1002, a “high priority” of the Republican leadership. Its 130+ pages includes three especially noteworthy efforts to dumb down public education in the Hoosier state:

  • It removes all prerequisites for a person to be appointed to be Indiana Secretary of Education, paving the way for the Governor to appoint a non-educator or non-resident. 
  • It removes a requirement in current law that requires a governing body to provide a non-charter school that students of the same age or grade can attend.” This should be seen as a companion bill House Bill 1136, which would dissolve IPS and other urban districts and turn all of their schools into charters.  
  • HB 1002 also removes an existing responsibility of charter authorizers to ensure that the school is in compliance with applicable law. One of the ways charter schools currently differ from the private schools that accept vouchers is that they are subject to more stringent legal oversight; this provision would dramatically undermine that oversight–which is entirely absent from the voucher program.

It is impossible to miss the GOP’s agenda, both nationally and at the state level. That agenda follows the anti-democratic, anti-civic-equality prescriptions of Project 2025: ensure that straight White Christian males recover social dominance; continue and strengthen the anti-majoritarian systems (gerrymandering, electoral college, etc.) that facilitate governance by the Republican minority, make it difficult or impossible for higher education institutions to maintain intellectual integrity, and destroy the public schools that bring different students together, replacing them with religious schools that harden tribal affiliations. 

And while all that is going on, eradicate sources of information inconsistent with White Christian nationalist dogma–not just educational institutions, but media outlets unwilling to bend the knee, and government websites that might accidentally contain factual information about the composition of the American polity.

Blue states might resist Program 2025, but not the racist, misogynistic, homophobic troglodytes in Indiana government.  

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The Year Of The Woman?

Are we finally approaching that much-heralded (but thus far elusive) “year of the woman”–a year that, despite previous predictions, has yet to materialize?

Maybe. It’s happening in other countries, even those with a deeply “macho” culture–in Mexico, a woman has been elected President. In the U.S., twelve states currently have women governors.

Here in regressive, Red Indiana, the Democratic Party will run an all-women slate of statewide candidates, a first. I have previously written about my enthusiastic support for Jennifer McCormick, the former Superintendent of Public Instruction currently running for Governor. I have not previously written about Valerie McCray, who defeated Marc Carmichael, the candidate I supported for U.S. Senate, or about the contest between two other women–Destiny Wells and Beth White–who are the only candidates vying for the Attorney General nomination.

So let me get to it.

I’ve previously explained why Jennifer McCormick, who will face Trumper Mike Braun in November, would be an excellent Governor. If you visit her website, you will note that she is focused on issues that actually concern Hoosiers, unlike Braun, who–like all MAGA culture warriors–talks almost exclusively about the federal issues he did little or nothing to address in his six years as a Senator.

I recently sat down with Jennifer and her equally impressive campaign manager, and was encouraged to learn that, not only is she personally compelling and right on the issues, she is running a savvy, organized and well-thought-out campaign.

I have also had the opportunity to meet with Valerie McCray and her campaign manager, both of whom noted the extent to which Hoosiers–at least, Democratic-leaning ones– seem to be favoring women candidates this year. (Evidently, voters unfamiliar with either of the Democrats’ Senate contenders overwhelmingly opted for the female candidate.) That phenomenon failed to help Suzanne Crouch, the only woman vying for the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination–a reminder of the parties’ very different attitudes toward women.

As readers of this blog know, in the primary, I supported McCray’s opponent– an older white guy. (I firmly believe that voters should support candidates based upon their individual merits, rather than voting for an identity. I’ve known some pretty reprehensible women politicians.) That said, I was very relieved to find that McCray, whom I’d not previously known, isn’t only right on the issues  (see her excellent website), but is also energetic, informed, and thoughtful. That said, McCray’s biggest asset is actually her opponent, Jim Banks, who represents the most anti-American, anti-woman, theocratic aspects of the MAGA movement. (As I intend to explain in upcoming posts, Banks is very consistent–wrong about everything.) 

If Valerie McCray’s biggest campaign asset is Jim Banks, Todd Rokita will definitely fill that role for the eventual Democratic Attorney General nominee. I have posted about Rokita’s multiple deficits several times; he has been a consistent embarrassment to the legal profession and to the Hoosier State. He was a disgrace as a Congressman and has ignored his professional and ethical obligations as Indiana’s Attorney General, using the position (and taxpayer dollars) to feed his considerable ego while pandering to the far, far Right of the GOP. (Recently, several state senators called him “a hammer in search of a nail.”)

The specific merits of these candidates is important. Their campaigns, their performance in debates and on the stump, their fundraising–all of those traditional elements will matter, and matter a lot. But in addition to the normal horse-race factors, I come back to the question with which I began this post: will this be the year of the woman?

How angry are America’s women? How motivated? How many women who haven’t previously voted will register and cast their ballots in November? How many “good guys”–men who aren’t threatened by women’s growing equality, who care deeply about the status and health of their mothers, sisters and daughters– will signify that support by voting Blue? 

Hoping for a year of the woman is most definitely not an attack on men. It is endorsement of an equal civic partnership that benefits both men and women– and a refusal to return half the population to the subordinate status demanded by the GOP’s White Christian Nationalists.

In Indiana this November, voters will choose between a statewide slate of three talented and accomplished women and three out-and-proud MAGA misogynists and theocrats. This won’t be an election in which differences are minor. It also won’t be an election affected by gerrymandering–you can’t gerrymander a statewide race. 

Here’s an idea: If everyone reading this who cares about civic equality and women’s rights would send a few dollars to each of these women, we could demonstrate widespread support for a Hoosier year of the woman.

If Mexico can do this, so can Indiana.

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What They’re Really Attacking

Most readers of this blog are familiar with the famous Martin Niemoller quote, uttered as the Nazis solidified control of the German government:

First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak outBecause I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

The reason that statement remains so powerful is because it focuses on an essential truth: a government that can pick and choose among its citizens, a government that can empower some while disenfranchising or mistreating others, is a government incompatible with–and threatening to– basic human liberties.

As a former president of the ACLU put it, “Poison gas is a great weapon until the wind shifts.”

And that gets me to my frequent warnings about the real danger posed by the MAGA worldview–a worldview shared by autocrats like Trump and theocrats like Alito. As I have repeatedly noted, the Dobbs decision didn’t just target women’s rights–it undermined the constitutional principle that prevents government from invading everyone’s individual liberties and dictating all personal behaviors.

It isn’t just Dobbs. 

Axios recently reported that Indiana is one of a number of Red states that is refusing to follow a federal regulation meant to protect the civil liberties of LGBTQ+ youngsters.

The U.S. Department of Education expanded protections for LGBTQ+ students under Title IX last month — but Indiana has told its schools to ignore the guidance.

Why it matters: Indiana is one of many states that passed legislation in recent years targeting the LGBTQ+ community, particularly children.

  • A 2023 law requires schools to alert parents if their child requests a change to their name or pronoun, which teachers fear could force them to out transgender students, and earlier legislation blocked transgender girls from participating in girls’ school sports.

Driving the news: Indiana’s Department of Education advised schools “not to change their existing policies” in a memo last month, as first reported by WFYI.

  • “IDOE is currently working with legal counsel to review these new regulations, which among other things expands the definition of “sex” in Title IX,” the department said. “At initial review, these draft regulations will undoubtedly have major implications for Indiana schools and students and will likely be subject to legal challenges.”

The fine print: The federal guidance adds protections against “discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.”

  • The deadline for schools to adopt the rules to remain compliant for federal funding is Aug. 1.

There will undoubtedly be a lot of criticism focused on the fact that this rebellious noncompliance threatens critically-needed federal funding for public education. But it threatens far more than that. It is yet one more assault on the rule of law. It reinforces the Rightwing conviction that disagreement with a law constitutes an entitlement to violate it.

People who don’t believe women should have the right to control their own bodies, who view LGBTQ+ folks as “sinners” or worse, who remain convinced that Whites are superior to other races–in short, people who find it appropriate for government to “come for” some category of “Other”–fail to understand that a government empowered to award or deny privileged status is a government inconsistent with individual liberty and the rule of law.

At the end of the day, that is what is at risk in the upcoming elections. If would-be theocrats like Mike Braun and (especially) Jim Banks prevail (and worse, if their fellow Christian Nationalists should return Trump to power), we will see these persistent attacks on disfavored minorities used to further erode everyone’s individual liberties.

If we look honestly at American history, it becomes obvious that “states’ rights” always meant allowing state governments to privilege some citizens at the expense of others. When Braun says he wants to return the question of inter-racial marriage to the states, when Banks proposes federal legislation to ban abortions with no exceptions, they are just saying the quiet part out loud.

If people like Braun and Banks and Trump are elected, the wind will shift in a profoundly unpleasant direction. And unless you’re a White Christian guy, the government will eventually be empowered to come for you.

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Forget The Dog Whistles

This political season, the racism is blatant and unembarrassed. For those of us who had naively thought America was emerging from that particular form of mental illness, the willingness to appeal for votes on the basis of bias–the number of MAGA political commercials identifying the candidate as an “out and proud” bigot–has been astounding.

And heartbreaking.

Here in Indiana, gubernatorial candidates have accused each other of–gasp!–sympathy for Black Lives Matter, which they insist has called for the killing of police. That accusation has been repeatedly debunked–but interestingly, none of the rebuttal ads have defended the organization. Mike Braun, who has been the target of most of those accusations has responded with ads highlighting his support from law enforcement organizations–not by defending the organization against a nasty and purposeful lie. The linked article from the BBC traces the origin of that lie to (where else?) Fox News, and reports on the response from Black Lives Matter:

“We’re targeting the brutal system of policing, not individual police,” the statement reads. “We seek a world in which ALL Black lives matter, and racial hierarchy no longer organizes our lives or yours. This is a vision of love. As Black survivors of White supremacy, our hearts go out to all victims of violence.”

Attacks on Black Lives Matter are, rather obviously, thinly-veiled efforts to paint all Black folks as murderous beasts–and a message to bigoted voters that the candidate making the accusation is one of them. But it isn’t simply the sudden willingness of MAGA candidates to shed any pretense of civility and/or anti-racism. It’s also the creepy identities of those providing the candidates with funds and other support.

Turning Point USA has been in the news several times; it is a far Right advocacy organization that has most recently been identified as a major supporter of Bernie Moreno, the MAGA nominee for U.S. Senate in Ohio.

Moreno wrote that he was “honored to be endorsed by Charlie Kirk and Turning Point Action.” Moreno said that “[f]ew have done more to fight back against the radical left than they have,” and he looks “forward to working with them to defend for our America First conservative values in the US Senate.”

In 2023, Kirk repeatedly featured Moreno as a guest on his popular podcast and consistently promoted Moreno’s candidacy to his 2.9 million followers on X. At the end of 2023, Kirk donated the maximum legal amount of $5,000 to Moreno’s campaign through the Turning Point PAC.

At the same time, Kirk, known for his embrace of fringe views and conspiracy theories, launched a sustained attack on Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy. At a December 2023 convention hosted by Turning Point USA, Kirk said that King “was awful” and “not a good person.” Kirk’s critique extended not just to King himself but to the civil rights movement itself. “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s,” Kirk declared, trashing the legislation that outlawed segregation in public places and many businesses.

In his convention speech, Kirk blasted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as an effort to “re-found the county” and “get rid of the First Amendment.” He criticized courts for enforcing the law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. “Federal courts just yield to the Civil Rights Act as if it’s the actual American Constitution,” Kirk complained.

The article continue with a description of Kirk’s continued and highly publicized crusade against King, against the MLK holiday, and against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And this is the man and organization from which Moreno “proudly” accepted endorsement.

Turning Point’s crusade against King and the civil rights movement did not appear to impact his relationship with Moreno. On March 14, 2024, Turning Point Action donated $100,000 to the Buckeye Values PAC, Moreno’s Super PAC.

Nor is there any remaining question of Moreno’s own racial opinions:

Moreno himself has also had controversies involving racial issues. When he launched his campaign for Senate, Moreno floated the idea of reparations for white descendants of Union soldiers that were killed during the Civil War. “They talk about reparations. Where are the reparations for the people, for the North, who died to save the lives of Black people?” Moreno said. “I know it’s not politically correct to say that, but you know what, we’ve got to stop being politically correct.”

Bottom line: Every voter casting a ballot for a MAGA Republican this year is either explicitly endorsing racism or indicating that the voter does not consider the “out and proud” racism of the MAGA movement to be disqualifying.

They’re no longer hiding behind dog whistles.

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