Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
As I followed the Indiana Republican Party State Convention last month, I felt a rising fear for our great state’s future—fear as a result of the clown show that is our Hoosier political reality.
◗ Republican Secretary of State Diego Morales is an election administrator who is also an election denier. He propagates the Big Lie that Joe Biden was not duly elected president. As the author Zora Neale Hurston once said, “All my skinfolk ain’t my kinfolk.”
◗ Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita is seeking reelection as an attorney general who uses the justice system to push an extremist agenda and takes glee in thumbing his nose at our most vulnerable. He’s under his second misconduct investigation since taking office and even previously fired Morales for incompetence. Like Ted Cruz, even Republicans can’t stand this guy.
◗ Republican U.S. Senate nominee Jim Banks is a perpetual ladder-climbing office-seeker who lacks the temperament to represent us in the U.S. Senate and never met a wedge issue he didn’t like. It’s a far cry from the results-oriented approach of former Gov. Mitch Daniels, who flirted with running for this seat.
◗ Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Braun is a bland man whose entire identity appears predicated on the total absence of a backbone and making decisions by sticking a wet finger in the air to follow the winds. He’s so weak and ineffectual that he couldn’t secure the nomination for his choice for lieutenant governor. I wish you luck in your arranged marriage with Micah Beckwith.
◗ And finally, Republican lieutenant governor nominee Beckwith is an avowed Christian nationalist most known for his effort to ban books and for claiming that God told him he sent rioters to Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.
I do not agree with Indiana’s senior senator—Republican Todd Young—on much, but I know a good-faith operator when I see one. Republicans of the Lugar, Daniels and Young wings of the party are freaking out with Beckwith’s nomination because it shows Hoosiers how extreme many Indiana Republican candidates are.
Let’s also be clear—there is nothing Christian about Beckwith’s Christian nationalism. I’m not a pastor, but I know the Bible talks about liberating the poor, healing the sick and loving thy neighbor. Christian nationalism—the worship of power veiled in the name of Christ—is the opposite of this.
We saw how quickly too many in the Republican Party fell in line when Donald Trump entered the picture. If we don’t combat Christian nationalism at every turn, it’ll happen again. That fear instills in me a sense of duty—a duty to fight tooth and nail to keep Indiana from traveling further down this dangerous path.
Though I feel fear, I also have hope that a coalition of Hoosiers across the political spectrum who believe in democracy will save our state. It can be done, and it will take time. But we’ll only get the better Indiana we deserve if we all—the exhausted majority—join arms, stay in the fight and take Indiana back.
The work continues.•
__________
Hornedo is an attorney, national political strategist and the founder of Next Gen Hoosiers. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
Click here for more Forefront columns.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.