A year ago, I warned that Indiana’s past under the Ku Klux Klan offered troubling parallels to the present. I may have understated the threat. Like the Klan a century ago, today’s Christian nationalists are pursuing a coordinated, long-term strategy—recruiting candidates, reshaping institutions, and embedding their ideology in government.
Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith exemplifies this effort, from pushing partisan school boards to endorsing legislation that subordinates democratic governance to a specific religious doctrine.
As before, control of education, elections, and maps is central. This movement has found shelter in one political party and is expanding through primaries, funding networks, and social media. History shows such movements don’t collapse on their own. This time, the reckoning will not come from a courtroom, but from voters on Election Day.