I haven’t seen any history nerds mention this, but this year-and throughout the years coming, a religious and political fervor rollls across the “heartland”; these political patterns rhyme with a previous era in our history, in the antebellum era- the Second Great Awakening.

“This awakening was unique in that it moved beyond the educated elite of New England to those who were less wealthy and less educated. The center of revivalism was the so-called Burned-over district in western New York. Named for its overabundance of hellfire-and-damnation preaching, the region produced dozens of new denominations, communal societies, and reform.”

Today’s is a manufactured, secular version of a time when church revivalism peaked, and hard-core religiosity gained a foothold in the public consciousness.

“It incited rancor and division between old traditionalists who insisted on the continuing importance of ritual and doctrine, and the new revivalists, who encouraged emotional involvement and personal commitment.” (wiki).

I’m not judging whether this is good or bad- it just is.

I’m no expert and in some ways we do have an opposite trend to early reform movements- perhaps today it’s a reactionary version. I don’t mean to oversimplify.

The sweeping nature of today’s provocative fascistic politics has a seed in the Awakening, and anyone who’s been to an evangelical church early in Trump would hear the prophesy that compels this wave of energy that threatens to overwhelm our institutions.

Knowing this, we can make some determinations, that the wave is temporary.
That the destruction appears permanent- because it has indeed placed the Nation into a crisis- but we are in the center of it. We do not know exactly where this goes.

Our institutions are being assailed- but, the onslaught of religious/political fervor does not translate well into policy.

Eventually Americans will have to come off of the psychotic Trump hallucinations and administer government.

The 80% of Americans that understand democracy as a form of social/ liberalism are not taking this challenge lying down.

So there is a great awakening of liberal democracy too- if we choose that, through defiance and activism and expertise.

So there is a warning and there is hope.