The One True God of Real American Men

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) salutes the MAGA mob on his way into the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to vote against the certification of Electoral College vote count for the election of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. “I don’t know who came into the Capitol or not,” Hawley explained after the insurrection. (Photo by E&E News and Politico via AP)

“The left is attacking America,” Republican US Senator from Missouri Josh Hawley recently explained in an interview with Axios on HBO. “They’re saying that America is systemically oppressive and men are systemically responsible.”

Something to keep in mind when right-wing fake patriots and cynical centrists denigrate *the left* is that these terms go way back to the French Revolution in 1789. Similar to our own Revolution in 1776, French revolutionaries were seeking to bring down the rule of their king. As members of the French National Assembly met to begin drafting a constitution, its delegates were divided over how much authority should remain with King Louis XVI. The revolutionaries seeking the end of French monarchy seated themselves to the presiding officer’s left, while those loyal to the aristocracy, the monarchy and the Church sat to his right. Thus, the revolutionary democratic republicans became known as the left wing while the right wing of the political landscape belonged to the authoritarian conservatives.

Today, Sen. Hawley is currently among those leading a radical right-wing assault against the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution. His political coalition shares that old authoritarian vision for society with the likes of Russia’s Vladamir Putin and the satellites of his fascist fiefdom…