Elizabeth Neumann

The greater enemy was never outside; it was always within.

Thus Elizabeth Neumann, a former Department of Homeland Security staff member at the White House in the Bush II and Trump administrations, concluded based on all the evidence DHS had obtained regarding the prospects of radicalism and terrorism.

In Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace (galley received as part of book review program), Neumann describes her own experiences and what she has come to learn and understand about the significance of the reactionary turn among many white Evangelicals in America, and considers some of why that has taken place, and what she believes must be done to return to some kind of moderation.

Much of the honesty in the book is refreshing: it is good for participants in American conservatism writ large to recognize, confess, and lament how the movement allowed all kinds of incredibly right-wing reactionaries to cultivate influence and power, how much fearmongering has become part and parcel of discourse, and how conservative Christendom has gone along with said movements more than they have resisted it. The author grapples with how it was “her people” who became more reactionary, considers why she did not, and what it all means.

The way forward is not easy. The author hopes for opportunities for de-escalation, but confesses how difficult it can be to bring people back from the conspiracy theory laden ways of the reactionaries.

While I am sure said reactionaries would portray the author as liberal or as a RINO, she is anything but. As she herself noted, hope for those deep into the reactionary world is slim; but perhaps many of those more moderate who have not yet wished to grapple with the seriousness of the right-wing reactionary problem might be persuaded by what she has to say.

I can only hope there will be a moderating way forward which does not involve a lot of violence and conflict. Time shall tell.… (meer)