In the 1980s, My Friends In Texas Said I Was ‘Overreacting’ – Medium

Ronald Reagan and Jerry Falwell at the Baptist Fundamentalism 84 conference. (AP/Ira Schwartz)

I know my personal experience about this topic is not unique. It cant be.

There were a few others concerned about the long-term fate of secular society in wake of the 1980s fusion of Reagan, Republicans, and evangelical religion the theocratic philosophy now in power on the U.S. Supreme Court. In my case, I was routinely dismissed by friends as overreacting or down right paranoid. Others were probably told the same thing across America. Thats why I am sharing my personal experience from evangelical-creationist ground zero: my home state of Texas!

Now I am not going to pretend I had it all figured out in the mid-1980s. But, given many conversations with conservatives and creationists, it became apparentover timethat the fusion was a toxic mix and trouble was coming. That trouble exploded in 2016 with another theological-political fusion: Trump, MAGA, GOP, and evangelical religion.

In 1984, I was a grad student at the University of Texas at Austin. George Orwells masterpiece 1984 was being widely read. Of course, most thought the USSR was the real 1984, not Team USA. When Apple launched the Macintosh in 1984, few, if any, saw the Orwellian danger of personal computers. I sure didnt.

Lots of cool New Wave bands were passing through Austin, playing at dives like the Continental Club, Liberty Lunch, and various other clubs. New wave fashions were the rage for some. Yep, I had a pair of parachute pants, which I wore a few times to concerts. But, I was much more likely to wear pointy-toed boots with Levis 501s button fly only! Still do.

All the while, the winds of fascism and theocracy were beginning to blow over the big Texas horizons. I saw the theocracy sooner than I saw the fascism.

My loose network of friends included a random mix of liberals, libertarians, quasi-conservatives, artsy fashionistas, philosophy theorists, and an odd assortment of alienated cigarette smokers, espresso junkies, and margarita lovers. In 1984, you could drink at 18 in Texas and smoke inside cafes and coffeehouses. The legendary Les Amis (the cafe featured in Richard Linklaters Slacker) was particularly smoky, but you could always get good coffee and good conversations.

The same was true for Captain Quackenbushs Intergalactic Espresso Cafe, located a few blocks away. Real intellectual conversations were had because most everyone was reading philosophy, history, and literary books with their coffee and Euro cigarettes.

In 1984, Ronald Reagan swept to a landslide second term in a grand fusion of movie star glitz, fervent evangelicalism, quasi-libertarian economics, and sheer patriotic frenzy fueled by conservative Cold War propaganda. Reagans famous TV ad said it was now Morning in America. Astrology was regularly consulted in the White House. And flags, flags, flags!

On election night in 1984, I recall protestors running through campus buildings holding signs proclaiming they were Young Anarchists for Mondale. LOL. Crazy, but no less true!

Walter Mondale and the Democratic platform were far removed from anything anarchist. Mondale and the Young Anarchists never had a chance against Reagan and the conservative frat boys (like the Bushes). Thats because Reagan and Bush were going to save the soul of America! After all, God and old money were on their side.

Ronald Reagan and Jerry Falwell (head of the so-called Moral Majority) led the fusion of the Republican Party with fundamentalists and evangelicals, the faithful who did not believe in evolution and other science concepts. Instead, they believed the universe was 6,000 years old, the Bible trumped the Constitution (or the Constitution was based on the Bible, which is absolutely not true), a clump of cells had more rights than the womans body that contained the cells, guns would prevent (secular) government tyranny, and America was chosen by God to be the promised land that would prevail over the evil commies in the Cold War.

In a foreshadowing of the subsequent decades, President Reagan said the following during a speech at a 1984 campaign rally in Austin:

And finally, last night I asked the House to pass the equal-access bill. It would permit religious student groups the same freedom that other student groups now have to meet in public high schools in their vacant rooms during off-hours. I believe the God who blessed this land of ours never deserved to be expelled from our schools in the first place.

The Equal Access Act of 1984 was passed and became law. Of course, as Orwell would have predicted, the goal was never about mere equal access. The long-term goal was breaking down the wall between church and state, bit by bit, across the decades. That is exactly the intent of the Moral Majority, faith-based government initiatives, the anti-abortion movement, and Justice Samuel Alitos recent Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. Its a theocracy in America.

Sound too alarmist? What about the Supreme Courts recent ruling in Carson v. Makin, in which they ruled that if the government funds any private schools, then it must fund private religious schools the very schools that most likely teach creationism, anti-science, anti-abortion, and discrimination against LGBTQIA+ communities and people of color, including those crossing the southern border. This ruling is a total violation of the First Amendments wall between church and state. Equal Access is achieving its long-term goal: imposing a theocracy in America.

In the days after Reagan was reelected in 1984, my liberal and libertarian friends said almost the exact same thing: Reagan was about big business, deregulation, free markets, and unfettered capitalism. Of course, the liberals feared Reagan, while the libertarians cheered Reagan.

For my liberal friends, Reagans economics were the big concern, almost the only concern, which is in keeping with the Marxist and socialist influence in their worldview. Libertarian fans of Ayn Rand were sometimes atheist, but they were far more focused on defeating communism and spreading capitalism far and wide in the name of individualism and rational self-interest.

I get the fear of Big Brother or big government, but I was more concerned about what happens when Big Brother is a creationist and theocrat. Every time I suggested that we should be more concerned about religious political power, almost all of my friends said I was overreacting and being paranoid. They said something to this effect:

Cmon Vacker, dont overreact. Youre sounding paranoid! Just because youre an atheist and existentialist, it doesnt mean religion is going to take over. Religious freedom is in the First Amendment.

Ive heard some variation of those lines dozens of times across the decades. Every time I raised the problem of growing theological political power, I was repeatedly told by libertarians, liberals, and coffeehouse philosophers it was capitalism and big corporations that were the big issue, good or bad.

By the year 1984, I had read 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, and other dystopian literature (or seen the film versions). From 1984, I could see that the American fusion of religion, propaganda, and political power was a totalitarian mix, especially because of the control of sexuality (which Orwell warned us about with the Anti-Sex League in 1984).

Fahrenheit 451 showed how book burning could reappear in a society dumbed down by television and entertainment. Thats ever more true today. Brave New World showed how people could be seduced and programmed to accept the dominant ideologies, precisely as they think they are free individualists seizing the future or returning us to the past! (Today, thats the cults of Elon Musk or MAGA.)

The University of Texas set aside a free speech area on campus near the Student Union Building, home to the student government offices, a large cafeteria, movie theater, and the legendary Cactus Caf, where famed Austin musicians were known to drop in. In the free speech area, dozens upon dozens of student groups handed out brochures, pamphlets, and Xerox copies of their beliefs and manifestos.

I recall the Young Conservatives group selling Margaret Thatcher posters. For real! When Prince Charles toured the campus in 1986, the frats and sororities turned out in huge crowds, always yearning to be royality, to be among the elite rulers.

Lively (and largely civil) conservations could be heard and had almost any school day. Not meme wars, but actual dialogue. In my many conversations with conservative and evangelical students, it was clear to me that the end result of their beliefs would be, ultimately and necessarily, a theocracy in America. Though many would deny it, a theocracy was always the inevitable end goal, with a paradoxical mix of state-supported capitalism.

The conservative and evangelical activists conflated religious freedom, protected under the First Amendment, with the idea that all America must be ruled under a religion, specifically the religion of the Bible. They ignored the first right in the First Amendment the right to not believe in any religion and not have the government impose any religion.

Additionally, the evangelicals would never seriously consider any evidence, any facts, or any logic that challenged their faith in sacred texts or the existence of God. Nothing. Nada, Nope. Doublethink!

The Bible was the final word. The one thing they all believed with absolute conviction: God exists and is on their side, the Bible is truth, and they want to Make America Moral Again! That means we must go backwards a few decades or, more likely, a few centuries.

By 1986, Hollywood gave us Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer in Top Gun that mind-meld of GQ machismo, jet fighter-fetishism, and Team USA war propaganda. Its no wonder the Soviet Union soon collapsed. The Kremlin and commies knew they had no chance against Maverick, Viper, and Ice. Not a chance!

In the wake of the Cold War, super conservative George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas in 1994 and President of the United States in 2000. My friends (now including profs) said the same thing: Bush is all about corporations and capitalism. Cmon Vacker, didnt you see Bushs Brain (2004 documentary)? Bush is the puppet for Karl Rove and greedy capitalists, the puppet for Dick Cheney and the Pentagon. The Bible has little to do with his policies. Again, I was overreacting. Yet, the very same Bush appointed John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. The same Bush that approved of torture regimes in the Terror War.

Nothing much changed in the 2000s2020s. Is it right to be concerned about privacy, exploitation, free speech, human rights, the environment, and so on? Yes, of course! Concerned about a theocracy. Nah, thats too far.

Even though the American theocracy will smash the wall between church and state, deny basic human rights to disfavored groups (women, people of color, and LBTQIA+ communities), and destroy the environment in the name of economic growth and a biblically ordained dominion over the Earth. Just wait until the current Supreme Court guts environmental protections. Its coming, sooner or later.

Of course, President Trump appointed three more high priests of medievalism and here we are. Its 2022 and America is fast becoming a fascist theocracy. Theres no denying it. Its unfolding right before our eyes.

Its obvious patriarchal and biblical domination are being forced upon women all across America. The evangelical fanatics and Supreme Court medievalists are telling women they have no right to control their bodies, no reproductive rights, and no rights to determine their healthcare. If women have no autonomy for their bodies, then they have no real rights at all. Alitos opinion represents a full-on assault on the universal human rights possessed by all women.

Thats why the Courts goal is not about morality or saving fetuses. The real goal is to inflict pain, cruelty, and domination upon women and anyone else not favored by the theocrats. Misogynous and morally bankrupt fanatics are hurtling women and society backward by centuries in a merger of church and state.

Ultimately, the theocrats on the Supreme Court are attacking the Establishment Clause, the principle atop the First Amendment which says Congress Shall Make No Law Respecting the Establishment of Religion Alito and crew are destroying the wall between church and state.

There is no end in sight, as the fanatics are coming after all reproductive rights and contraception. And theyll come after numerous other rights and freedoms held by the people and groups they do not like. There is no end, there is no bottom.

After all, what are all those AR-15s are for? To prevent tyranny? Or to impose tyranny? Are we supposed to believe the Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and Oath Keepers are going to be peaceful and do nothing? If they get in power, theyll be aiming their AR-15s at Americans who are not down with fascism and theocracy.

Unless defeated, somehow, this theocracy will be like all the others from the past. A complete horror show. A real life Handmaids Tale, a real life Idiocracy, and real life Planet of the Apes.

But, yeah, I and others were overreacting and paranoid in 1984.

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High taxes forced the closure of Les Amis Cafe. The building was bulldozed to make way for a Starbucks. Liberty Lunch closed in 1999 to make way for downtown hipster development. The Continental Club still rocks (as a copy of itself). Keep Austin Weird no longer applies.

I wonder what became of the Young Anarchists for Mondale.

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In the 1980s, My Friends In Texas Said I Was 'Overreacting' - Medium