Bush Jugend

Attendees at a Christian BattleCry event
(and I mean click on it and look)
Images courtesy rougeski.com

The Bush family has some strong historical ties to the Third Reich and, given all the other parallels with the Nazi regime the Bush administration has been constructing over the last few years, it was inevitable that a "youth movement" would eventually spring forth. It has probably been gurgling away for awhile, but the percolation has finally captured some notice. The only major difference between the Hitler Jugend and Bush's BattleCry warriors is that Hitler set about creating his "future Aryan supermen" program much earlier in his reign while the Christianists have take awhile to get the whole show rolled out and into a larger public sphere. Well, that and the fact that attendence at BattleCry events appears to be largely voluntary, though I don't know how voluntary it is for the kids who are dragged there by parents.

After a terrorist action was used to justify an invasion of a foreign country said to be harbouring the terrorists, knowingly skirting the Constitution, the Bush administration implemented a number of police state policies that included wide spread surveillance and monitoring of the domestic population. At the behest of Bush, the Senate is likely to cede control of the civilian Central Intelligence Agency to military control, in the form of a one General Hayden, the man responsible for those surveillance programs. Recently, demonization of a minority population has been attended with calls for militarization of the borders while funding for the civilian Border Patrol was cut. We have recently heard the Attorney General indicate that the prosecution of journalists is within the purview of what is now jokingly called the Department of Justice. More generally, military spending is now shooting the moon while domestic social programs are being pared back. Overlaying it all, of course, has been the constant clamour that anyone criticizing any of this was both unpatriotic and giving "aid and comfort to the enemy."

And now there is beginning to emerge the rather ghastly manifestation of a fundamentalist youth movement, the so-called BattleCry. It is claimed by organisers that these events are "Christian" in nature, though they sport some decidedly un-Christian themes. Such as faux Navy Seals jumping onto the stage and shooting blanks cartridges into the air from their real M-16s. Flames shoot from vertical, cannon-like tubes mounted on the stage. In fact, it has all the trappings of a Ted Nugent concert; camo, M-16s, shaved-headed dudes with bad-ass Van Dykes, fire-belching cannon, rock music, though I expect the Nuge might be a bit jealous of the production values. The one recognizable "Christian" or rather Christianist theme that brought the whole crowd together was, apparently, a strong distaste for abortion and gays. Those subjects just act as catalysts to fuel the fire, though, because what this really is all about is a total assault on society. In fact, Ron Luce describes his movement as a "blitzkrieg." They are, after all, "an Army of God" and coming to seek vengence upon secularism. And reason.

These people are clearly unhinged. They firmly believe that God placed Bush in office and, as they usually do, explain away his excesses because Bush's presidency is the will of God. And who do you think specifically sent a letter of support to this group? Why, George Bush, of course, the movement's guiding light.

People are hesitant about, or actively remonstrate against, drawing comparisons between the Bush administration and the Nazi regime. This is a natural tendency given Godwin's Law (unless you happen to be an oil industry shill appearing on Fox News). However, after seeing this latest festering canker within American civil society, I can't see much reason to hesitate in this comparison anymore.