Given the routine flouting of democratic norms that are now part of daily life in Washington, D.C., plenty of people are worried about whether the “institutional guardrails” that protect democracy are sufficient to keep the country from going off a cliff. But for Religious Right activists like Carol Bauer, the problem isn’t the behavior of President Trump or members of his administration or its defenders and enablers, the problem is the actions of federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies that investigated the Trump campaign’s contact with Russian operatives who were seeking to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Bauer’s most recent “prayer alert” was distributed on Friday to supporters of American Values, a group run by her husband Gary Bauer, who was just appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Without apparent sense of irony, she, as a Trump supporter, decries that politics have “devolved into blood sport.”
And although her language is more measured than that of some right-wing conspiracy theorists railing about the “deep state” and its attempt to undermine Trump, her message is the same. Here’s an excerpt:
Too many at the top of powerful Washington institutions in the executive branch have operated their own fiefdoms for what seems to be political gain. They flouted or bent the law, regulations or operating norms. They almost seem to view themselves as a fourth branch of government not beholden to the president or the voters who elected him. And too many of them seem to operate freely of any checks and balances. Is this because they think they know best? Or, worse, to bury a political opponent or movement with whom they disagree? It feels like those institutional guardrails and protections are fading fast. And this is happening at a time when divisions in the body politic run deep with no sign of change.
Into this volatile mix is thrown the critical mid-term elections that are just five months away. Once again you will be encouraged to make sure you are registered and vote. And you will be encouraged to talk with those in your circle of influence to make sure that they, too, exercise their precious opportunity to vote.
The nation has taken great strides in the last 18 months. … It feels like the country is humming again.
And yet, the clashes within the executive branch as evidenced by the role of the FBI, CIA and NSA toward the Trump campaign and the wrangling between parts of the executive branch and the Congress as it fulfills its constitutional oversight role grow more and more heated. Information we now know to be true would have been unthinkable just a few months ago.
Bauer closes by asking people to pray “that information will come to light that will illuminate abuses of power so that they can be corrected within our constitutional framework” – which isn’t that much different from the prayers at the recent gathering of “apostles” and “prophets” at Trump International hotel in D.C. that God would expose and destroy Trump’s deep state enemies.
