Christian nationalism always turns into a purity contest. I feel like this would be true with any religious based political movement, but my knowledge of these structures in other parts of world is limited.

It always seems starts with purging outsiders, but once the outsiders are not soliciting the right reactions anymore they need to turn inward, they need start eating their own. They need an enemy to point to, they need to convince their followers that they are victims, and that they need to take extraordinary actions in order to take revenge on this perceived enemy.

That collective “enemy” is one of the core principles that unites these scattered political groups, and keeps them working together. Because MAGA isn’t just one group, it’s a collective of right wing groups united under the banner of defeating the “enemy of the nation” which they’ve been convinced is this imaginary idea of the left. A group apparently so powerful its influence touches every scientific institution, regulatory body, school and university in the US, but also completely helpless to pass any government policy that might benefit the working class.