The 6/20/23, 2-minute “smalltalk,” [FN1] shot on my cell phone, is on the “Mouthwash” FB page. [FN2] The show comes on as I’m about to crash, so I’d not seen remarks made by that night’s guest, Micah Beckwith, about my bit [FN3] until 8/18/24. If he is Lt Gov & if, 1/12

a year from now, people are allowed to ask, “How did Beckwith come to power?” those who remain can point to the dynamic at the core of his candidacy: Ignorance. It harkens back to the Know Nothings of the 1850s. [FN4] In 2023, Beckwith hyped a course was teaching. 2/12

The course was teaching about The Constitution, He said “stay away from higher education and [its] secular progressive bias.” He never specifies of what the bias consists, how that bias renders higher education erroneous or why his bias is okay. His bias results from bigotry. 3/12

Beckwith starts w/a conclusion: the Framers based the Constitution on “Christian” values. He bends or fabricates (i.e., lies) to shore up his conclusion. On 6/20/23, Beckwith, w/o fear of my reply [FN5] said this country is founded on Christian principles, or else it would 4/12

have no principles. People need to understand: Beckwith says if you are not a Christian, you lack the capacity to be moral. [FN6] I’ve quoted that video well over a dozen times because it is the most damning thing Beckwith has said or written. Such beliefs are why the Framers 5/12

separated church & State. They knew how the Reformation resulted in killings of Christians by Christians. People should read documents, [FN7] called primary sources. (E.g., The Federalist, & Elliot’s Debates. [FN8] Beckwith wants power. To cover his ignorance of history, he says 6/12

cute things, like “separation of church & State” is not in The Constitution. True, but neither is “Jesus Christ.” That name existed in 1787. A “wall of separation between Church and State” was a metaphor created in 1802. [FN9] The gov’t structure predated the metaphor. 7/12

Choose brains over Braun. The media should ask Beckwith whether the USA was created to be Christian for the benefit of Christians? Beckwith’s Christian nationalist buddy Sean Feucht believes so. In a year that question might land you in qa re-education camp. 8/12

Footnotes:
FN1. “Mouthwash,” produced & directed by John Schmitz, streams live on Facebook each Tuesday at 9 pm.
FN2. The spot begins at 11:55. I’d told someone I’d download & email it, but forgot that it has to be downloaded from “Mouthwash.” 9/12

Footnotes:
FN3. Beckwith, magaGOP nominee for IN Lt Gov, often shoots selfie videos on a cell phone in his car & describes his “chats” w/”the Lord. My 6/20/23 video is a parody of Beckwith.
FN4. Anti-immigrant and anti-Roman Catholic party of the 1850s. Rayback, Robert, “Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President,”(1959 ed., republished 2017) pp. 317-18. 10/12

Footnotes:
FN5. I had been on a digital recording.
FN6. 10/24/19 video, “The Church’s role in politics.”
FN7. It’s unlikely Beckwith has read these works. They do not fit with his of bigotry 11/12

Footnotes:
FN8. Elliot's Debates, includes debates from state ratification conventions, & the Journal of the Federal Convention; available for free download from the Library of Congress.
FN9. Meachum, Jon, “Thomas Jefferson: The Asrt of Power,” (2012 ed.), pp. 367-68. 12/12