At the checkout in the Broad Ripple Kroger, among the tabloid front-page stories of Big Foot, odd creatures in UFOs and Elvis, the face of “Bat Boy,” in black & white, w/pointed ears & fangs, was sure to catch my attention. I wondered how anyone could believe such a tale. 1/11

A far right tool, at nat’l & State levels, is god; [FN1] a white, male, pissed-off deity the far right owns. Sen Barry Goldwater warned: “if & when these preachers get control of the [GOP], it's going to be a terrible damn problem.[] Politics & governing demand compromise. 2/11

[They] believe they are acting in the name of God,” so they can't/won't compromise.” [FN2] & Goldwater said: "Today's ‘conservatives’ don't even know what the word means. [A] woman has the right to an abortion.” That’s “a decision up to the pregnant woman, not 3/11

the Pope, or some do-gooders or the Religious Right. It's not a conservative issue at all." [FN3] IN’s Lt Gov is the type of person about whom Sen Goldwater warned. Beckwith lies about this country’s founding to make us “Christian.” So, a couple of points: 4/11

1) The founding documents, few in number, do not support Beckwith’s assertion. [FN4] The Declaration of Independence, uses deist terms. Neither Constitution nor Bill of Rights says “this nation is Christian nation.” In the 5/11

State ratification conventions, no one says, “This is a Christian nation! Vote for Ratification.”
2) Beckwith makes it up as he goes along. Three “chats” display this.
a) Beckwith’s (now infamous Jan 7, 2021, chat: “I sent those riots” [FN5]; 6/11

b) Beckwith’s dissing his deity in the fall of 2023: “Now, I don't think it was an insurrection by any stretch of the imagination.” [FN6]
c) Beckwith’s depicting his deity as nearly begging Beckwith to run for office: 7/11

“‘Micah, if you do not get involved in the political battle, they will warp and destroy everything that I have set up in this nation that is rooted in Judeo-Christian principles.’ Those principles go away, then our nation goes away.” [FN7] So, about Bat Boy: we laughed at him. 8/11

But enough ppl believed in Bat Boy that the stories continued. We can’t blow off the nutty IN Lt Gov. Consider how little it takes for someone to take center stage in politics. And if Beckwith gets higher office, he will impose the fictional deity in his head on the rest of us. 9/ 11

Footnotes:
FN1. The war-like deity gives ppl on the far right their jollies. They seek to impose it on the rest of us. I won’t gratify their sick fantasies by giving an upper case “g” to that fictional entity.
FN2. See, “Goldwater on Goldwater,” (2006).
FN3. Id. 10/11

FN4. IN Lt Gov Micah Beckwith says “America was absolutely founded on Christian values. You have to be ignorant to think otherwise. The writings of our Framers and the founding documents are very clear on that.”
FN5. Wren, Adam, “Confessions of a (non)-book banner,” Importantville, 09/24/23.
FN6. Id.
FN7. Id. 11/11