The Blessing of a Divided Country

Division is a gift that resists religious totalitarianism

I can’t stop thinking about the 1984 election. That November 6, there was a true landslide—Reagan and Bush won 525 to Mondale and Ferraro’s 13. It was the Republicans' second term, and they ran on the economy. The unemployment rate during Reagan’s first term was much higher than what it is today under Biden (10.6 to today’s 4.1%), but he still convinced voters that his plan would bring that number down. Reagan was 73—the oldest candidate ever nominated until 2020—and he had the backing of the evangelical “religious right,” the newly formed Christian Coalition, and Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority.

Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman on a major party’s ticket. She was chosen because Mondale was “going for broke” and trying to appeal to women voters because, in 1980, women voted more than men. Her mere presence was the radical suggestion—the platform itself didn’t focus on women’s issues. It was just: here’s a woman doing what women with an ERA do. They run for office. Vote for her.

Isn’t that interesting? There were more women voters than men. A majority-female electorate spurned the first woman they could have elected into the Executive Branch. These women didn’t actually have an ERA yet—it wasn’t (and still isn’t) fully ratified.

Through the patriarchal work of Catholic Phyliss Schlafly (overt patriarchy) and others, like Mormon Helen B. Andelin (covert patriarchy), counteracting the second-wave feminism that ironically protected the 19th Amendment and offered new freedoms such as credit cards, divorce, and contraception, the momentum to protect the ERA languished. And yet, women on the evangelical Christian right were certainly hearing their freedoms vilified every single Sunday, right there in church. The patriarchy hasn’t stopped trying to keep women out of any office and get them back at home (and only home.)

My family joined one of those churches that year: First Baptist Jacksonville. Falwell and Billy Graham used to visit. We were proud and affirmed to be part of “the right.”

The ‘84 election was the first election my mom let me stay up and watch, and I remember the landslide language, the awe of the newscasters, and the weight of my heavy eyes well past midnight. My mom said she was relieved Reagan had won and went to bed before me, but she let me stretch out on the couch under my green blanket and watch until the very end.

I remember Mondale’s concession speech and how it must’ve felt to stand on stage after such a smearing loss. He seemed kind and smart, and at 10, I didn’t understand why the people around me, particularly at church, hated him so much. Reagan confused me. He looked very much like my complicated grandfather, an estranged man I loved but didn’t truly know. According to the people around me, I was supposed to admire these rugged, masculine leaders with their pomade and bravado. But a strange anxiety in my stomach didn’t believe them. Geraldine seemed courageous and bold. I liked her.

The entire country went red except for Minnesota.

The 1984 Electoral Map

The whole country red. Can you imagine???? We were not divided enough to have swing states or purple places or lines of blue states in a row. Not divided enough to have blue urban areas carry red rural spaces or overcome gerrymandered messes.

What must it have been like to be a Democrat in 1984?

Just two years before, they’d won in Congress, gaining 12 seats in the Senate and 26 in the House. One year prior, in 1983, Reagan’s approval rating fell to 35% . That’s how far he’d come up with the help of the Christian Coalition, the Moral Majority, and a somewhat erratic Democratic ticket that failed to appeal to women. (Google the role Jesse Jackson and Gary Hart played. It’s interesting.) While Reagan once supported the ERA's ratification, he became more conservative when the conservatives promised him power.

What’s important to hold is that evangelicals had organized and seed-planted the Christian Nationalist movement we see today. They’d swept the country red or “washed it in the blood of the Lamb,” as they like to say. So began the push to overturn Roe and the “pro-life” single-issue voting. They must’ve felt so high in 1984, so right, so in control.

They weren’t satisfied, though. For all the dominance they carried in 1984, Republicans wanted more. Underneath the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, and Heritage Foundation is the doctrine that teaches against democracy. They want the totality of a Christian nation.

Now I understand why the preachers were so angry. They’d won but also hadn’t won. There were still Democrats in office. On TV. In our neighborhoods. Women choose education and careers. Social change, science, and progress continued. Most Sundays, they were so spitting mad a random foreigner might think Christians were the underdogs in America instead of the Moral Majority. The evangelicals took that persecution complex and ran with it. Yet just because they cried that their religious freedoms were denied didn’t make it true. In fact, they had more power than ever—for a little while.

It would be 12 years before a Democrat would be in the White House again. By then, American Democrats had resisted and activated well enough that more equal representation emerged. Those 12 years were my upbringing, and I’m beginning to understand what liberals in a Republican nation faced and fought against. How courageous were my teachers.

I wonder what it must have felt like to be a Democrat in 1984, staring at a nearly all-red map, having read George Orwell's book 1984.

Can you imagine? 1984 is about life in a totalitarian state. It was written in 1949—Orwell’s warning against Communism. But religious fundamentalism teaches absolute authority. Survivors of high-control religion testify: Christian Fundamentalists surveil followers, control through manipulated language, deny free speech and expression, ban access, and use gaslighting to make us question what we remember.

In 1984:

• “Newspeak” redefines and controls vocabulary. Without the correct vocabulary to express an idea, we are less likely to have that idea in the first place

• Mass surveillance is used to restrict individuality and actualization. You know this one well if you’ve ever sat in a high-control evangelical congregation. A little side-eye from the pastor’s wife is all it takes

• Gaslighting reframes history, causing people to think something happened that didn’t. Current examples include Trump’s claim of a landslide and mandate and the initiative to rewrite history

Religious totalitarianism is the goal of dominion theology. The fundamentalists behind Project 2025 want a Christian Nation that ushers through a Christian globe. They say it’s to welcome Christ's second coming, but I have my doubts about that. There’s too much in it for them along the way. Religion makes it easier to get people to cooperate. I don’t think many totalitarian leaders are waiting for Jesus to relieve them of their position and privilege.

This was as true in 1984 as in 2024, and their movement has grown in that time. When people ask me about the Trad Wives and if they’re new, I remind them I was a Trad Wife (traditional wife and mother) in the 90s. The social media trad wife movement you see today is religious totalitarianism’s vision for women, reaching critical mass in the mainstream.

Personally, 1984 is important in my life. It’s the year we moved to Florida, joined a megachurch, and became Christian Nationalists. My recent memoir, A Well-Trained Wife, opens in that year. The Southern Baptists enjoyed their political dominance and yet screamed and strategized for more—reinforcing one of my key takeaways: in fundamentalism, there is never “enough.” They aren’t satisfied with red maps or majorities or even achieving the elusive goal of the popular vote. They want dominion and the eradication of blue dots, blue zones, blue cities, and blue “Dems.”

In times like these, we feel closer than ever to their vision. But are we?

Because that map isn’t crimson anymore. We’re divided enough to matter. There’s vivid, practical resistance everywhere; they don’t own us. In fact, take away the electoral college, and the majority of America shares human, not totalitarian, values. I find hope there.

I look forward to what

Andrea Gibson

wrote in her beautiful post-election letter: remember how alone we are not.

The moss, the mountains, the redwood tree, the marigold, the mourning dove calling for her love’s return—are our allies. Every natural thing in this world is invested in the peace of this world. All that is good and gracious whispers, “We are with you.”  — Andrea Gibson, Things That Don’t Suck

Practical, ordinary, daily resistance and continued diversity serve democracy. I believe this is why Christians shame our division and why there’s a push right now to patch up and unify. I’m reframing the myth that a divided nation is a sign of a problem. Perhaps it’s not. Our division reflects dedicated helpers and workers pursuing a more just and equitable world. Our division signifies progress, especially since 1984’s true landslide. Our division resists fundamentalism and embraces plurality—which means the inclusion of Christians who hate plurality, too. Because an all-blue country is just as dangerous as an all-red one. America belongs to everyone.

Read about Fundie Baby Voice and more of my personal experiences as a trad wife here.

Book Office Hours with me; new slots are open now for November and December.

Buy A Well-Trained Wife here.