Mike
Gonzales is as senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, leader (former?) of the South
Carolina Pastors Alliance, and member of the 1776 Commission. Beyond that, we could frankly not
be bothereed to investigate Gonzalez’s CV or history of silliness in detail,
but his affilitions provide ample justification for giving him an entry here. Gonzalez
is the kind of person who daftly likens resisting identity politics to
defecting from Hitler (in 2013, Gonzalez blamed the Boston Marathon bombings at
least in part on what he perceived as a new trend in American schools of
teaching “multiculturalism and diversity”), and who claims that
Democrats (Obama in particular) are actively trying to use the promise of government
handouts to replace freedom-loving Americans with government-worshiping Latino
immigrants in a deliberate effort to combat freedom and liberty. Yes, that
kind. He has also written a book, The Plot to Change America: How Identity
Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free, which we honestly admit that we
have failed to find the time or inclination to read.
Gonzalez is
also a member of the Victor Orbán fan club, characterizing Orbán as a “maverick”
and supporting Orbán’s alleged project to “replace the shipwreck of liberal
democracy by building 21st Century Christian democracy.” At least we are reasonably
confident that the present Mike Gonzalez is not identical with the Michael
Gonzalez who co-authored the intensely quacky book I have cancer, What
should I do: Your orthomolecular guide for cancer management with MegaVitaminMan Andrew Saul.
Diagnosis: A
powerful figure in a powerful organization. Indeed, the chaotic blend of
paranoia and conspiracy theories that is the MAGA movement is largely centered
on the goals and ideas that are – admittedly often somewhat more explicitly and
coherently – formulated by the Heritage Foundation. Dangerous.
