The Cynical Plot to 'Demonize' Politics - A Q&A with Anne Nelson

In advance of our monthly news meeting for subscribers, Heidi Siegmund Cuda interviews our upcoming guest, writer Anne Nelson

Photo courtesy of Anne Nelson

Paid members are encouraged to attend Byline Supplement’s online News Meeting featuring Anne Nelson, 13 February at 5 pm London time. Please register your attendance below.

---

Heidi Siegmund Cuda: You have written extensively, not least in the Washington Spectator, on the rise of Christian Nationalism and the threat it poses to Democracy. Can you explain to our readers how your book Shadow Network came to inform the new documentary Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy.

Anne Nelson: Bad Faith’s director Stephen Ujlaki approached me about a documentary he was making. He was looking at various organizations involved in Christian nationalism. And he was very interested in my book Shadow Network, whose subtitle is ‘Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right’. Over the course of our interviews and our discussions, he came to recognize the importance of the coordination of organizations — the donors, their media systems, and their political strategists. He also was extremely interested in the role of the architect of the movement, Paul Weyrich. And so the film took a shape that I believe offers incredibly important context and complicity to our political situation. 

The reason this is important is because it's very easy to point the finger at evangelical Christians and say, ‘They're disrupting the country’. But having grown up among them in the Midwest, I recognize that traditionally, they've had neither the will nor the ability to disrupt the country on this scale. So it's really important to follow the old journalist’s dictum — follow the money. 

There are massive amounts of money behind them. And once you look at the fossil fuel interests and funding of these organizations, and the other economic interests behind them, the entire situation makes more sense.