Weekly Roundup: The Grownups in Charge? SCOTUS, Gerrymandering & White Christian Power (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

The Christian Nationalist Plan to Roll America Back to the 1850s (Full Weekly Roundup) 

Welcome to Straight White American Jesus. This week, Brad and Dan dive into the redistricting chaos unfolding across the country in the wake of the Supreme Court’s latest voting rights decision. From Texas to Tennessee, Louisiana to Virginia, they trace how aggressive gerrymandering efforts are reshaping American democracy — and why Christian nationalist leaders see this moment as part of a decades-long project to reclaim political power for a shrinking minority.

The episode unpacks the racial, theological, and historical dimensions of the current backlash against voting rights, with clips from figures like Kevin Roberts, Mike Johnson, and Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith. Brad and Dan examine how rhetoric about “the adults in the room” echoes older hierarchies rooted in white Christian patriarchy, and why today’s attacks on representation are inseparable from the long conservative backlash against the Voting Rights Act, civil rights reforms, and pluralistic democracy itself.

The conversation also revisits the legacy of Paul Weyrich and the Christian nationalist strategy of pursuing minority rule through institutional control rather than majority support. Along the way, Brad and Dan explore the Supreme Court’s role in enabling these shifts, the partisan battles over congressional maps, and the broader erosion of democratic norms under MAGA politics.

Topics include: 

• The Supreme Court’s latest redistricting ruling and its impact on voting rights
• Tennessee’s dismantling of a majority-Black congressional district in Memphis
• Christian nationalism and the push for minority rule
• Why leaders like Mike Johnson frame white Christian men as “the adults in the room”
• The historical roots of modern gerrymandering battles
• The role of the FBI raid on Virginia lawmaker Louise Lucas
• How backlash politics seeks to roll the country back to the 1950s — or even earlier
• The ongoing assault on democratic institutions and representation

Plus: a fiery exchange between Ketanji Brown Jackson and Samuel Alito, reflections on the failures of “adult” governance in the Trump era, and reasons for hope amid mounting democratic crisis.

Subscribe to Straight White American Jesus wherever you get podcasts, and support independent journalism and analysis at Axis Mundi Media. 

Interview: 

• Audio only:https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/weekly-roundup-the-grownups-in-charge-scotus-gerrymandering-white-christian-power?hsLang=en
• YouTube video: https://youtu.be/TQ9jLpdsubw?si=_ZmNXsKB_pN4dyc0

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson slams Supreme Court’s emergency docket actions - POLITICO

“The court’s stay decisions can, at times, come across as utterly irrational,” Jackson said during a speech at Yale Law School Monday that was posted online Wednesday. “The court has left confusion in its wake. … There is a serious concern that the Supreme Court’s modern stay practices are having an enormously disruptive and potentially corrosive effect.”…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/15/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court-emergency-docket-00873317

 

Heather McGhee and Adam Serwer on the Power of Protest (Al Franken podcast on YouTube)

Guest Host Heather McGhee, author of the groundbreaking book “The Sum of Us” and expert in economic and social policy, is joined by The Atlantic's Adam Serwer! They discuss a number of issues facing the country, including the continued unrest in Minnesota and the No Kings protests happening nationwide. From the steps of the Supreme Court to the streets of Minneapolis, McGhee and Serwer explore how the struggle for Black freedom has historically paved the way for immigrant rights and why that "inheritance" is currently under its most aggressive attack in generations.

Heather and Adam also examine the recent SCOTUS arguments on birthright citizenship and how this could create a whole new class of undocumented immigrants in this country, particularly Chinese immigrants.

They also examine Adam's recent writing following the death of Rev. Jesse Jackson about what Rev. Jackson’s message meant to the movement. They dissect his 1980's vision of cross-racial, cross-class solidarity and explain why his "Patchwork Quilt" philosophy is more relevant today than ever.

LEARN more about Heather McGhee: https://heathermcghee.com

READ Adam Serwer's writing in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/adam-serwer/

Interview: 

https://youtu.be/wVOehAq3R2g?si=ZGT4DHjPgThsqRDv

House Democrats demand end to ‘cruel’ US energy blockade after visit to Cuba

Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan Jackson denounce ‘collective punishment’ amid vast disruption s from US oil blockade…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/06/cuba-blockade-energy-house-democrats

 

SCOTUS Majority SLAMMED by Justice Jackson with SCATHING DISSENT

In a scorching dissent addressed to the MAGA 6 on the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson took her title seriously, and metes out justice to protect the transgender American community who are being forced to have their "gender assigned at birth" listed on their passports, not for some legitimate "foreign affairs" reason, but because Trump hates the community. Popok reports that KBJ callis out her brethren for "misunderstanding the assignment" when Trump files an emergency appeal, improperly picking "winner and losers" on cases that are not yet developed and ignoring the psychological and emotional harm to a fragile population in our society that needs protection, on his latest hot take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6NRZVx16SU

 

History Minute: Andrew Jackson, National Hero (#006)

Quoting:

Jackson became a national hero when in 1814 he fought the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against a thousand Creeks and killed eight hundred of them, with few casualties on his side. His white troops had failed in a frontal attack on the Creeks, but the Cherokees with him, promised governmental friendship if they joined the war, swam the river, came up behind the Creeks, and won the battle for Jackson.

When the war ended, Jackson and friends of his began buying up the seized Creek lands. He got himself appointed treaty commissioner and dictated a treaty which took away half the land of the Creek nation. Rogin says it was "the largest single Indian cession of southern American land." It took land from Creeks who had fought with Jackson as well as those who had fought against him…

Excerpt From

A People's History of the United States

Howard Zinn

Get your copy — Support your local bookstores by shopping Bookshop.org:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This material may be protected by copyright.

History Minute: Andrew Jackson’s treaties with natives (#005)

Quoting:

Jackson himself described how the treaties were obtained: ". . . we addressed ourselves feelingly to the predominant and governing passion of all Indian tribes, i.e., their avarice or fear." He encouraged white squatters to move into Indian lands, then told the Indians the government could not remove the whites and so they had better cede the lands or be wiped out. He also, Rogin says, "practiced extensive bribery."

These treaties, these land grabs, laid the basis for the cotton kingdom, the slave plantations. Every time a treaty was signed, pushing the Creeks from one area to the next, promising them security there, whites would move into the new area and the Creeks would feel compelled to sign another treaty, giving up more land in return for security elsewhere.

Excerpt From

A People's History of the United States

Howard Zinn

Get your copy — Support your local bookstores by shopping Bookshop.org:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This material may be protected by copyright.

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History Minute: Andrew Jackson raids Florida (#004)

Quoting:

Jackson began raids into Florida, arguing it was a sanctuary for escaped slaves and for marauding Indians. Florida, he said, was essential to the defense of the United States. It was that classic modern preface to a war of conquest. Thus began the Seminole War of 1818, leading to the American acquisition of Florida. It appears on classroom maps politely as "Florida Purchase, 1819"—but it came from Andrew Jackson's military campaign across the Florida border, burning Seminole villages, seizing Spanish forts, until Spain was "persuaded" to sell. He acted, he said, by the "immutable laws of self-defense."…

The leading books on the Jacksonian period, written by respected historians (The Age of Jackson by Arthur Schlesinger; The Jacksonian Persuasion by Marvin Meyers), do not mention Jackson's Indian policy, but there is much talk in them of tariffs, banking, political parties, political rhetoric. If you look through high school textbooks and elementary school textbooks in American history you will find Jackson the frontiersman, soldier, democrat, man of the people—not Jackson the slaveholder, land speculator, executioner of dissident soldiers, exterminator of Indians.

Excerpt From

A People's History of the United States

Howard Zinn

Get your copy — Support your local bookstores by shopping Bookshop.org:

 

History Minute: Andrew Jackson (#001)

"As soon as Jackson was elected President, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi began to pass laws to extend the states' rule over the Indians in their territory. These laws did away with the tribe as a legal unit, outlawed tribal meetings, took away the chiefs' powers, made the Indians subject to militia duty and state taxes, but denied them the right to vote, to bring suits, or to testify in court. Indian territory was divided up, to be distributed by state lottery. Whites were encouraged to settle on Indian land."

Excerpt From

A People's History of the United States

Howard Zinn

Get your copy — Support your local bookstores by shopping Bookshop.org:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This material may be protected by copyright.

Trump’s Energy Policies Are Laughable. This Samuel L. Jackson Ad Proves It. – Mother Jones

Swedish energy giant's spot pokes fun at the administration, even as Trump targets late-night comedians.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/trump-energy-policy-comedy-samuel-jackson-wind-ad-vattenfall/

Ketanji Brown Jackson accuses the Supreme Court of playing ‘Calvinball’ for Trump

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that in the Supreme Court's version of Calvinball, "this Administration always wins."

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court-trump-calvinball-rcna226523 

 

Making the Case: Five Alarm Trumpster Fire

• Trump's name is in the Epstein files. 
• KBJ's dissents are becoming more pointed. 
• Emil Bove's shady nomination process appears highly coordinated. 
• The House of Representatives is headed home early for August recess. 
• Gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts are gaining steam. 

And we're only six months into Trump's second term.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFGX5GIydBg 

Ketanji Brown Jackson Grills Trump Lawyer About Universal Injunctions In birthright citizenship case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwxYDag_oxo

 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says Supreme Court ruling will hurt the ‘neediest among us’

"Indeed," she went on, "it is undisputed that systemically undercounting low-income patients for the purposes of the disproportionate-share formula might cause many such hospitals to close their doors entirely, such that patients from our Nation's poorest communities may not be served at all." 

But the Biden appointee concluded this doesn't have to be the end of the matter. She called on Congress to step in and "restate its intention that low-income people have access to quality medical care and that hospitals be compensated accordingly."…

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-dissent-supreme-court-neediest-rcna203515 

Appointment of Trump toadies to key intel roles earns Johnson scorn

All Johnson had to do was avoid radicals such as Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was demoted by the Pentagon amid scandalous allegations of wrongdoing, and Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, who was up to his ears in the scandal surrounding efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, even having his phone confiscated by the FBI. 

This week, Johnson nevertheless named Perry and Jackson to the House Intelligence Committee...

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/speaker-johnson-faces-blowback-trumps-directive-rcna156068

Pro-Trump Bigot Pastor Goes on TROUBLING RACIST RANT Against Ketanji Brown Jackson!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nVodeewVsA

Mississippi Lawmakers Trying to Take Over Jackson Water Funds, Federal Manager Warns — ProPublica

The latest move in the Legislature worries the manager, Ted Henifin, who says a regional authority could allow improvements and debt relief to flow out of Jackson and into suburban utilities that join the entity. "I believe the $600+ million in federal funding has created a monster in the Mississippi Legislature,"…

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/30778/jackson-mississippi-water-system-state-takeover

Ketanji Brown Jackson, in dissent, issues first Supreme Court opinion | PBS NewsHour

In her dissent, Jackson wrote that she would have ordered a new look at Chinn's case "because his life is on the line and given the substantial likelihood that the suppressed records would have changed the outcome at trial." The evidence at issue indicated that a key witness against Chinn has an intellectual disability that might have affected his memory and ability to testify accurately, she wrote...

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ketanji-brown-jackson-in-dissent-issues-first-supreme-court-opinion

 

Justice Jackson’s Crucial Argument About Affirmative Action - The Atlantic

In a day filled with questions about the meaning of "true diversity" or the educational benefits of diversity, Jackson's questions cut through the muck. Some students had historically been denied access to some of the nation's most well-resourced institutions of higher education—feeder campuses for prominent roles throughout society—because of their race. If SFFA wins, that fact will be one of the only things a university cannot consider in its admissions process, as though that history never happened—as though the system is fair enough already...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/11/affirmative-action-supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson/671954/

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is right about race and the Constitution - Vox

There's a glaring flaw in the Supreme Court lawsuits attacking affirmative action… 

The Congress that wrote the 14th Amendment, in other words, rejected the "colorblind" theory, and instead wrote a landmark civil rights statute that explicitly requires the government to consider race when deciding whether a non-white individual's rights were fully respected. And the Civil Rights Act of 1866 is only one of many such laws enacted by Reconstruction-era lawmakers...

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23403021/supreme-court-affirmative-action-race-ketanji-brown-jackson-colorblind-originalism