Witches for Kamala Harris

Last night, I created Witches for Kamala Harris. I created it because I felt energized by the excitement swirling around the vice president and presumed presidential nominee. Right now, it’s an empty Instagram. What will it become? I have no freaking clue. If you have thoughts about what it might become, please comment or DM me!

I know that there are a lot of witches out there who cannot support a member of the current administration for president. I get it, and I am not asking anyone to cast a vote that goes against their conscience.1 But my son is trans. My best friend is gay. I have friends and relatives who are not white. I care about a lot of people with uteruses. And I believe in religious freedom.

I want to dig into that last one, because I’m not sure it’s getting enough attention, and it should matter to you if your own beliefs fall outside of Christianity. We all know that Donald Trump has no god but himself, but he has embraced the role of Christlike martyr—this was true even before the assassination attempt—and a lot of very sincere and very influential Christians have embraced him as a King Cyrus figure.

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Do you know about Project 2025? If you don’t Red Wine & Blue has some excellent resources. If you do, you probably know that this blueprint for authoritarianism was created by the Heritage Foundation, a radical right think tank. The president of Heritage, Kevin Roberts, has close ties to the Catholic Information Center, which is itself run by an Opus Dei priest. An Advocate article offers this synopsis of a speech he gave at the CIC:

Roberts talked about banning contraception, which he said will be the most difficult goal for him and his allies to achieve. But they can win this and other fights with a strategy of “radical incrementalism,” passing legislation that gives them some of what they want and can be built upon, he said. The same approach can be used for abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights, including marriage equality, Roberts said.

This is scary all by itself. But it’s also important to know that J.D. Vance’s beliefs and policy goals align quite neatly with those promoted by Roberts, Heritage, and Project 2025. Vance, who converted to Catholicism five years ago, is a proponent of “integralism.” Integralism, as Jason Blakely explains, “seeks to subordinate temporal power to spiritual power—or, more specifically, the modern state to the Catholic Church.” This is, quite plainly, a theocratic movement.

I am on the school board in my city. During lockdown, I recorded a video testimonial for my church. It was about being a witch and a Unitarian Universalist. Not too long ago, the onetime chair of a local Moms for Liberty chapter and current officer within my district’s Republican Party dug it up and shared it on Facebook. A lot of her pals quoted Exodus 22:18 in the comments: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” I knew that this was mostly bluster. But I also knew that at least a few of the people making these comments are gun enthusiasts. It all blew over in a couple of days, but my point here is that the idea that one of these people would think God wanted them to save the children by killing me wasn’t completely ridiculous.2

Mike Pence was—obviously—a true believer and, as governor and a United States representative, he was a threat to queer people and anyone with a uterus. But he’s old-school, and his goals were modest compared to those of people like Curtis Yarvin—someone who rebuts claims that he’s a fascist by pointing out that he’s a monarchist.

I am aware that talking about Opus Dei seems one step away from fearmongering about the Illuminati, but I am not talking about all-powerful people lurking in the shadows, secretly running the world. I am talking about the very real possibility of having a theocrat for vice president and an administration that, despite Donald Trump’s attempts to distance himself from Project 2025, will let the Heritage and Opus Dei define their goals and strategy.3 And, in some states, we can already see what happens when government embraces the principles of Project 2025. Here’s a fresh example: “A Jewish couple were rejected as foster parents because of their religion. This is the future Project 2025 envisions.”

If you’ve been with me for a while, you know that I believe that witchcraft is meaningless if it doesn’t include engagement with the world, and sometimes that means politics. In fact, my own practice becomes—more and more—a combination of paying attention and channeling my power to foster change. Most of the external trappings of working magic seem to be falling away. What is left is the work.

Please join me if you feel so called.