This pathe… what’s that? Oh, Christian Nation is this new, steadily-bombing alternate history that’s been out that takes as its change point John McCain winning the election (yeah, I know), then conveniently dying in Russia two months into his administration (yeah, I know) and leaving Sarah Palin to somehow idiot-savant, evil-genius her way into creating an American theocracy (YEAH, I KNOW) over the next twenty years. Because writing and publishing this tripe is apparently cheaper than undergoing therapy for irrational fear of Protestant Christians. Then again, starting next year such therapy is probably going to be covered under Obamacare, which means that my rates would be going up in order to pay for it; so maybe writing it out is best for everybody concerned.

As I was saying: How pathetic is the Christian Nation alt-history?

This pathetic:

That’s from the must-be-seen-to-be-believed video trailer for the book (AoSHQ has it up, if you like): and I will freely admit that I looked at it more closely solely because I was struck by how well preserved that New York Times front page was looking after twenty years of being shoved in a filing box. Yes, obviously, it’s a fake paper – John McCain didn’t die on March 9, 2009, of course* – but take another gander at the text of the article that they used for the fake front page:

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the most hunted man in the world, was killed in a firefight with United States forces in Pakistan on Sunday, President Obama announced.

…which is from the print edition of the May 1, 2011 New York Times. In other words, the guys flogging the Christian Nation book are so desperate to cling to the one thing that they think that this current President can be credited for that they shoved an extraneous reference to it into their advertising. And let me assure you: that reference of happier, more competent days was for them, not anybody else. I only saw it because I know that newsprint oxidizes rapidly.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Look, I understand that it’s great to remember the good old days and everything, but you gotta face up to it when it becomes clear that the good old days are gone. Barack Obama is an awful President – even if an American SEAL team did kill bin Laden. Saying weird stuff about Sarah Palin isn’t going to help with that.

PPS: I wasn’t going to front this at RedState, except that I had a colleague point out that publisher W.W. Norton is so desperate to have this book succeed invested in this book’s message that they created a study guide for it (link also via AoSHQ).  God help the high school teacher that assigns this book in class, by the way.

PPPS: Let me lampshade: of course I didn’t read the book.  And I won’t, unless the publishers decide to shell out a thousand bucks to have me do it.  In advance.  No checks.  Because my time is valuable.

[UPDATE] Last one, I swear: this Tweet is pretty apropos.

Most irritating that this is the lesson they draw from a century of mass killings via atheistic ideologies: http://t.co/rMsJkS7Hxq

— David Freddoso (@freddoso) August 20, 2013

*Do not be nyeh kurturny.