Briggs' mailbag: How scary is Micah Beckwith, really?

It's the return of the mailbag!

I've skipped a few weeks because there's been a ton of news to cover. I do have some fun questions to catch up on, though, so I'll try to get to them in a future mailbag. For this edition, I'm sticking to questions about the wild month we're having in Indiana politics.

If you'd like to submit a question, email me or fill out the form at the bottom of the online article page. Onto the mail!

Caren Lettofsky: The more I read about Micah Beckwith, the more scared I get. Real question: As a non-Christian with ZERO interest in converting and as only a second-generation American, in your opinion, how realistically scared should I be?

I caution against treating political figures as scary. There's enough to worry about in life without catastrophizing politicians.

That said, the media, myself included, have correctly framed Beckwith as an extreme figure on the right. He is an avowed Christian nationalist who believes in harnessing political and governmental power to enact an agenda in line with his rigid interpretation of Christianity. He's also uniquely effective at pursuing that agenda, in large part because he has charisma and communication skills honed by his work as a pastor.

Beckwith this month won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor and most likely will hold statewide office in a few months. But what does Beckwith's ascent actually mean for our lives? And is it scary?

I'd argue these are the things most of us have to worry about, in order of greatest to least probability:

• State government will get worse.

• Beckwith will embarrass Indiana.

• Laws could get more extreme.

• Beckwith could become governor.

To take a step back, I think Gov. Eric Holcomb is a good and effective governor who has led Indiana in the right direction over two terms. I've already discussed how Holcomb handled the pandemic well (and reopened Indiana faster than far-right conservatives seem to recall). He's also been an outstanding governor for Central Indiana. Holcomb has respected, and contributed to, the region's economic might while using state resources to juice important initiatives, such as the long-overdue Circle Centre redevelopment.

Indianapolis and its suburbs are better off because of Holcomb.

Holcomb is a vestige of pre-MAGA Republicans focused on pragmatic governance. By contrast, Holcomb's probable successor, Sen. Mike Braun, came to office as a MAGA acolyte, which is increasingly a prerequisite for winning elections in red states.

Braun, not coincidentally, is less accomplished than Holcomb during his one U.S. Senate term, and he has been more willing to waste time and energy on silly political fights (like, you know, overturning a U.S. election).

All that to say, I already expected Indiana's next four years to get less fruitful and more annoying even before Beckwith joined the Braun ticket. I am much more confident in that prediction now.

Republican delegates chose Beckwith for the purpose of holding Braun's feet to the MAGA fire. At best, Beckwith will be a constant distraction for Braun, making day-to-day governance more difficult. At worst, Beckwith will be a chaos agent, exerting influence over appointments and policy objectives and diverting the Braun administration's time toward trivial matters, such as which books are in libraries.

Which brings me to the second point. Beckwith already has been a low-key embarrassment to Indiana in his video messages and during his time on the Hamilton East Public Library board. Now, he's gaining a platform that warrants national attention.

When Beckwith says crazy things going forward — like that God sent the Jan. 6 rioters — people across the U.S. will hear about it and assume Indiana is just a bunch of Beckwiths. That's embarrassing.

Beckwith won't be alone among facepalm-inducing statewide office holders. After all, he'll share a ballot with Todd Rokita in November, and Diego Morales is still secretary of state. But Beckwith is a truer believer in American theocracy and, unless he submits himself to Braun's handlers, he's likely to operate as a loose cannon, often overshadowing his ostensible boss.

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If you're looking for a bright side of sorts, I'd say it's doubtful that Beckwith will lead to more extreme laws. After all, Indiana has already had Mike Pence as governor and the Indiana General Assembly doesn't exactly need a lieutenant governor's help to file bills pertaining to the Fox News cultural freakout of the day.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect to Beckwith's impending position is that, as I noted in a previous column, Braun is 70 years old. Once the Braun-Beckwith duo takes office, Indiana will be one Braun health scare away from swearing in Beckwith as one of America's worst governors.

Thankfully, Braun seems to be in good health.

In many ways, Beckwith is the product of an accelerating political trend in Indiana. Republicans dominate state government and accomplished all their policy goals years ago, so far-right conservatives stake out increasingly extreme positions and push the party to the right. That movement dovetailed with the Trump era, incentivizing grown adults to act like children having a food fight in the cafeteria.

Republicans have much to fear going forward because the party is abandoning Indiana's median voter. There will be electoral consequences for that some day. Meanwhile, Braun's career is culminating with a job that will not be nearly as enjoyable as he might have imagined.

Those are the stakes. If you've generally enjoyed living in Indiana until now, I don't see any reason why life will change for you specifically because of Beckwith. You might just have to explain a lot of embarrassing stories to your out-of-town friends.

Bob Williams: About your story on the continued pattern of Indiana democrats (small d on purpose) to self-immolate. They’ve been doing it for a generation or so. My question to you: Why do Indiana democrats insist on being so incompetent, irrelevant, Keystone Kopish?

First, per my answer above, I'd note that Indiana Republicans are a mess, too. Republicans just happen to be heavily favored by Indiana's demographics at the moment. Winning covers up dysfunction well, at least until it doesn't.

Speaking of, Democrats used to win a lot in Indiana. Now, they lose most of the time in most places. So, we're seeing internal battles between old-school Democrats, who took part in better days and think they have tactical answers, and newcomers, who have never known winning in Indiana, yet have lots of ideas about how to do it.

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We're also seeing an ideological war between leftist Democrats, who see progressives winning elsewhere in America and think they can emulate that here, and moderates, who (in my view) have a more realistic sense of the Indiana electorate and what's possible.

These are not unusual fights to have in party politics — indeed, similar fights are playing out among Democrats at the national level, even as the party controls the White House and the Senate.

To Democratic insiders, these are immensely important arguments to determine when, and how, the party competes again. To outsiders, Democrats' infighting takes on the optics of hyenas fighting for scraps.

Thank you for reading! If you want to send questions for future mailbags, fill out the Google form on the online article page or email james.briggs@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Should Micah Beckwith's Christian nationalism scare Hoosiers?