Two years ago I wrote at The Stream about the Democrats’ partiality to messiahs. Political ones, that is. Why not religious? Because the Democrat Party is now dominated by secularists. Meanwhile, the GOP is still mostly Christian. This vaccinates Republicans against savior-seeking. But they do have their own fault. It’s expecting the end of the world. I will explore conservatives’ apocalyptic gloom another time. Today I want to examine the Left’s Messianic-Inclusivity Complex™.

The Democrats and Islam

Ironically, American Democrats’ messianism resembles another kind. That of the Islamic world. This occurred to me while blogging, last week, on Iran’s recent rash of men claiming to be the Mahdi. That’s the “divinely-guided one” whom Allah will send to make the world Muslim, according to both Sunnis and Shi`is. For the former, he’ll emerge as a great political and military leader, eventually recognized as the Mahdi. For the latter, he’s already been here as a child and the 12th Imam, or descendant of Ali (Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law). He then went into mystical hiding in the 9th century AD, but will return as the Imam al-Mahdi.

Levels of Islamic Messianism

Recently, in Iran, at least 20 men (and one woman) have claimed to be this figure, or somehow correlated with him. Across the centuries, hundreds of such Mahdis or Mahdi-adjacent figures have surfaced. In both Sunni and Shi`i contexts. There’s a hierarchy of such that can be identified.

• The top, and most hubristic, is outright declaration to be the actual Mahdi. In Islam there have been a surprising number of these. Some of them actually survived and succeeded. Most notable: Ibn Tumart, who took over the medieval Magrib; Muhammad Ahmad, who took over Sudan in the 19th century. (And there are more.)
• Right below that are those who probably think themselves the messiah, but don’t dare utter it. Most famous example: Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini during the Islamic Revolution there. Better to think oneself the Mahdi and remain silent than open one’s mouth and be proved mad.
• Preparers of the way are the next step down. Known in Shi`ism as babs, or “gates.” Sort of John the Baptist types. If in addition to camel’s hair clothing and an insect diet he had been characterized by exploiting the more charismatic. In 1979, Saudi Arabia, a chap named Juhayman al-Utaybi ginned up the idea of his brother-in-law, Muhammad al-Qahtani, as the Mahdi. This worked for about three weeks. Then they and their followers were killed or captured and later executed.
• Toward the bottom of Mahdist legitimacy are individuals who claim some relationship to the Mahdi — as a relative or, more rarely, wife. A type of charisma-by-association, hoping some of it would rub off on them. This happened a lot in Twelver Shi`ism, with folks claiming to be the Mahdi’s son or brother or third cousin-once-removed. Your chances of being killed by the authorities are much less this way. But so is your potential power.
• The bottom-feeders of Mahdism are those who are clearly just plain nuts. One-offs, with little or no fame or legitimacy pre-announcement. This usually means they have no realistic chance whatsoever of gaining a following. Like the chap who told folks in that Marrakesh mosque last week that he was him. Now in prison, he’s probably never to be seen again. And no one will notice.

Levels of Democrat Messianism

Now let’s apply this paradigm to the Democrats.

• Outright political messianism. So far that’s been reserved for, and to, The One. You know of whom I speak. Barack Husayn Obama. The Democrats’ new god. Who returned. And who is probably running the White House, even as I write. No one else in the party even comes close to this level of popularity. Or hubris.
• Closet political messiahs. Those who think they have the BHO mojo, but won’t say so. At least not openly. Who’s in this category? Hillary Clinton, of course. No matter how many times she’s rejected. Stacy Abrams, too. Especially if she wins another term as shadow governor of Georgia. Elizabeth Warren goes here, although she could just as easily be slotted in at the bottom, as one of the nuts. And I would put Bill Gates as a dark horse here. He certainly has the self-importance, as the emerging New World Order/Great Reset master strategist. And self-styled Inoculator-in-Chief. But don’t sleep on Mayor Pete. If anyone thinks he can lead the Left over the Rainbow to victory, it’s Buttigieg.
• Preparers/gates. Less personally prideful, and more program types. Proponents of “If you build it, they will come” — mostly each according to his needs, etc. Bernie Sanders is the paragon thereof. But Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fits here, too. They both think true Marxism has never been tried — but that they’re just the ones to open that gate and let it in.
• Just related/along for the ride. This is the category of those who have been in the presence of actual political messianism, but won’t (or can’t) claim it for themselves. Instead, they trumpet their having been in the ballpark. Michelle Obama comes most readily to mind here. But Kamala Harris qualifies, too. The difference between them is that the latter has proved that getting your position by just going along for the ride is fraught with embarrassment. But you know who else goes here? Joe Biden. He would be in a retirement home in Delaware if he hadn’t been The Actual Messiah’s VP.
• Just plain nuts/one-offs. Beto. Which he proved again recently.

More Political Messiahs?

Barack’s former best friend is proving himself incompetent and leading the Democrats to electoral catastrophe come November. So it’s no surprise that that party’s leadership has started looking for Biden’s replacement. It remains to be seen whether the Democrats’ Messianic Inclusivity Complex will churn out yet another candidate. But it’s quite possible. When you’ve left God out of the equation, you wind up with self-starting messiahs. (Think Dune on a much smaller scale.)

The question is whether the American people will fall for this purely political religion — again.

Timothy Furnish holds a Ph.D. in Islamic, World and African history from Ohio State University and a M.A. in Theology from Concordia Seminary. He is a former U.S. Army Arabic linguist and, later, civilian consultant to U.S. Special Operations Command. He’s the author of books on the Middle East and Middle-earth, a history professor and sometime media opiner (as, for example, on Fox News Channel’s War Stories: Fighting ISIS).