Minor nitpick: it was time to start worrying about Christian nationalism over twenty years ago. They’ve been trying to legitimize Christian nationalism since at least the founding of the “Moral Majority” when I was a boy. I’ve been trying to sound the alarm about Dominionism and Christian nationalism since the second Bush administration.
But if you’re late to the game, fine. The second best time to start worrying about Christian nationalism is now.
When one believes that their political opponents are literal puppets of literal demonic forces, then they are officially a religious extremist lunatic and on a path to mass murder.
Mind you this is not an exaggeration of what these people believe. I was in the thick of an evangelical church some years ago. And this thinking, this dehumanizing of non-Christians was a main reason why I got out.
In the popular-with-Christians book series, Left Behind, as the climax of the series approaches, the believer protagonists conclude that the remaining non-believers are past saving and are literally no different than Satan and his demons. They determine that it is no sin to kill these people. At this point I yeeted the book across the room. That was a couple decades ago so I don’t recall all the details.
Now imagine the headspace the craziest of these mofos are in after 15-20 years of further religious and political brainwashing and the Trump presidency.