Ruf Phillips: Is Christian nationalism an expression of American ideals, a credible threat to democracy or something else? He says the labeling game is very tricky because it's hard to use words like Nazism or Fascism without giving away your evaluation. The closest he can come up with right now is romantic nationalism - putting your nation ahead of not only other nations, but also individual citizens inside your nation. Ruf Phillips: I don't think any of these ways of thinking about politics are expressions of American ideals in any real sense.