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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
to Jim and AJCalhoun. Yeah, this guy seems to have heart. Hopefully, his message will catch on with other small c christians. Not bad folk when they don't go all Hitlerian.
In response to David Kuo’s book and other opinions, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council stated, "Once you do something like this, you get your 15 minutes in the spotlight, but then after that nobody will touch you."
We all know better than that. I’m sure many Republican congressmen and Christian clerics will be more than happy to touch him with trembling hands.
The evangelicals, at least those with influence, are cancerous dullards.
I'm surprised this interview didn't touch on whether the voting habits of the Christian Right would be affected by the revelations of Mr. Kuo and others similarly enlightened. The Bushists made their political careers appealing to the basest hatreds and fears of "traditional" Americans and have been spectacularly successful. Even policies that screw the faithful are accepted as God's word. Ignore that the "traditional" American is now likely to be unmarried and doesn't attend church.
It's unlikely the Christian Right will give up on Bush and vote for Democrats, who are, or course, all pro-choice, in favor of gay marriage and hate America. If they have developed a distaste for Republicans, it will most likely result in their not voting at all.
Actually, that's just as well...
A few years ago, prior to the 2000 elections, I was talking with a co-worker who had recently moved to the US from Fiji. He was curious about American politics and the upcoming election and I was explaining to him a little bit about the candidates and our political parties. I mentioned that Al Gore was the Decmocratic presidential candidate and George Bush was the Republican candidate. He looked at me and said "Now the Republicans...they're the Christians, right?" As both a lifelong Christian (although not an evangelical) and Democrat I was totally taken aback. I came to realize that my friend's observation was shared by a large number of people in this country and I can't really understand why. The top level Republican honchos (Bush, Cheney, Rummy, et al) do not seem to exemplify the teachings of Christ in their everyday lives as leaders (what may or may not be in their heart I can't say). The lies they have told would fill volumes (yes, I know Clinton lied) and this contrived war in Iraq far from over. Moreover, they don't seem to have any particular empathy for the poor and downtrodden, nor do they seem to really offer a whole lot to the evangelicals out there that vote for them. The abortion and gay rights issues are particular hot buttons for a lot of people and as a result a great many very well intentioned people end up getting hoodwinked into casting a vote for candidates that are probably not as caring about these issues as they are getting elected.
That said, I enjoyed the interview with Mr. Kuo and I think I will pick up his book. I am certain that if it does too well we will soon hear from Rush, Sean and Bill, that he is in fact an alcoholic, wife-beating, cross-dressing, child molestor.
Memoirs like this one are becoming a new sort of genre affiliated with the Bush administration: the 'I was just an innocent conservative who didn't realize the den of wolves I was walking into' book. Frankly, I find these books nauseating, even though I'm happy to see them if and when they damage the Bush administration politically.
Why do I find them nauseating? Because they are, in effect, a classic form of non-apology apology. They make the claim that it was not possible from the outside to see the administration for the pack of cynical wolves they are, when this is indeed plain as the nose on your face to a person with the leisure to peruse the paper once a day. In effect, I'm supposed to believe that a Christian man with connections climbs up the GOP's stinky political ladder without noting the corruption along the way? And then decide that his climb down is honorable, when it involves so little apparent sense of his own culpability?
It bothers me when people who rallied behind the war in '03 feel no sense of shame in writing critiques of the war today. Frankly, we are owed not confessions and kiss-and-tell memoirs, but public acts of repentance: because I just don't believe that you didn't know; I think you let yourself be seduced by power and money and appearance on TV, and now are choosing to flee a sinking ship.
The Christian thing to do would not to engage in the dog-and-pony show of warning the Christianist right that it is being played by frauds; the Christianist right surely knows that; in effect all this does is offer another fig leaf to hide guilt under as it turns out--low and behold--that politics based on fear, deception, and hate turn out to be dangerous to the nation and its soul. What a surprise!
Repent, rather than write memoirs!
Pity
Judgement
umm truth,honor?
the conservatives are all over the wrong side of this issue...
Bahahahahahahah
"Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told the Washington Post that he "felt sorry" for Kuo. "Once you do something like this," said Perkins, "you get your 15 minutes in the spotlight, but then after that nobody will touch you."
"
I think it was CNN that had some follow-up interviews at a right-wing Christian conference about the book and the Foley scandal and most of the people there said that they don't vote based on the values or character of the politicians, but instead they vote on if that politician will support their issues. Now didn't the Democrats gets raked over the coals post-Monica about still supporting Clinton because of his values (or lack thereof) and didn't we get fed the same line in '04 and '08. We heard "news story" after "news story" about Bush's values and Gore/Kerry's lack of them and how the elections weren't about issues, but about values. Turns out that the self righteous Christian right is full of hypocrites. I guess I can't really be surprised can I?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
