Pandering To The American Taliban
As bad as the police brutality against the OWS demonstrators was it was not the scariest thing that happened last week. The most disturbing thing has to be six of the would be Republican candidates for president pandering to the greatest threat to this nation – the Evangelical Christians or the American Taliban. It happened at the Thanksgiving Family Forum.
At a forum on moral values, which was held at First Federated, an evangelical church in Des Moines, the six candidates in attendance largely stuck to Republican orthodoxy and avoided criticizing one another. Instead, they called for dramatic changes in current law to achieve conservative aims.
To limit abortion, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, one of the leading candidates in polls here, proposed a federal law defining “personhood” as starting at conception, similar to a provision backed by abortion opponents that was rejected earlier this month by voters in Mississippi. Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he supported provisions that would limit the ability of gay couples to adopt children, while businessman Herman Cain called for changing provisions in the tax code that restrict churches’ involvement in politics if they want to keep their tax-exempt status.
Several committed to supporting state same-sex marriage bans and eventually a constitutional amendment to prohibit it, although libertarian candidate Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) said the issue should be dealt with by churches and families instead of the government.
“As long as abortion is legal in this country .?.?. we will never have rest because that law does not comport with God’s law,” said former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.
So, what did we learn from the event? That for all the focus on economic and fiscal issues at the national level, much of the Republican base is still preoccupied with a culture war — and most of the Republican presidential candidates are only too pleased to tell these voters what they want to hear.
This is a problem for the Republicans and one they created when they came to depend on a base of ignorant bible thumping neanderthals. Mitt Romney chose not to attend which is why he is the only Republican who could possibly win the general election. Of course the panderer in chief, Newt Gingrich may snatch the nomination from him.
5 Responses to “Pandering To The American Taliban”
the greatest threat to this nation is really these strikes between them.
Right on the money, Ron. I couldn’t help but watch with a helpless sense of unreality.
Strange that ideas once anathema to Republicans as sheer lunacy are now so ingrained into the warp and woof of the party that unless one shrieks his undying love for Gun-totin’, Teetotalin’, Antiabortion Jesus s/he has no chance at the nomination.
Listening to Gingrich extol his love of Jeeezus was particularly bizarre, given that he couldn’t bring himself to use the word “Bible,” and instead used “the Big Book,” like it was either a rapper or a Sesame Street publication. One got the feeling that, did one put “the Big Book” into his hands they would begin to emit smoke.
Please, don’t compliment those people, they are not the Taliban. The Taliban had and has the courage to grab their guns and fight wars against overwhelming odds.
Hypocrites pandering to the superstitious. Great. Just great.
Did anyone listen to NPR’s “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” this weekend? The host was joking about the two parties wanting a time machine. The Dems wants to go back and undo the Bush-era tax cuts, the GOP wants to go back and undo the Enlightenment.
Based on Santorum’s comments and other conservative antics, the GOP wants a suffering peasant class who obeys the ruling class without question. But only if the GOP is in power, of course. If not, then we are supposed to derail any agenda they want.
These guys are about a decade too late. Fascism died quite some time ago.