Mike Huckabee, Conservative Golem
US elections 2008: After years spent injecting religion into US politics, right-wing pundits are afraid they may have gone too far
Leading conservative pundits have discovered that the Republican electorate is dominated by Christian fundamentalists, and they are shocked, shocked! Aghast at the rise of the backwoods populist preacher-turned-governor Mike Huckabee, now polling first in Iowa with only two weeks until the caucuses, they’ve suddenly divined the value of secular politics, of knowledge gained by studying something other than the Bible.
“There is a sense in Iowa now that faith has been heightened as a determining factor in how to vote, that such things as executive ability, professional history, temperament, character, political philosophy and professed stands are secondary, tertiary,” an alarmed Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal last Friday. “But they are not, and cannot be. They are central. Things seem to be getting out of kilter, with the emphasis shifting too far.”
National Review’s Rich Lowry concurred. “[N]ominating a southern Baptist pastor running on his religiosity would be rather overdoing it,” he sniffed. “Social conservatism has to be part of the Republican message, but it can’t be the message in its entirety.” In the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer’s column was titled An Overdose of Public Piety. “This campaign is knee-deep in religion, and it’s only going to get worse,” he wrote.
On Saturday, former Bush speechwriter David Frum chimed in with a National Post column titled, Don’t take Populism Too Far. “It’s always important to respect the values and principles of the voters,” intoned Frum. “But politicians who want to deliver effective government and positive results have to care about more than values - and have to do more than check their guts. They need to study the problem, master the evidence and face criticism.”
It’s nice that prominent conservatives are finally becoming concerned about America’s lurch into faith-based irrationality. It’s also a bit rich, since the GOP has spent the last three decades assiduously courting the religious right, showering them with contracts, grants and access to the heights of power. Republicans have rained contempt on science and secular expertise, pushing a kind of yahoo postmodernism in which truth is always assumed to be a function of politics, making facts - about, say, global warming, or the failure of abstinence-only education, or evolution - immediately suspect.
Rather than wringing their hands about the decline of reason in our civic life, right-wing opinion-mongers have, until now, heartily celebrated the volkish virtues of an archetypal Nascar-loving, megachurch-attending, Darwin-denying Ordinary American. Noonan has been the high priestess of mawkish religio-nationalist kitsch, titling her collection of post-9/11 columns, A Heart, A Cross and a Flag: America Today. In one piece, lamenting the fate of a man she encountered on an airplane, she writes: “I bet he became an intellectual, or a writer, and not a good man like a fireman or a businessman who says ‘Let’s Roll.’”
Last year Lowry ridiculed a spate of books about the growing political power of the religious right (including, I’m flattered to say, my own): “When the theo-panic passes, maybe a few of them will regret their hysteria.” In defending Christmas against its supposed antagonists, Krauthammer has chastised “deracinated members of religious minorities” who “insist that the overwhelming majority of this country stifle its religious impulses in public”.
And Frum has hymned a mystical communion between Bush and ordinary Americans that transcended mere issues. “There’s a bond between Bush and the American people that’s bigger than politics. They might not always agree with what he does - but they trust him,” he wrote in a 2003 column. “It’s a new kind of leadership: a spiritual leadership.”
Now, along comes Huckabee - anti-intellectual, proudly faithful, basing his bond with primary voters on spiritual leadership - and the conservative establishment is revolted. Huckabee is their golem.
Over the years Republicans worked hard to organise Christian conservatives, sending consultants and cash to help turn churches into thousands of little political machines. They embraced figures like home-schooling guru Michael Farris, whose tiny, fundamentalist Patrick Henry College has been a top source of White House interns and GOP congressional aids. Farris started a group called Generation Joshua, directed by former Bush speechwriter Ned Ryun, which pays for home-schooled kids to work on Republican campaigns.
Now he’s in Huckabee’s corner. “It was the endorsement by prominent national home-school advocate Michael Farris that helped propel Huckabee to a surprising second-place finish in the Iowa straw poll in August,” wrote the Washington Post on Monday. Home-schoolers, it said, “could also prove to be a powerful force on caucus night”.
As mainstream conservatives recoil from what they’ve created, their cynicism is revealed - to us, but also, perhaps, to themselves. Obviously, some right-wing leaders always saw the pious masses as dupes who would vote against their economic interests if they could be convinced they were protecting marriage and Christmas.
But there there’s also a certain species of urbane Republican who live in liberal bastions and, feeling terribly oppressed by the mild contempt they face at cocktail parties, imagine a profound sympathy with the simple folk of the heartland. They’re like alienated suburban kids in Che Guevara t-shirts who fantasize kinship with the authentic revolutionary souls in Chiapas or Cuba or Venezuela. Confronted with the actual individuals onto whom they’ve projected their political hallucinations, disillusionment is inevitable. Whatever their nostalgie de la boue, the privileged classes never really want to be ruled by the rabble. They want the rabble to help them rule.
Michelle Goldberg is the author of the New York Times bestseller Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. She’s currently working on a book about the global battle over reproductive rights.
© 2007 The Guardian
Pacts with the devil. And urbane Repugs might yet come to regret that some liberal Christians are talking about actually following Jesus teachings such as caring for the poor and the rich entering heaven as likely as a camel through the eye of the needle kind of thing.
I am reminded of the tale about the boy riding the back of the tiger — and how said boy found himself one day inside the belly of same.
Any thoughtful viewer of the political scene could have predicted this outcome. Pardon me while I laugh my ass off reading the outrage being shown by the rightwing power structure as they realize their predicament.
Republicans keep getting whacked by the monsters they create. They will lose this election if the religious right they have cultivated and pandered to take over their party. They put the country at risk by supporting religious radicals in the Middle East as they supported Bin Laden in the 1980’s. They have ruined our economy by supporting the greedy capitalists who want no government involvement as they prey on the poor, devour the environment, and pollute our air and water. They have ruined democracy as they strive for power by disenfranchising voters, stealing elections, and failing to compromise. And now they wonder how their tail got so big and nasty. Time for new leadership.
Isn’t that why they’ve turned against Mike Huckabee? Because he talks about helping the poor?
That’s taking Christianity too far!
When I was a lowly union officer, my union’s leader told me never to promise my members something I could not deliver. The Republicans have been for years promising their religious fundamentalist base things they never had any intention of delivering. What’s happening now is precisely what my mentor predicted - the base is turning away from those who patronised them to one who looks much more likely to deliver what they want. They will be merciless towards those whom they feel have let them down. Of course, their new darling won’t deliver either. So, what then?…
secretarybird,
I concur. And the Business Roundtable and other Wall Street types are obviously worried about Huckabee because they are not sure whether they can control him.
Bush always wore his religion on his sleeve, and we can debate until doomsday over whether his religious beliefs were sincere, but only the most naive would fail to realize his true loyalties, and his strongest convictions, always were with the business elite and their policy goals, not with the religious right. However, Huckabee is a true believer. The man was a Baptist minister, for Christ sakes! His proposed consumption tax is obviously meant to win friends on Wall Street, but he has a lot of convincing to do, especially when they know they can count on Hillary or Obama 90 percent of the time.
When Bush was the nominee, it was clear that the corporate oligarchy warned the members of the corporate media not to ridicule him for his simplistic childlike beliefs, but I cannot believe the oligarchy will put the same restraints on the elite corporate media when it comes to Huckabee.
Very very amusing and well written.
Also “Krauthammer has chastised “deracinated members of religious minorities” who “insist that the overwhelming majority of this country stifle its religious impulses in public”.”
Ah, that special word, “deracinated” … ever notice how it is used just for Jews?
de·rac·i·nate (d-rs-nt)
tr.v. de·rac·i·nat·ed, de·rac·i·nat·ing, de·rac·i·nates
1. To pull out by the roots; uproot.
2. To displace from one’s native or accustomed environment.
Krauthammer’s Implication…. only unrooted Jews complain about Christmas invading the public sphere. Well, just for the record some of us more racinated Jews don’t like it either. We accept it, we don’t make a fuss about it, we wish people a Merry Christmas (why shouldn’t they enjoy their holiday?), we shrug when we are wished a Merry Christmas (why bother to turn away good wishes that are sincerely intended?) but it is all a daily winter reminder that this is never really or entirely our home, just where we live now, in these generations.
But I do love the sight of Christian chickens coming home to roost, and taking over the hen house and the farmer’s house too. A delicious spectacle
Schadenfreude, I just can’t help myself. Sorry, I know I shouldn’t, but I just can’t help myself.
How’s it feel, Nooner, Lowry, Frum, Krauthammer, now that you have to lie in the bed that YOU made? Sheets kinda scratchy, are they? Bedcovers gettin’ a little hot for you? Bedpartner wantin’ a little [redacted] when you’re not in the mood, or vice-versa? Bedbugs gettin’ to ya?
Kwitcherbellyachin, ya sissies! You wanted to Jesus-up, now you got it. You can’t say you weren’t warned, over and over and over and over.
Maybe you can claim ignorance, that you never really understood what the Fundies were all about, that what they really wanted was to completely co-opt the Republican party into God’s Own Party (evangelical-fundamentalist-dispensationalist-dominionist-Rapture’s a-comin’ ONLY Christian God, that is), but I sure did. I know. Years ago, I was one of them, and I knew EXACTLY what they were all about. But you chose not to listen, and now you must face the consequences. Too bad, but that’s the choice YOU made.
The conservative right’s real fear is that Huckabee will be a weak candidate in the general election, but he may actually be the repugs best bet. Giuliani and Romney both have glaring vulnerabilities that would be hard to overcome in the general. Huckabee comes across as more genuine and authentic than any of the leading candidates on EITHER side. He won’t fragment the conservative vote in the way the Giuliani might and he doesn’t resemble a snake oil salesman in the way the Romney does. It feels like the left is looking at Huckabee’s rise more as an opportunity rather than the very real threat that it is. IMHO, he’s the one to be most concerned about.
“IMHO, he’s the one to be most concerned about.”
I agree. Huckabee has actual charisma. That, plus some dangerous “unAmerican” ideas about religion make him dangerous.
He creeps me out because I can feel his charm, even as a I know intellectually that he is evil.
I compare Huckabee to Barack Obama, who is, although I prefer Edwards or Kucinich personally and as a matter of policy, undoubtedly the most charismatic Democrat.
Who would win the Obama vs. Huckabee charisma smack down? Since both are professed Christians, it wouldn’t exactly be about religion… but it would be about interpretations of religion, Baptist vs. UCC, etc….. not to mention race and stuff like that.
I think Obama might have a fair chance to speak the faith talk in a way that would work for some potential Huckabee voters. He does seem to be mysteriously interesting to some Republicans. ‘Course what they say and how they vote may differ.
To my fellow CD posters, this article explains why you’ve heard me rant against the Christian fundamentalist agenda. When people are trained by church creeds they make easy picking for authoritarian agendas and their design masters. The combination is the enemy of a diversified society, or democracy in general as it’s utterly convinced there is ONE right way, the great father’s way. What is most troubling to me in this nexus is the spiritually bankrupt disconnect that allots the so-called believers in the “bush as spiritual leader” nonsense, to recognize no moral contradiction with a “prez” who enjoys killing, thinks up reasons to torture people, and has allowed the health of the nation in every possible basis for count, to fall ill, while enriching his blood-warrior buddies. AS if Christ could nod in agreement with anything so remotely and ostensibly obscene.
Twice I have seen this Bible Thumper on TV talking to his aides, he was unaware he was on camera. Charm? Like a puffed up pit bull, you should have seen how he talked and his facial expressions and body language gave him away, as a bullying, self important jerk. He’s no damn good. Another Bush type, yet with some degree of intelligence. He may fool those so called Bible-Belters, but he won’t fool the people in Hew Hampshire.
What a great article! Talk about the chickens coming home to roost! In Australia the Republican Party equivalent - the Liberals, also courted the “rabble”. Called them “Howard’s workers” Then last year PM Howard showed his true colours by stripping working class people of most of their protection rights. Well did they turned on him! Talk about a people scorned! Both he and his party got dumped! He forgot the golden rule. Be subtle in your contempt for the hoi polloi! If they manage to work out your true feelings, they’ll revolt!
As someone who lives in the land of the religious right–they almost have total control of this friggin’ state now–it ain’t pretty. If you do not have steady access to money and health insurance, take cover. You will not get it under Huckabee. He will be a corporate whore.
Although we can see through Huckabee’s charm and so called charisma, he is all about the money and CONTROL. Screw the poor, but sprew the gospel and feed those corporations because they pay the rich (AKA big time church leaders) back with more money and control over people with their fruit and nuts ideas. Most reasonable people know it, but just give up. Tax dollars are spent illegal religious stuff all over the state. What is sad, is many, but thankfully not all, of our Democratic legislators are just as guilty in this sham.
Huckabee will do whatever the right wingers like Krauthammer and the rest of them want. Our religious state legislators are bought and sold very cheap in this state. Corporate welfare is rampant. People are suffering. Children are hungry. And the stupid evangelicals keep right on votin’ for the Republicans. God, or their version of it, is more important than feeding their family. The religious zombies are brainwashed. You absoultely cannot reason with them, they truly think it is about God. Some of them are my family members.
I realize that sounds crazy, but it is reality. Our legislators waste taxpayer dollars arguing about who is the most religious, putting up crosses, stopping abortion and kicking out immigrants. Screw the schools. Homeschooling has ZERO accountablity here. Ministers all over the red states will be promoting Huckabee. And Huckabee will pander to the money as much or more than Bush. Tax cuts will be his mantra. Forget that feed the poor crap.
Huckabee with be Bush with a phony candy coated smile. We are in for a bad ride if this guy is elected.
ONCE AGAIN MISSING THE POINT!
The powers that run the USA (corporate wealthy elite) have already decided that Hillary will be the next president. The Democratic party is well in hand with its only unruly candidate, Kucinich, being well marginalized. On the Republican side however, there is danger from Ron Paul, who also has support from many liberals and progressives (like me). To head this off the religious base of the party is being used to bring up Huckabee. He will not be president but he will guarantee killing off Paul’s insurgent campaign and insuring what has already been decided, an HRC victory.
Get it people, abortion and gay rights do not matter. Only the central bankers and wealthy elite robbing you blind matters. The corporate welfare state will continue while liberals and conservative working people, who actually agree on most issues, are kept fighting over fake issues.
I’m Mike Huckabee, and I believe that ignoring reality (especially the screams of nonChristians) has been good for this country from the beginning. I promise to keep ignoring reality with impeccable integrity, keep my eyes on the sky for Rapture, and to lead you into the darkest fucking hole you can’t even imagine.
I agree that Huckabee would be the toughest for a Dem to beat — he has some populist rhetoric and he’s more witty than the other dimwit Republican slugs. He’ll also be in the back pocket of the corporate elite that owns the GOP, but he’ll be better at lying with sincerity about their agenda than Giuliani, Thompson, McCain or Romney — it’s his training as a preacher: convince others of the truth of things from a book filled with contradictions and paradoxes while picking their pockets. The man’s a regular Elmer Gantry.
This is a good article, but I’d take exception to Michelle Goldberg’s notion that it’s JUST Huckabee’s conservative Christianity that’s his selling point. Certainly that’s part of it, but I’ve watched him in debate and in his speeches on C-Span — he has the ability to come off as sane and compassionate, and even GOP audiences, especially those in the grim economic realities of the Bush-ravaged Midwest, are responding to that.
Karl Rove played a dangerous game flirting with religous nuts and turning them into Christopublicans and now his party is going to pay the price by nominating Huckabee. If Huckabee sticks to his creationist blather, he is going to lose all but the 15 percent of diehard far-right Christians; if he renounces the looney Jesus Freaks, he is going to lose by a landslide anyway. Ah, there is a God, and one who dearly loves irony.
In 1979 we declared that “America would NEVER elect an ACTOR to be President!”…even if he did serve two terms as as state governor.
Boy, Did Ronald Reagan ever kick OUR butts!
In 2000 we declared that “America would NEVER elect the idiot son of a one-term President to be President”… even if he did serve two terms has a state governor.
Boy did GW EVER kick our butts!
Now we’re declaring that, “America would NEVER elect a PREACHER to be President”…
But I have to agree with expatincebu… Clinton has been selected to be elected. The only question left is, who will be selected to play the part of the loser?
Democrats and progressive independents ought to be rooting for Huckabee: if he won the Republican primary he would almost certainly lose big, insuring the election of a Democrat and the near-destruction of today’s right-leaning Republican party. I just cannot imagine that more than a minority of Republicans would vote for a Huckabee, his retrogressive views on fundamentals like evolution, and his obvious ignorance of so many world issues. His record as governor of Arkansas is full of smelly deals and unethical charges, too.
I wish I were as confident that Huckabee could not be elected. I think that in order to have ANY hope of having traction, he will make deals with the usual rank of corporate whores and media liars, and thus employ a variant of the PR monster machine that the GOP has made justly infamous.
The Republicans have managed to convince people that voting against their economic interests is right and good because it is–more importantly–voting against gays, abortion, and secular humanism, and FOR more money for ‘home schooling’ (an oxymoron if ever there was one), anti-sex sex ed programs, and more programs to ‘convert’ gays to heterosexuals. And more Jesus in our lives, and Christianity shoved down our throats in the name of ‘faith.’ And utter erosion of the line between Church and State.
It really pisses me off to see our political system up here in Canada being turned into the same kind of circus you have in the States.It really is unreal how much time, energy and resources are spent on such a frivolous activities .Especially when all signs point to the fact that we may be on our last decade or two as a speices on this planet.And really….continuing to fight over the last drops of oil.Whether it is a cause of global warming or not we do know that its terrible for the environs that we live in.We ought to be full speed ahead in turning our attention to what we have as a ready natural energy source.To think of all the technology that has been snapped up over the years by the big multinationals,only to languish away unused.Why would they ever want to put themselves out of business?The shareholders wouldnt stand for that.So onwards the powers that be continue toward destroying our planet.There has got to be someone out there with the means to finance a campaign of truth in this world.Far too many people are content to act as sheeple.Really no downside if they wish to be led by others but since we all have a single vote…(not too sure about that in a few our the states) shouldnt an attempt be made to educate them.
Huckelbee won’t be elected, he doen’t have a brother in charge of a state to throw the election.
I don’t think it’s such a great article. It seems like something written for a Brit newspaper for the purpose of entertaining Brits who’ll cluck their tongues and chuckle at the sad state of American politics.
This Huckabee guy is a dangerous Christian Fascist. He could well be president for the simple fact that major U.S. media can do anything it wants, and elect anyone it wants.
All they’d have to do is make some deals with this guy and Jeb Bush could be the VP and they’d be painting Christian crosses on U.S. F-16 fighters bombing the Middle East.
Right now it’s Hillary. Barring a monstrous mistake on her part, she’ll win the primary. The Republicans don’t have the money this time and they aren’t getting the money needed to win a presidentil election. Sadly, money rules our politicalprocess. So it will be Hillary in the white House and a Monica in the oral office. Whatever keeps him relaxed is okay by me, a long as any enammored keeps her mouth shut. Bill sure as hell was far better than what we have now.___ FAR better.
miftin—-I’m with you. Everyone keeps forgetting that unless and until we can get verifiable fair elections, it really doesn’t make a bit of difference whether the choice is plausible—we won’t be doing the electing anyway. Huckabee scares the living crap out of me.
Two things:
1. We don’t want to make Huckleberry look too much like a jerk before he gets the repukelikan nomination because he will be a lot easier for just about any Democrat to beat. Wait until the general election before showing what a two faced idiot he is.
2. Since the prime directive of the repukelican play book is that government is the problem and serves no purpose, I can’t take Noonan, Ninnyhammer, Lowery, Frum and the rest seriously when they talk about how Huckleberry doesn’t know how to govern or would be a bad president. How could he be worse than what we’ve already got?
“Nascar-loving, megachurch-attending, Darwin-denying Ordinary American.”
If our nation had done the right thing in 1865 after we defeated their traitorous asses and kicked out the inbreeding vermin then billions of human beings on this planet would have lived, would be living, better lives.
And the quote from above would have read
“Nascar loving, mega-church attending, Darwin-denying Ordinary my-sister-is-my-aunt Confederate Fother Muckers”
It is hard to tell how the Hucksteree would get along with his wild plan to scrap the IRS and use only a sales tax. Some of the customary idiots would think that sounded real fine as it would be the FAIR tax, meaning soak the poor and middle class again and let the big boys off the hook. He does not believe in Social Security or probably any of the other social programs, as I guess God will provide. If he gets in, we will need to have the Rapture, as this country will be shot. However, we will have the Ten Commandments hanging in the White House, so that will help greatly.
If there is a God he owes the world an apology.
Hoa binh
Since 1492, Epicurus had something to say about that, thousands of years ago:
“Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If, as they say, God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?”
– Epicurus
Note to jjohnjj and wordancer: Times are different now than when Reagan and Junior were elected — we’re in a serious economic crisis that is hitting the Red States very hard, and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. Reagan and Bush corporate ‘conservativism’ doesn’t play well when you’re losing your job and getting kicked out of your home.
Huckabee’s national sales tax would never get through Congress, but he’s not going to be elected anyway; as it says in the recent NY Times profile:
“Huckabee’s affability and populist economic and social views have sometimes been misinterpreted as a moderate brand of evangelical Christianity. In fact, as he wrote in his book ‘Character Makes a Difference,’ he considers liberalism to be a cancer on Christianity. Huckabee is an admirer of the late Jerry Falwell (whose son, Jerry Jr., recently endorsed his candidacy) and subscribes wholeheartedly to the principles of the Moral Majority. He also affirms the Baptist Faith and Message statement: ‘The Holy Bible … has truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.’”
– Zev Chafets, “The Huckabee Factor,” The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 12, 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/magazine/16huckabee.html
This just is not the year for another Christopublican moron in the White House.
Huckabee: just another religious huckster he.
Herewith some commentary by real statesmen:
“[A]n amendment was proposed by inserting ‘Jesus Christ,’ so that [the preamble] should read ‘A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion’; the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.” — Thomas Jefferson
“The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.”
– George Washington
“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and… foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.” — John Adams
Would that politicians of today would speak so honestly.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-gregory/they-still-deliver-my-mai_b_77654.html
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/20/5920/
we are now living in a Christian nation … which means if you are Muslim, Jewish, agnostic, atheist, Buddhist, Zen, Hindu or anything else, and you say something against a Christian you are persecuting them and can be sent to jail or worse.. and if this doesn’t cover it, then the other laws they are passing will… like the thought police bill that is also travesty…
America as we know it is dying…
If you want to be afraid of a religious nut-case in the
Republican Party race, be vary afraid of Mitt Romney. The Mormon religion makes even neocon Southern Baptist faith look tame by comparison.
Mitt is pals with people like Cofer Black–a chief executive with Blackwater Inc. to whom he looks for advice on the War on Terror, Mitt wants to keep Gitmo open and even expand the operation of the current gulag of CIA torture prison detention facilities, and Mitt backs our beloved feuhrer Bush 100$ (although he does admit “mistakes were made”–without being very specific about exactly what those “mistakes” might be)
Huckebee is Sheriff Taylor from Mayberry, Romney is Don Michael Corrleone from The Godfather movie.
I just recieved an E-mail from Huckster-to- be, forwarded by one who is a devout Christian. Has a nice photo of Huckabee, a brief political message and his website address. There will be millions of those E-mails going out.
RSJ - Thanks for the info.
Hoa binh
It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch of people than the GOP! They created a ‘Godzilla’ that’s going to eventually destroy them. What did they expect???? They flung the doors wide open for the Christian Right to come in and take over their party. They made a pact with the devil (Christian extremist’s) and now they are reaping what they have sown for 25 years now. I used to vote Republican until they entered the picture and started taking over. I haven’t voted Republican since. They were bad news then. A lot of us are sick to death of all the phony baloney religious piety that comes out of the Republican party these days. They put on a big show for the Christian Conservatives while they are turning off other Conservatives like myself left and right. So like I say. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group.
Does this sort of writing bring the progressive message to the Average American voter?
Or is it just an internal memo to frustrated political minority.
A group that needs a way of venting frustration?
religiosity
faith-based irrationality
yahoo postmodernism
volkish virtues of an archetypal Nascar-loving, megachurch-attending, Darwin-denying Ordinary American
mawkish religio-nationalist kitsch
right-wing opinion-mongers
theo-panic
deracinated
I am going to check my dictionary.
this article is full of schoolyard namecalling, with just enough “intellectual” lingo to make it seem more like analysis than simple, base, ridicule and hate mongering.
This sort of pseudo-intellectual writing is a debasement of thinking and of language.
IMO, Huckabee is a threat to the GOP for obvious reasons stated above- that the party loves the religious right because they vote and in huge numbers, but that when they are in power they have a different agenda then the established power players.
But I would think that the FairTax would be more of a threat to the central bankers (it actually seems good for all- except those that want to cheat the tax system), and that might be another reason that the GOP seems to want to turn on him.
I just saw Jesus Camp, and those people scare the hell out of me.
I’m with those who say Clinton has already been selected by the Powers That Be. The column at the top doesn’t talk only about Huckabee–it’s about how the religious right has taken over the GOP. This is nothing new–the problem for the neocons is that it’s become obvious that a Democrat will take the White House in a year, and so the competition between the Republicans just before the primaries begin has taken on the quality of a sideshow. But the big money powers who have been exploiting the religious nuts for all this time have made their choice–just as with her husband in ‘02, sometimes you need to make a pretence of a big change, and actually allow a few token changes like a long-overdue raise in the minimum wage, and a different style of talk about social issues, in order to quiet dissent for awhile. They want HRC because they know that oil has already peaked, and if we are not to install a massive program to ramp up renewable energy, improve efficiency and encourage conservation–which would not suit Big Oil et al–then it comes down to a hugely violent attempt to take over the Middle East. HRC is clearly down with that. But if the public is sufficiently undisciplined to refuse to vote for her–there is a real threat of this happening despite the MSM’s incessant drumbeat of what a massively popular landslide frontrunner she supposedly is–I expect they’ll still be able to control whoever slides into her place. I certainly don’t trust Obama–but the trouble with him, from the POV of the powers that be–is that he’s half black and too many Americans would not vote for him.
[David] Frum [says] “There’s a bond between Bush and the American people that’s bigger than politics. They might not always agree with what he does - but they trust him,”
What twaddling, claptrap! And to think that this is the son of Barbara Frum, who was one of Canada’s most respected interviewers and journalists. I wonder what she would ask Bush.
He’s an embarrassment to all Canadians.
OkieGal,
I definitely know what you’re talking about, and I feel for your plight there. I grew up in HomeofOkra when it was still morphing from “yeller dog democrats” to the current lunatics who run the place. I fled as soon as I could to the west coast and have never regretted it.
Since I grew up in Tulsa in the 1950’s when the place was still sloshing with oil money, I got a very good public school education, and for that I’m grateful. And I heartily agree that the land is beautiful. Unfortunately, most of the Jimmah Deeahn Pew-er Pork Sausage-stuffed people are not, inside or out. Present company excepted.
Shake the dust off your feet and take your obvious brains and talent someplace they’ll be appreciated.
Okiegal
Me too! I live in your lovely but politically misguided state - I’m British (waiting to be a US citizen) - guess how I feel!
I just can’t visualise that enough of the rest of the USA would be so dumb as to vote for Huckabee. I have trouble believing that he and his like are actually being serious.
It often seems as though I’ve slipped into some parallel universe.
Spot-on essay by Ms. Goldberg. I’ll definitely pass this one along to friends and colleagues. She really nails the loathsome toadies such as Noonan & Frum for their towering hypocrisy.
Bush’s true spirituality is greed and power. All masked, of course, by hokum and Jesus juice. That is a perfect amalgamation for the corporate fascists who run the Republican Party.
Huckabee is scary because he’s a bona fide Baptist preacher who may not realize that the authentic god of the Republican Party is Mammon — not Jesus juice. Wall Street ain’t going to like the real deal running the country. Jesus juice is good for the yokels not for Halliburton, Citibank & Exxon.
Tech2 says,
“This sort of pseudo-intellectual writing is a debasement of thinking and of language.”
I don’t think it’s Goldberg’s job to dumb down her essay so Tech2 can understand it. In fact, based on his/her post I’m not sure that would even be possible. The essay is about right-wing ideology and the sudden panicked hypocrisy of its leading proponents when confronted by a fundamentalist populist.
Nowhere does Ms. Goldberg claim to be writing for the “average American voter”. She’s writing about ideas and ideology, and their abuse. And her essay is perfectly lucid for anyone even remotely familiar with the topic. Criticism of ignorance and hypocrisy is hardly hate-mongering.
Hate-mongering is when you rant about “baby killers” and “godless homos” and “Christ-killing Jews” and “Islamofascists.” And the Christian right revels in hate-mongering. It is their coin of discourse. Look it up.
Why, why are we (they) so dumb? It almost seems genetic. Too dumb not to eat crap food and become morbidly obese, too dumb not to REALLY read and understand the New Testament, dumb enough to elect an ignorant, untalented- blue-blooded-aristocratic Yankee to represent their interests. What the F’? I an hoping with all my heart Huckabee wins the primary, he will NOT beat Obama or Edwards and I do not think Hillary is a shoe-in. I think he could beat her though, I won’t vote for her. Gun to head I would vote Huckster over Hill, sorry.
Islamofascists, baby killers, Christ-killing Jews, godless homos.
So what is the difference between your “side” and the right wing regarding namecalling and misuse/corruption of language?
On the surface it sure seems like both the right wing and left wing in America suffer from the same absolute ideological belief that they are right and everyone else is not just wrong in their opinions, but is an enemy of the state.
Do you progressives consider the American right wing as “enemies of the state”, or are they just fellow citizens that have completely different political views from yours?
For someone to feel they have to move to another state, because their neighbours are scary and dangerous is fascinating.
I thought America was about “small” government - so how can the lifestyle of the individual citizen be so effected by whether HUckabee or Clinton get elected?
I personally would be very interested in hearing some real world examples of why someone would have to move, because a particular state is full of right wing christians. Does it go both ways - would a right wing evangelical be able to live happily in Southern California?
I don’t think it could be the school system, as I thought American christians either homeschool or have private schools.
Christian Republican has always been an oxymoron.
Tech2, The difference is the right wing evangelist may not be happy in So. California but they wouldn’t be in the same danger as a liberal would be in many parts of this country. If not physical danger, believe me, it could be vandalism and verbal abuse. I know from whence I speak. It’s about ignorance, I know why a wealthy, pro-zionist businessman would vote for Bush but the fact that they managed to convince the average Joe that a bush whitehouse would be in his best interest is because of just plain ignorance based on laziness and lack of intellectual curiousity.
And I think there lies the answer to my first post, why, oh why are they so dumb–there has been a brain-drain from those areas over the years.
tech2–
“I personally would be very interested in hearing some real world examples of why someone would have to move, because a particular state is full of right wing christians. Does it go both ways - would a right wing evangelical be able to live happily in Southern California?”
Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but it is disturbingly easy to find examples of necessary escape, particulary from members of the LGBT community. It is worth noting, too, that such an escape is not limited to ideological flight– it can come down to the basic preservation of personal safety. As for the evangelicals in Southern California– have you heard of Biola University, Hope International, or perhaps Thomas Aquinas College? Not just individuals, but instituions of learning based on evangelical Christian faith?
Your point about small government is well-taken, and I would rejoice if that were in fact the case. However, it is more obvious each day that our government wants it’s grasp on everything from our wombs to our phone calls. It is in this regard that I perhaps sympathize most with some terrified and frustrated conservatives; some of them thought they were blustering for limited government involvement and personal responsibility, but this message coming from those at the top has curdled in its hypocrasy as much as the dreaded “compassionate conservatism” tagline. “Conservatives” — individuals with whom I may disagree politically– are not the enemy of the state. But have no doubt– conservative leaders, aided by so-called liberals in power, have crafted an America based on constant fear, mutual loathing, selective culpability and the egregious dismissal of justice and due process. If not enemies of the state, what would you call those who have directly and repeatedly attacked the most fundamental principals of your government?
Correct me if I am wrong, but some of you are saying that a liberal, or atheist, or radical socialist, etc… could be living in say, a southern state like Texas etc… and they could be subject to verbal abuse, destruction of property, social or institutional prejudice, etc …. by conservatives.
Or particularly by church going, Jesus loving Christians?
I find that very hard to believe.
interesting times, you say:
“But have no doubt– conservative leaders, aided by so-called liberals in power, have crafted an America based on constant fear, mutual loathing, selective culpability and the egregious dismissal of justice and due process.”
Fear and loathing are personal choices, unless of course we are talking about extreme abuse here, where human frailities come into consideration.
The problem of the “dismissal of justice and due process” can be dealt with through the political system, through elections. I find it very hard to believe that the United States of America is in a situation where the general public no longer has any say in the way the country is run.
Didn’t Ralph Nader run for president once, as well as a Texas guy - Ross Perot?
These were people preaching radical reform, I recall, but they lost through fair elections.
Moreover, I do read news on the internet, and there are no large protest movements in the USA, like in the Vietnam era, or civil rights stuff. Why not? Those people back then risked jail, beatings, etc… They were not afraid.
Has the average American university student changed that much in 30 years?
Or is it just that there is no real systemic problem - only certain minority groups are unhappy.
In 2004, the churches were obviously telling people how to vote, and it wasn’t for Kerry. For those of you who live in more liberal areas and think that these zealots cannot influence an election, think again. Do not underestimate the power of rural America.
The fly over states vary in religious influence, and some states even vary in areas. In Colorado, for example, Colorado Springs is home to wing nuts, Telluride, Boulder, et. al are liberal havens. However, in some states, such as this one, the religion rules. And Hillary is universally hated. This state is not the only one, there are many in the fly over area. Hillary will do much worse in the red states than Kerry. These people HATE her. They are quiet now ON PURPOSE, but if she gets nominated, they will knife her immediately. She will be dead meat. The religious leaders hate her, for God’s sake, a woman cannot be in charge, especially Hillary!
I encouraged my children to leave this area as soon as they were adults. They did. As for me, I can not yet leave because of elderly parents. But when they are gone, the red dust of this place will be in my rear view mirror.
Some of you question “Why should I leave because of the right wingers?” Try living with them. Maybe they do not bother you. But after a number of decades, even if you can stand the religious nuts, the hypocrites might just get to you. So called Christians rip off the poor right and left. In my experience, the more they brag about being a Christian and a Republican, the futher you need to get away from them. Perhaps you just have to live it to see it. It is a damn disgrace how we treat the people at the price of so called progress here.
Leaving is my choice. I want to find peace.
Good quotes, Rjhuntington. There’s this one, too:
“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787.
I’d like to hear one of our presidential candidates quote that line.
Poet, Romney’s more like Fredo than Michael.
Tumbleweed, I’ve talked to at least a half-dozen former Republicans who feel the same way you do. They can’t stand Bush and they can’t stand the Christopublican theocrats. The GOP is being ripped in half by the Christian crazies on one side and the Goldwater conservatives on the other. Some have become Libertarians; others are supporting Ron Paul this election. I think Ron Paul is going to do much better in the primaries than the Big Media pundits are leading us to believe.
Dingo, I think the true god of the GOP elite *is* Jesus juice — as in the wine Michael Jackson fed to underage boys disguised in Coke cans. It’s an apt metaphor: Ply them with the corporate agenda disguised as ‘Christian’ morality so that you can set them up to do your bidding.
Tech2, there is a difference between right and left: I don’t want to establish a government based on my religious beliefs; nor toss people in jail without legal rights; nor take away anyone else’s rights; nor disregard provable science in the name of archaic superstition; nor insist every conservative, or anyone else who thinks differently from me, is ‘unpatriotic’ or a ‘traitor’; nor continue to support politicians who have lied to me, especially those who used fraud to start a war. For many years I did my best to try to accommodate far right-wingers who have beliefs that are illogical and bizarre in the name of respecting their right to their own opinions; I still try to do that, but not when they’re attacking our Constitution and shedding blood in my name.
Tech2, you also wrote: “These were people preaching radical reform, I recall, but they lost through fair elections.”
Nader, for one, did not receive the same media coverage as Gore and Bush — I recall one interview in 2000 where the first question to Nader was “Why are you trying to ruin Al Gore’s chances to be president?” Similar questions were not asked of Gore or Bush. He was also not allowed in the presidential debates, although he was on the ballot in enough states that he could have received a majority of the electoral vote. Nader, when he received any coverage at all, was generally dismissed as either a miscreant or a nut.
Tech2 also said: “Moreover, I do read news on the internet, and there are no large protest movements in the USA, like in the Vietnam era, or civil rights stuff. Why not? Those people back then risked jail, beatings, etc… They were not afraid.”
There have been many since Bush took office, including 400,000 people in the streets of New York before the last GOP convention; recently there were peace marches in Washington and across the nation with hundreds of thousands participating. Once again, the media barely reported on them. There have also been plenty of people beaten and jailed — Seattle, Miami, New York, et al — but you have to read liberal sites to get the full story. I suggest you use ‘the Google’ and find out the facts.
And what do you think about this incident, Tech2?
“The Emmy-winning scientist [Bill Nye the TV ‘Science Guy’] angered a few audience members when he criticized literal interpretation of the biblical verse Genesis 1:16, which reads: ‘God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.’
“He pointed out that the sun, the ‘greater light’ is but one of countless stars and that the ‘lesser light’ is the moon, which really is not a light at all, rather a reflector of light.
“A number of audience members left the room at that point, visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence.
“‘We believe in a God!’ exclaimed one woman as she left the room with three young children.”
– As seen at LA Free Press 2.09 from religionisaproblem.com.
http://religionisaproblem.com/2007/08/12/bill-nye-booed-by-bible-believers-for-pointing-out-moon-reflects-the-sun/
Or do you believe the Apollo astronauts landed on a sun?
Huckabee is just a pawn used to give hope to the religious nutjobs so they won’t stray to another party.
Soon they will all be directed to someone else that doesn’t constantly spew the bible…Gulianni, Romney or McCain, as that is not popular now.
Huckabee will go now where, he is nuts.
Have you heard Huckabee’s sermon, or spill on the radio stating he wishes us to have a Merry Xmas, etc. and there’s a cross in the background? he’s revolting and what would be more revolting is if he wins the Presidency. He’s already had all of his sermons over the years locked up. He sounds like a more entrenched Bush type spoonfeeding his minions with more false Christian ethics or way of life. What did these dumb Republicans expect and where have they been? These religious zealots and bigots have been around for years and they continue to fleece Americans with their promise of salvation for a life’s worth of savings? The Bakers,Swaggarts, etc. Hello!
I think dingo hits the nail on the head:
“Wall Street ain’t going to like the real deal running the country. Jesus juice is good for the yokels not for Halliburton, Citibank & Exxon.”
If Shucksterbee wins the nomination, corporate campaign contributions to Republicans will dry up even more than they have already. And if he were somehow able to win the election, that would spell the death of the Republicans as a national party. Why else would conservative pundits be having shitfits?
DINGO: Excellent points.
RSJ: I’ve read some interesting assessments on the “Book of Job” as per why “God” allows a good man to suffer. We humans bring our limited understanding to the awesome task of trying to penetrate the meaning of that which is Infinite. What the mystics relate is that this is a planet designed for free will. Thus Creator cannot enter into what people do. Many attest to the power of prayer, many have seen creative visualization work wonders in their lives, some can bear witness to the metaphysical notion that the ethers themselves are imbued with the power to reflect–as actual manifestation–the quality of our thoughts. When we take mankind’s thoughts as a collective “force field,” the reality that becomes its projection screen is shared. We individualize how we cope with it, and how we interact with this LIVE universe.
I believe “GOD” is seen in immutable laws. The earth travels around the sun, ice freezes at 32 degrees, our normal temperatures are 98.6, spring begins on the vernal equinox, and so forth. The higher immutable laws are explained best through the idea of karma. In the fullness of time, what we do comes back to us. Thus GOD is alive in the actualization of universal LAW. Most masters have understood these laws, done their best to explain them to far less spiritually equipped followers, and the result has been a bastardization of high teachings. It’s the religious equivalent of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” People worship what their authoritarian leaders tell them to worship, except for those whose inner beings are so cued to Truth, that regardless of the comforts of conformity, of finding a group that will provide strokes so long as they go along with its maimed and self-limiting ethos, they are born rebels. Among this sect are those who leave the world its visions, inventions, new thoughts, and seeds for change. GOD is in the workings of the whole, and its genius is hardly seen from the standpoint of a speck (actualized as a human being) in time. The cruelty we see is not “God’s” fault, but in what man does to man, particularly when its religions teach violence as a way to prove fealty to a specific god. How often do the blood stains of history present this passion play in the form of raging against “other.” Thus team destroys team in false homage to “God.” Now sing along with me what this long historical pattern means: MARS RULES! God has nothing to do with it… it’s a human misreading of Divine intention.
Huckabee could very well win. Its possible he could beat Obama or Edwards. The rest of the Republican candidates are dog meat facing either one of those guys.
Feliz Navidad & Año Nuevo Prospero
Siouxrose, I agree with much of what you say. One interpretation I’ve read of the Book of Job is that it actually proves that God does not interfere in the private lives — and the free choice — of his creations; hence Job suffered even though he was a good man who followed the rules; for God to interfere to save him would prove Job was no more than his puppet and God was evil himself by capriciously allowing evil.
It is incredible that human beings — who can’t fathom a million miles in any real sense, much less the unimaginable distances of space, would believe that a just god — a ‘Big Daddy’ — would be so cruel as to invent a world like ours — what good father would do that, and sentence his children to eternal hell if they didn’t obey? Trying to answer the questions of the universe with an archaic book that has been mistranslated through several different languages is silly, yet many believe every word is holy writ — except those that tell them to forgive and stop killing others. It’s amazing that the Prince of Peace would be transmuted by these Christopublicans into the God of War and that anyone would take them seriously — what part of ‘love one another’ don’t they inderstand?
Throughout history, two karmic lessons from the Bible have held true: You reap just what you sow, and those that live by the sword, die by the sword. Yet this is more wisdom that the Christopublicans routinely ignore. Fortunately, their influence is quickly fading.
It’s all on self-destruct mode…
Fire and brimstone, smoke and ashes, Sodom and Gomorrah in Washington, District of Corruption. And the Antichrist raises his ugly head. Or as the poet put it, “something wicked this way comes.”
“something wicked this way comes.”
The poet must have been approached by a crowd of white men, burning with the desire to own the world, as payback for the genetics of the utter lack of package. And the poet must have known the world would be set afire by these non-thinking hate-mongers, forever punishing and conquering the world…for lack of manhood…and that even Viagra could not calm the beasts, who would make the world pay for their shortage of meat