So I’m overdue to catch up on what has happened in the past month. Not much good, it seems.
- The US averted default, but otherwise the outcome was totally negative. The process gave the world the idea, quite understandably, that the US government is dysfunctional and cannot be counted on to come in out of the rain. It kicked the can a few months down the road by putting us between a bigger rock and a bigger hard place.
- There was an earthquake centered not far from Washing, DC, and a hurricane that knocked a fair amount of the of the northeast upside the head. Michelle Bachmann says that was God’s message that Washington’s policies are wrong. Apparently, she has a direct phone line to God. More on “theocrat” below.
- Rick Perry, the governor of Texas who succeeded George W. Bush, jumped into the presidential race and almost immediately eclipsed Bachmann because he is even more radical and extreme. One pundit characterized him as “George W. Bush without the charm.” His previous book unequivocally puts him in the religious right camp, which is not all that far from the Nazis. Think I’m exaggerating? When someone paints gays and “moral relativists” as a danger to society, they are arming themselves with the ammunition to, uh, eliminate the “danger”, whatever it takes. Perry is also a theocrat, as in someone who espouses a theocracy – a religious state where the rules of one religion are the rules of society, whether or not literal adherence to that religion in name is required. For him, it is like the First Amendment does not exist. Or maybe it’s a Communist plot. Don’t take my word for it, read his own book.
- The media continues to follow the above two tea preachers* as if they were credible candidates for any public office, let alone President of the United States. People like this, who assert, among other bizarre beliefs, that evolution is wrong, deserve no more coverage than the current Communist Party candidate (if there is one) or the Flat-Earthers, with whom they are near cousins.
America today may have its challenges, but it remains the number one power on this earth. We did not arrive at this place by clinging to medieval beliefs and mythologies. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and Bill of Rights set forth an ideal that was way ahead of its time. It included that there shall be no law respecting an establishment of religion. George Washington wrote at the time, “this is not a Christian country.” Even though we fell short of that ideal in the early days of our nation, we have been evolving towards it, step by step, ever since. It is still a shining star – the “city on a hill” – toward which we strive.
The Tea Party would have us reject and discard that ideal and the progress of at least the past century, if not more. It is time we dump the Tea Partyers into the harbor along with their rancid tea.
* – “The Tea Preacher looked so baffled when I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines stapled to his chest.”
— “Memphis Blues Again” – Bob Dylan