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Monday, September 26. 2011

Do Unto Others

Michele Bachmann won the Iowa Straw Poll, sending the Republican Party into a tizzy, such a tizzy in fact, they couldn’t wait to have Texas governor Rick Perry enter the race. And so he did, on the same day as the Iowa Straw Poll, stealing Bachmann’s thunder and giving the Republican faithful — or at least the Teabagger faithful — a viable alternative to that Obamalite, Mit Romney.

That tough talking, Texas drawling, former Air Force pilot and perennial C student, Rick Perry. Everything you could want in an unimaginative, somewhat ignorant public servant and less! By golly, like his predecessor in the Texas State Governor’s Mansion, he could brag about his scholastic mediocrity and get applause doing it! “I finished in the top ten of my class! Of 13!”
 Kind of makes you wonder what kind of standards the military has for getting into flight school and then flying our most advanced aircraft.

Mit Romney: one-term governor of Massachusetts and former supporter of Roe-v-Wade, architect of the health care plan that became the federal Affordable Health Care Act and most recently, a convert to the ranks of the most ardent firearms advocates. Mit even went hunting, he claims.

What the Teabagger faithful see in him is a guy who will say anything and flip-flop on any position to get the nomination to be the Republican Party’s standard-bearer in the 2012 presidential elections. He ain’t one of them, regardless of what he says on the campaign trail.

You look at these other characters in the primaries; the one time Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, his entire campaign crew took a powder when they realized he wasn’t serious. Then there’s the other Mormon, John Huntsman. He was the governor of Utah and an ambassador to China. Speaks Chinese, can’t remember which dialect, but he could negotiate … well, there’s nothing to negotiate, but he can make the Chinese feel real welcome.

Then there’s the old man from Texas, Representative Ron Paul. The kids love him! He’s been against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the beginning and he’s for legalizing drugs, especially marijuana. But he’s one of these total libertarians. He wants to keep the health care system completely free market and if you don’t have health insurance, well, too bad. Die motherfucker!

And the new guy from New Mexico (I forget his name) he wants to legalize pot. But when you examine the rest of his ideas on federal government, he’s almost as crazy as any of the others. And talk about a lack of experience, he’s never held office of any kind until he ran for governor and served two terms; Gary Johnson, the handyman turned politician.

Then there is the Godfather pizza man who wants to use the Chilean Model for Social Security. He doesn’t want to tell Americans what it really is: privatizing the social safety net and turning everyone’s contributions into personal investment accounts in the stock market. It’s working so well for Chile … except that it isn’t. The World Bank, once a proponent of privatizing pensions like Social Security, says privatizing has cost Chile more than if they had just kept their Social Security system the way it was before privatization in 1981.

But Herman will deliver! He won the Florida Straw Poll!

And what about Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann? Well, Santorum wants to send a big “Fuck You” to all gays serving in the military (A gay soldier in Iraq was booed when his video was aired) and Michele Bachmann said what every Republican believes: they don’t want the federal government to be involved in the education of America’s children so she would get rid of the Department of Education — among others.

Teabaggers everywhere love Rick Perry for killing more people than any other candidate; at one debate he was wildly cheered for doing so. The Teabaggers went wild for Ron Paul’s inference that those people without health insurance should be left to die. “You take your chances,” he said.

Front runner Rick Perry took two big hits from the other candidates and the Teabagger faithful for A: mandating (with an opt out clause) girls get the vaccine for the HPVC virus, the one that causes cervical cancer, and B: giving children of illegal immigrants instate school tuition benefits if they have lived in Texas for more than three years — the Dream Act.

And then the Teabagger faithful booed that soldier serving in Iraq for being a homosexual. This is the Republican Party today: cold, heartless and mean. Some in the GOP will claim that’s not the Republican Party, but no high profile Republicans will rebuke any of the hatred spewed by the extremists, certainly none of the candidates for president, and in fact, all the candidates are playing to the worst of their party’s dark core.

The vast majority claim to be followers of Christ. That’s enough contradiction there. Although, in their defense, the Bible is quite vague about Jesus’s attitude towards the poor. His example of course was to be charitable to the poor. He stopped his travels to minister to a blind beggar, restoring his sight. Jesus said the beggar saved himself with his faith.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus is asked which of the Ten Commandments are most important and he answers: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37)

Love is the central theme of Jesus Christ’s message, but to listen to some of these so-called Christians in the Republican Party, that means to love the poor as they starve, love the uninsured as they die from curable illness, love the homeless as they sit shivering in the rain and love the condemned as the executioner pumps poison into their bodies.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m not a Christian, but the message of Jesus is undeniably the most virtuous, or at least as virtuous as any other. He tells us to help the poor, to share with those who are not as “blessed” materially, to turn the other cheek when we are insulted or injured; he admonishes the Pharisees when they want to humiliate and stone to death a woman who was accused of adultery: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7)

But this crowd cheers death and killing, cheers the poor dying instead of getting health care, rebuking — loudly — the teachings of the person they profess to worship. They are bloodthirsty, selfish and self-centered and that appears to be the political philosophy of the Republican Party. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wants to deny funding for FEMA unless funding for some other needed projects is cut. We’re not talking about hundreds of billions of dollars, more like 2-3 billion.

That will be the Republican philosophy competing for our votes come November 2012. Up against the philosophy of the president and his party who think the richest of our nation should pay as much in taxes (percentage-wise) as the Middle Class, that there should be no question about whether we help those devastated by natural disasters; that we shouldn’t celebrate killing others. That everyone is entitled to health care.

Stephen Colbert said it best: “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

Posted by Tim Forkes in NEWS and POLITICS at 12:01 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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