"The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom.
They are trying to force government leaders into following their
position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a
particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of
money or votes or both." -- Barry Goldwater, 1981
Barry Goldwater, figurehead of the American New Conservative movement of the 80's and 90's warned us of the perils inherent in capitulating to the fervent faithful of the religious right. Today, the GOP is rent by deep internal divisions fueled by extremism. From the chaos of the 2010 mid-term surge of tea party candidates, many of them very very green at politics, to the ridiculously reactionary anti-gay legislation recently shot down in Kansas and Arizona, to an outright government shutdown last year, the Republican Party seems unnervingly disjointed and at odds within its ranks.
And the consequences have been dear.
Even Gov. Jan Brewer, widely regarded as aggressively conservative, not only vetoed her state's reactionary anti-gay legislation, but felt compelled to castigate her fellow Republicans in the Arizona legislature for putting such a poorly conceived bill on her desk. And not just poorly conceived, but outright unnecessary, even if one moves past the obvious discriminatory spirit. The wholly imaginary "war on religion" that the evangelical wing of the GOP insists exists reveals such legislators as not just hateful, but downright paranoid.
The U.S. Congress, largely as a result of Republican (read: tea party) stonewalling on budgetary negotiations, is seeing across-the-board approval rates under 20%. With a Democratic President whose own approval rating stands at 45%, and who has presided over the sourest US economy since the Great Depression, the GOP should be preparing for a mid-term election season ripe for widespread victory. Instead, going into the these elections, the GOP is saddled with explaining why their leadership has no control over the least experienced and most reactionary crop of Congressional freshmen the party has seen in decades. They are saddled with an image of Jim Crow-style pedantry at state level. They are burdened with the very public and near-constant gaffes from deeply ignorant evangelical candidates. This is entirely because of timid handling of religious extremists in their own ranks.
It will be interesting, as the primaries and fall elections play out, to see America's reaction to the GOP's schizophrenia over the last two election cycles. If the GOP has any hope of returning to efficacy, the pandering to the evangelical base must be balanced, or the Democrats will very much take advantage of the vacuum created by the estrangement of moderate conservatives and centrists who do not believe everything in the world must be responded to from a perspective of fear and imagined persecution.
Political Diagnosis... "Paranoid Republiphrenia"
ReplyDeleteTwo ideas came to my mind after reading the editorial blog “Paranoid Republiphrenia” by my classmate Cecily Josephine. The first was that I completely agree, and the second was that “paranoid republiphrenia” is definitely going into my word bank to use again later! As I read Cecily’s blog I found myself smiling at her very direct and witty approach.
For me to express myself properly I need to explain where my thoughts are coming from by mentioning that I recently wrote an editorial blog called “Freedom vs. Equality in America” where I talk about the gay rights movement and about SB 1062 (commonly called the Arizona “Anti-Gay” Bill, which Cecily also makes mention of in her blog). Another classmate, Jen, wrote a wonderful rebuttal in which she accurately points out that the legislation did not contain any wording relating to the LGBT community, and says that the author of the bill, Rep. Senator Steve Yarbrough explains that “the measure is more about protecting people of faith from discrimination.”
Fast forward a bit and I come across “Paranoid Republiphrenia,” a blog that focuses on religion in U.S. politics. Religion AND politics are two topics that many people have very strong opinions about. Religion IN politics is truly a recipe for disaster.
Our history has taught us that the U.S. is a country founded on religious freedom. I have learned that religious freedom is important even to the some agnostic and atheist people because they have the freedom to dispute religion. Americans should be protected from religious discrimination just as much as from ANY other form of discrimination. But I think there is a very valid point in Cecily’s blog, beginning with her quote of Barry Goldwater, that our elected representatives are being bullied by religious extremists who perhaps contributed greatly to their being elected to begin with and therefore expect certain legislation to be forthcoming.
I have known people on both sides of the religious spectrum, from agnostic / atheist all the way to full blown, holier-than-thou bible thumping (insert religion here), and in my opinion both extremes are dangerous in our government. Just to clarify, I believe that people have the right to their beliefs no matter how mild or extreme. But in my experience, the people I have known on both extremes are absolutely intolerant of anyone with any other beliefs. It is this intolerance that behooves these folks to get involved in politics and whether they intend to or not, push their views onto others and reject any view that disagrees with their own. This is what creates such heated, ugly and often violent division in our society. To protect and strengthen our society we need our laws to allow us to celebrate our diverse cultures and religions, and prevent any laws that leave too much wiggle room for division and discrimination.