Resentful Rubes
In the comments to my last post, Brian posted a link to an article at the Huffington Post. The article is titled “An Open Letter to All Republicans from a Former Religious Right Activist”. It is written by Frank Schaeffer, a moderate Christian and ex-fundie. It’s an excellent article. He discusses the damage done to this country by the three selfish factions of the Republican party: fundies, neocons, and big-corporation fatcats.
I urge you to read the entire article. I have excerpted below the section directed at the fundies.
The Religious Right came about for one reason and one reason only: it was a reaction to Roe v. Wade and the legalization of abortion in 1973. The Supreme Court essentially created the culture wars. (A state-by-state approach to legalizing abortion would have been better and resulted in much the same situation we have today in terms of the availability of abortion.) Take Roe out of the political mix and there would be no Religious Right.
That said — certain power-hungry individuals (Dobson, Falwell, Robertson, Rove, Reed et al.) took the energy of our original pro-life movement and used it to build a hate campaign reminiscent of the early momentum that drove European Fascist parties in the mid-1920s through the mid-1940s. Fear of the “other” gays, immigrants, intellectuals, artists, the media, feminists, etc., morphed into a general critique of “the elite” which turned out to be anyone with an education or even big city dwellers. The Religious Right became a crude populist movement pitting the resentful rubes against the rest.
Take a hard look at yourselves. Play back this year’s Republican convention and you’ll see an all-white crowd of people screaming for offshore oil drilling — fat lot of good that will do! more carbon! more pollution! — and essentially reacting like starved hyenas when presented with a piece of juicy carrion. At the convention Sarah Palin and others produced nothing more than a snide list of smart ass put downs aimed at the really dumb, with so little substance that former conservatives such the late William F. Buckley, for instance (let alone my late father) would simply have been ashamed to be in your company. You have become a hate-filled rabble proud of your ignorance and resentful of the rest of your own country, resentment that’s exceeded only by your maudlin (and false) sense of victimhood.
People that hate half the population of their own country can scarcely be called patriots. On the contrary, people who exult in mocking as their only way to “contribute” to solving our huge environmental, energy, military and economic problems are true subversives.
The smell emanating from your convention was that of a beer hall putsch circa 1930s, not anything remotely like participation in a democracy. Now you all know what it felt like to be in a lynch mob minus the hanging. You should be ashamed. But shame is something that apparently Republicans are no longer capable of feeling, at least when you get together in a mob.
If you could feel shame there would have been a series of contrite public apologies at your convention for the incredible fiasco of non-governing that has typified the Bush administration. My pension, other people’s pensions, our homes, jobs and economy are in chaos because of you. Young Americans are dying in Iraq because of you. The world is a more dangerous place because of you. America is hated because of you. Yes, that is you personally. I blame all of you.
You are the people who gave us eight years of Bush. My Marine son fought in his wars. Cowards, where were most of your sons and daughters? The President’s daughters were getting arrested for under age drinking and harassing their Secret Service detail. The rest of you were shopping.
Far from saying you’re sorry for the state our country is in you’re trying to change the subject by reviving a culture war that has nothing to do with the principled fight against abortion of the 1970s that my dad and I began, and everything to do with simply hating people not like yourselves. The ultimate irony is that you’re doing this in the name of Jesus Christ, someone, by the way, whom I try to follow as a Christian. You have become blasphemers by dragging our Lord into your political games.
The Republican Party and the Religious Right have become “Christian” warmongers who applaud the use of torture, start needless wars, fight against civil rights for gays and other disadvantaged Americans, and perhaps worst of all, in terms of the long-term impact, have literally turned your hands against God’s creation.
You have a little fool for a vice presidential candidate who says she doesn’t believe that human beings have anything to do with the phenomena of global warming and the endangering of all human life on this planet. Dream on. This fool claims to know what she knows because of an absolute “I don’t blink” confidence in herself. So on top of everything else this fool who says she is a Christian, proves she is not. She lacks any shred of decent humility, the most basic biblical virtue.
September 20th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
It doesn’t surprise me, but I’m glad that this has been brought to light. The Bible, Christianity, Jesus…they have all be just shields that people hide themselves behind so they can feel like they are doing good. I noticed this when I went through a brief criminology course, but it just kind of got shoved away and was replaced by rage for those who still believe that Earth is 6,000 years old!
Pathetic…
September 20th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I agree with everything except this statement…
1. I think the modern fundie movement would have happened regardless, short of abortion being completely illegal. There are far too many “others” out there for them to hate and fear: gays, atheists, biological scientists, environmental scientists, etc…
2. Availability would have seriously suffered since a state would have been able to shut down all abortion clinics completely. It’s hard enough currently — it would be worse if all the red states banned it outright.
September 21st, 2008 at 4:46 am
Its hard to say what options would be available for those who feel the need for an abortion if Roe v. Wade had never happened. There certainly would be states in which the laws pertaining to reproductive rights might as well have been written by Torquemada himself. Other, more enlightened parts of the nation would probably look no different than they do now.
I wonder what the mood of the country in general, and women in particular, would be if McCain and his ilk get their wish and actually repeal the right to choose. I’m picturing a scared 17-year old girl being persecuted by the law and the clergy, something for which the adherents of Christianity are not already innocent of. In El Salvador, abortion is illegal in any circumstance. Women’s vaginas are treated as crime scenes in cases of suspected abortions, subject to inspection by the authorities. What a charming gift to the world from the followers of Jesus!
Most of the public disagrees with the pro-lifers, and if McCain gets his way, his party will lose far more than it will gain. Once the dust has settled, I really don’t see this abrogation of a basic human right lasting forever.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:04 am
I agree that there would be a backlash and in the end would probably favor liberals politically, but unlike the jesus freaks, I can’t stand the thought of innocent people being persecuted in such a way.