Commentary By Ron Beasley
As bad as the police brutality against the OWS demonstrators was it was not the scariest thing that happened last week. The most disturbing thing has to be six of the would be Republican candidates for president pandering to the greatest threat to this nation - the Evangelical Christians or the American Taliban. It happened at the Thanksgiving Family Forum.
At a forum on moral values, which was held at First Federated, an evangelical church in Des Moines, the six candidates in attendance largely stuck to Republican orthodoxy and avoided criticizing one another. Instead, they called for dramatic changes in current law to achieve conservative aims.
To limit abortion, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, one of the leading candidates in polls here, proposed a federal law defining �personhood� as starting at conception, similar to a provision backed by abortion opponents that was rejected earlier this month by voters in Mississippi. Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he supported provisions that would limit the ability of gay couples to adopt children, while businessman Herman Cain called for changing provisions in the tax code that restrict churches� involvement in politics if they want to keep their tax-exempt status.
Several committed to supporting state same-sex marriage bans and eventually a constitutional amendment to prohibit it, although libertarian candidate Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) said the issue should be dealt with by churches and families instead of the government.
�As long as abortion is legal in this country .?.?. we will never have rest because that law does not comport with God�s law,� said former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.
So, what did we learn from the event? That for all the focus on economic and fiscal issues at the national level, much of the Republican base is still preoccupied with a culture war � and most of the Republican presidential candidates are only too pleased to tell these voters what they want to hear.
This is a problem for the Republicans and one they created when they came to depend on a base of ignorant bible thumping neanderthals. Mitt Romney chose not to attend which is why he is the only Republican who could possibly win the general election. Of course the panderer in chief, Newt Gingrich may snatch the nomination from him.
Harken back to the interrogation of McCain and Obama by Pastor Rick Warren, with the two presidential candidates summoned to his "congregation" to be subjected to his "religious test," which is specifically prohibited by our constitution.
ReplyDeleteThe role of the Republican Party is to convince the unintelligent to vote in the interests of the 1%. They do this by pandering to so-called culture war issues like abortion, homosexuality, school prayer, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe role of the Democratic Party is to convince the intelligent to vote in the interests of the 1%. They do this by pretending to support progressive, pro-labor policies while always voting (under alleged duress) with the same corporate masters.
Focusing on the Republican primary charade is a waste of time. Neither this gang of clowns or their Democratic opponent will do anything significant to advance the economic, peace and justice interests of the 99%, so they should be collectively ignored.