Kevin Phillips is a very bright guy; kind of turgid prose at times, but a very bright guy. His column on the theocratic tendencies of the GOP is fascinating from a number of perspectives. For example, he takes an interesting approach to the idea of using military force to secure oil -- Napoleon and Caesar would have done it; however, Napoleon and Caesar were not fools. The US is the number 1 debtor nation in the world; is this the reason for the popularity of the "end times" thinking we see in the hosannah bench part of the Administration? If the world ends, we don't need to pay up! After all, the debtors are all goodless communists (China), heathen Shintoists(Japan) and Muslims, for God's sake!Stiff '[em, Jesus!
Phillips points out that "he Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.
"We have had small-scale theocracies in North America before — in Puritan New England and later in Mormon Utah. Today, a leading power such as the United States approaches theocracy when it meets the conditions currently on display: an elected leader who believes himself to speak for the Almighty, a ruling political party that represents religious true believers, the certainty of many Republican voters that government should be guided by religion and, on top of it all, a White House that adopts agendas seemingly animated by biblical worldviews."
For those of you who don't remember or weren't born yet, Phillips was the guy who wrote the book -- The Emerging Republican Majority -- that started the modern GOP dependence and growth. He sees the linkage between the Wall Street Crowd and the drooling, snakehandlin', tongue-speaking, full immersion in a flowing river collection of nuts, charlatans and Jerry Falwell as tenuous at best. Ok. I disagree -- for one reason.
The Wall Street Crowd needs these =cowfaced, mouth breathing morons. The only thing that keeps these folks from being populists, socialists and Democrats is their belief in the relgious babble that their ministers, preachers, and priests slobber. Jesus probably wouldn't care that much about gay marriage; he probably wouldn't get too incensed about immigration. (Hell, one suspects he'd be there with blankets, water, food and sunblock for the hordes yearning to be free...)But, the Christo-fascist-plutocracy will stoke the crowd on these things. After all,the gay-lesbian agenda and the illegal immigrants are threatening their lives and their children. Just ask Reverend Pat or Jerry; or that nice boy Ralph Reed. Let's give brother Delay a medal...
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