I was astounded this morning to read that a front ranking candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the USA, publicly advocated arresting what he called "activist judges." Read about it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/18/gingrich-judges_n_1156405.html.
What is truly frightening is what he singled out as examples of "activist judges." I quote: "...he singled out the 9th Circuit, once more, for determining that it was unconstitutional for public schools to require the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and Biery for outlawing prayers in graduation ceremonies."
Now, as always, the bone of contention is the old saw about this being a Christian nation when it clearly was not established as such. The majority of the founders were Masons, Unitarians and Deists. Some were outright atheists, like Thomas Paine. The dedicated Christians were in the minority. Great pains were taken by our founders to guarantee that religion could never become state sponsored in this country.
Loud mouthed ignorant liars and prejudiced non-thinkers like Gingrich, will never be satisfied with that. They are addicts to unfounded belief and faith, and they are determined to saddle the people of this country with the stultifying fascism of blind religious dogmatism by any underhanded subterfuge and misuse of public power open to them.
Most of the citizens of Germany in 1931 never dreamed their enlightened and progressive society could, within a short year, be plunged into the fanatic abyss the Nazis brought. Most of them never dreamed how quickly and thoroughly their rights, freedoms and civilized humanity could be stripped away from them. A great number of them shrugged it all off and went blithely along with their everyday lives. A lot of Jews and other minorities did too. Let's never forget that we free, clear-thinking atheists and non-believers are also a hated minority in much of this nation. If you don't believe it, try coming out about your true beliefs in Alabama or Tennessee. You'll be lucky if you escape outright violence against your person.
I, for one, don't take such comments lightly and pooh pooh them. Gingrich is very serious. Just as serious as Robertson, Falwell and a host of others who salivate at the possibility of turning the USA into a brutal theocracy. It has been the dream of christo-fascists for generations.
I listened to the news this evening, and on the CBS network, this comment was hardly mentioned. It should have been trumpeted and condemned in the strongest terms.
I wonder why it wasn't. I think I have a clue. Do you?
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Well said, Al, and there's no denying it. The threat is real even though hardly anyone can imagine Gingrich being in our highest office. One of our two major parties has allowed itself to be the tool of hard-line religionists and if one of their candidates should be able to fake his way into the top office, we all are pushed yet further into the dangerous theocratic zone.
ReplyDeleteMy comments of late have related to the danger of a plutocracy. But guess what: the two are now linking through the ignorance of our populace. It's almost a given that at some point we will move from a democracy to something else. The new heading will be the only question. Will it be a Plutocratic Theocracy or a Theocratic Plutocracy?
Either way, we're sunk when it comes.
We haven't been a democracy for years. Centuries even. In fact, it could be argued we never really were.Technically, we are a republic. In any event, the whole voting thing is more of a sham, to allow us to think the "people" are in charge, when they really aren't. The candidates we are allowed to vote for, at least at the national level, and to a certain extent even at the state and local level, are chosen by political parties, not voters. We have limited choices as to who should be in government, and we invariably choose what we perceive as the lesser of two or more evils, holding our nose while we do so.
ReplyDeleteAt the national level, all of the candidates, without exception, are beholden in one way or the other to interests that are not ours. Usually, those of people with money. The 1%. The political parties from whom we choose our "leaders" are essentially left and right wing factions of the Corporate Party. The "issues" they run on are all cultural. Try running on a economic Marxist platform and see how far you get. But run on a school prayer platform and they beat down the doors to vote for you.
The media sucks. They either present a one sided view of the news (see FOX) or they try to actually be fair and impartial by presenting two sides as if they were equally important. Anyone who relies on TV for knowledge of the world is wasting their time. News is simply a means of entertaining us while we watch their ads.
Sorry for the cynical rant, the first time I pop in here. ;)
ReplyDeleteNo need to apologize. I rant quite a bit myself and can be very cynical also.
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