rmcrobertson said:
....Just wantin' to know why.
Here is why...at least what I think is why the sudden push to have the religious right agenda bullied through the system...
follow the progression, because each part is a puzzle piece of the larger picture:
#1. You have fanatical, immoral, and powerful people out there that operate under the guise of Christianity. These individuals are very bigoted, close-minded, egomaniacal, and illogical. But worse then that... they seem to be pretty hateful too, and especially hateful towards those who I learned that Christians should be trying to help the most. These are individuals like Fawell and Jones. These crazies are a minority sect among christians, and these are the guys that want to enforce christianity through the government. They don't want the government to protect our freedoms; they want a "Christian State" (and their warped version of christianity too boot).
#2. You have conservative think tanks and PR groups that are funded by wealthy entities in this country who have been working on framing things like "the liberals are taking your value's," for years; all to fit the conservative agenda of controlling the wealth of this country. Part of this strategy involves only airing what is sensational and what will sell on TV, radio, etc.. A good portion of what happeneds to "sell" (MTV & basic cable shows, reality shows, etc.) is very hedonistic compared to the values of middle america. This helps further paint the illusion of these "immoral liberals who are trying to steal your values." None of these illusionary creatures called "liberals" created by hollywood and think tanks actually operate in our government system, but none-the-less, the perception is that "they" are taking over.
#3. Because the "immoral liberals" are "taking our values," middle america looks to church for spiritual guidance on what to do about this invasion. This causes many leaders of conservative and moderate churches that generally stay out of politics to get involved and try to find some answers; and remember, many of the fairly logical church authority figures are being inundated with the "liberal myth" like their congregation and laypeople.
With the help of their "conservative friends", the leadership comes up with key issues that are "non-negotiable" because these issues are leading to the moral decline in this country, or so they believe. These are "respect for life" as defined by "abortion, stem cell research, human cloning, and euthanasia," and respect for chastity and family life which covers issues like "gay marriage," which is believed to be a direct threat to this value. These are the basics, but the crazier you go, the crazier the pork-barrel values get; this is how you get into things like sex education, censorship, creationism in science class, etc.
So, now you have a group of people (majority of christian church leaders) who are only voting on at best 5 similar issues. Other issues like a decent wages, foriegn policy, healthcare, programs for the poor, environment, campaign finance reform, and so on are all a distant seconds to these "nonnegotiable" issues that all "values" are argued to stem from. Keep in mind that these issues were created in help by wealthy conservative leaders as well.
When you only vote based on a few core issues, it is easy for canidates and leaders to throwout some rhetoric to get your support, while they rob you blind. This is how republicans have been winning at all in the last few elections.
#4. Christians have been sold piles of manuer since Reagan by the republican party. Yet, Row vs. Wade has not been overturned, and basically very little to address their agendas has been done. Most is RHETORIC that surfaces around election time. Every election since Regean, Republicans put their token God bless America stuff on their platform, but never ACTUALLY DO anything about it when they are in office. So, the Christian voter turnout and republican support had become very laxed up until the 2000 Bush election.
Over the years, because Christian churches and groups haven't been getting their way in government, and because of the ficticious "liberal agenda" infiltrating their TV screens, Christians have been packing together. Conservative, Moderate, some liberal, and some totally crazy and hateful Christians have all been on the same side in recent years. This means that good logical and good Christian people and nutcases like Bob Jones are riding the same warship, and have been for a few years now. And...when a bunch of groups pact together to form one big ship crew, too often the fanatical nutballs are the ones steering that boat.
#5. Because of #4, Carl Rove (probably) can be accredited for figuring out that an additional 80 million or so votes from the Christian right exist out there...and these votes would be needed by the Bush administration to win. So, this administration worked hard over the last 4 years to make sure that Bush was presented as a very Christian fella. They worked hard to paint the picture that this fictitious group of liberals were gonna steal 'merican values. And, they did it through the churches. The church authority, who created the nonnegotiables with their wealthy conservative leaders were very much in the business of getting this word out to the church members around election time. I was attending church (Catholic) at the time of this last election, and even local Catholic church leadership, which is not known for fanaticism, was basically saying that if we don't vote for Bush, then we're sinning and probably shouldn't recieve communion.
All this because of the vast campaign by the Bush administration to steal another election. And, it worked. 80 million or so of the Christian right voted Bush because they were told that they'd better if they believed in Jesus.
Well, with that election also came many promises to Christians (and Christian nutballs) from conservative canidates all over the country.
#6. So, we now have a conservative Republican dominated government; the same party that made many promises to the religious right.
Well...now guess what? Nothing comes for free...and the religious right, who gave the election to the republicans this last time around, are wanting to collect. And, you know what else? There will be NO EXCUSES for abortion to be legal still in 4 years. There are no excuses for the FCC to allow hedonistic TV programs to be aired. There are no excuses for creationism to not be back in the schools, for "under God" to not be put back into the pledge again, for the 10 commandments not to go on every step of every courthouse, for it to be legal to beat up fags again, and so on and so on. No excuses for the religious right agenda to not be met this time around.
So that is "why". That is why there is the recent push to put creationism in schools, to have "biblical norms" to be applied to legislation, and so on. The religious right wants their promises paid in full, and the fanatics are in charge.
conclusion So, that is "why" there is this recent illogic revolving around religion going around. This is why the push to go back to puritianism. The religious right were used to rally the masses to get Bush elected again; and now they want their promises paid in full. And those who are working the hardest to have these promises paid just happened to be the fanatics who want an enforced christian state.
So, one of two things will happened in the future years. One is that our government will fail to protect our rights and give in to the empty promises that conservatives have been feeding the religious right all these years. If so, all hell will break lose, and "america the beautiful" will become the oppressors (again). And all I will have to say to the sorry saps that fell for the conservative values trap is, "I guess that sometimes you get what you pray for," 'cause I gaurantee that most of the people who voted Bush based on "christian values" won't actually like these results if they are ever enforced. Two is that our government will succeed in protecting our rights, and the religious right will not be able to collect on the majority of the conservative empty promises. I believe that this is the most likely scenario. If this happeneds, then I can say to all those sorry saps who fell for the trap is #1. I told you so, and #2. STOP voting on a select few issues when those issues are only being used to control your money.
So, we'll see what happeneds, but so far, I consider this mess to be a loss for real americans who simply want freedom and opportunity for themselves and their kids in this country...
Paul