But numbers aside, just look at how people like Karl Rove and Dick Cheney play the American public like a banjo at the Fiddler's Convention. Here we are, in the middle of a war that we started. We're holding prisoners in secret prisons, away from all public view and handing some over to other countries to be worked over in ways even we don't have the stomach for... and they manage to get elected by talking about gay marriage.
Abraham Lincoln once said "...you can't fool all of the people all of the time." The problem here is that under our system of government, you don't need to even bother to try that. All you need to do is fool 51% of the voters every other year. And at the moment, the best way to fool the voters of America -- about 51% or so, at least -- is with religion.
Abortion rights is a good, strong place for religious vote mining. Talk to people about the subject in terms of "murdering babies" and you'll get hackles raised. Forget the fact that the vast majority of abortions (90%, according to one count) take place before a fetus has developed enough of a nervous system to be said to have a sense of feel. Forget the fact that nature already kills most embryos before their presence can even be detected. And just forget that abortions have legally been performed in America for over a century (the first laws regarding the concept appeared in the 1820's). No, letting a pregnant woman make the choice is "murder." And centering attention on this concept can give a person a ride into public office.
Gay issues are another gold mine for people keen on getting elected. Just tell people that you don't want to give homosexual "deviants" special treatment, and you have guaranteed support from an awful lot of church-going, Leviticus-quoting people all across the country. You could be the worst sort of sexual predator, a bank robber, or murderer. But if you tell folks you want to keep a couple of women from getting married, you'll get support and endorsements.
The thing that scares me about this is that the whole situation reminds me an awful lot of the days leading up to the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933. Hitler and his party were big on blaming the Jews for the nation's problems. This was just fine with the Catholic and Lutheran churches -- they had been busy demonizing the Jews for centuries. The churches got onto the Nazi bandwagon, looking for political influence from what they perceived as a friend of theirs. Unfortunately for them and the rest of the world, they got a bit more than they bargained for.
Could the churches that are supporting the "neo-con" agenda be on the verge of a similar error? I've looked at the web site for the Project for a New American Century. It reads like a "Mein Kampf" -- only without the hatred of Jews. It is still a manifesto for American control of the world. And it was initially signed by a who's who of the current administration.
In 1991, when George H.W. Bush invaded Iraq, he raised quite a few eyebrows by talking of a "New World Order." Up to that point, Christian conservatives had been adamantly opposed to anything that smacked of a world government. There were a few who shied away from their good buddy in the White House over this concept. But they got over that unease pretty quickly, because after all, if there were a world government that was run by the U.S. of A. that would be a different matter completely.
Now you have people in the government talking about Crusades, putting our wars in terms of Right and Justice, Good versus EVIL. And the religious crowd laps it up, ignorant of the danger just over the horizon. When the danger becomes apparent to the average American voter, it may be too late to correct the problem.
So if you don't understand the advice you are hesitant to take it? Is it not possible that you are the one that is in the fantasy world and I am the one representing reality? Maybe that's illogical in a fantasy world.
