Re: But, the ones who come out and vote in mass and put the Republicans over the top in elections are the religous rightists.
Indeed, and they add up to 60+ million people!! You just can't dismiss them as a fringe constituency.
Re: Hard to believe that an American President would be so open with his evangelical religion.
Not so hard if you factor in the emergence of a third, far-right-Christian political party in the US... After all, it was already attempted 20 years ago when the "Protestant Pope" Pat Robertson launched a presidential bid.
Such a political development would have huge --and dire-- consequences for the U.S. It would spell a new chasm between the Bible Belt and the rest --a new civil war. Hence the absolute necessity for GOP brass to reach out to, and co-opt, the religious freaks and the underground militiamen.
Re: I'm all for people having the right to practice their religion. But, that's what churches, synogogues, temples, etc. are for. I don't like to see it so much a part of our everday government.
I told you(*): Christian fundamentalism is not all about "religion"... That "Bible stuff" is basically a way, a language for the South's white constituency to voice its POLITICAL frustrations. Every country, every people, every civilization must somehow resort to a "mythology", a symbolic imagery to convey its mundane conflicts... Bush and his GOP associates have perfectly understood that: they play ball with the "angry-white-churchgoer", they pander to the Bible Belt's religious lunacies BUT they are perfectly aware that it all boils down to SOCIAL and POLITICAL issues: the frustrations of the displaced cracker, the miseries of the trailer park, the anxiety of the Southern White in the face of Mexican swells flooding his hometown, etc...
(*) Message 20188926 |
