…to write for the Huffington Post. (I would link, but I don’t even want to give them one visitor from me). It must be a pretty easy gig. They can just write whatever they want present it as fact opinion and not have ANY facts or sources to back anything up. Here’s the kicker - the left takes it in as fact, without question, then they have the nerve to tell the right that we are close minded. It would be great if they took stock of themselves before blasting us.
My good friend BH enlightened me to the latest post by blogger Frank Schaeffer. I will break down what he said and expose it for what it is.
That said…I know (as you pro-lifers do if you’re honest) that the Republicans have milked the abortion issue, as have the Evangelical and Roman Catholic leadership, for every dime it’s worth for fundraising, votes, power and empire-building, without changing much if anything. As I said, I also am fully aware that Senator Obama is pro-choice. I think his pro-choice views are out of character with his otherwise generous and enlightened world view.
There is a good reason the Evangelical right has “milked” the abortion issue. We believe that life begins at conception abortion is equated to murder in our eyes. So yes, we would support legislation to ban that. What basis do you have for “thinking” Obama’s pro-choice views are out of character? Other than, of course, helping you sleep at night. What is his “generous and enlightened world view”? What does that even mean? Does talking down to an entire group of people make you enlightened? Does having members of your own party call you an elitist who is out of touch with average Americans make you generous? What makes his world view so enlightened? It’s easy to just say, now back it up. He goes on.
The pro-life cause poisoned many of us who were part of it. Me included. It led to self-righteous hubris that extended to a general attitude of hate toward the “other.” For instance power hungry strivers such as James Dobson and Pat Robertson took the passion generated by the pro-life cause and fueled their wholly illegitimate war against gay Americans with it, not to mention their multi million dollar empires. Our cause became all about power over other people, money and the muscle to win elections, not about the good of unborn babies and women.
I love how he uses the term “poisoned” here. Yes, fighting for what you believe poisons you. There must be no chance of Obama being poisoned for fighting for what he believes in because a) he has no firm convictions of any kind (must be because he’s so enlightened) or b) because he is so pure of heart from being so generous that it is impossible for him to be poisoned by a cause. How exactly is the “war” against gay people illegitimate? How is it a war. They believe that a union is formed between a man and a woman, and that is a view supported by the Bible, which they follow. I know what your reaction to that is. You will say that that passage was from the Old Testament, and I know how you liberals hate the Old Testament. Consider this, though. The rest of chapter 18 of the book of Leviticus warns against incest. Should we allow that? It seems we would have to if we agree to get rid of the passage about homosexuality. You can’t pick and choose what you want to follow from the Bible.
How can you even call it a war? Dr. Dobson and Pat Robertson talk to those who ALREADY agree with them. How can you call it a war when marriage legislation on state ballots passes overwhelmingly in every state where it is introduced? Why do you feel the need to say what is best for anyone but yourself? i know, you are a liberal. By being a liberal you automatically know what is best for everyone - whatever you think. You are a smart man (I don’t know for sure, I am assuming) so you must understand the correlation between electing people who will stop abortion legislation and the advancement of the pro-life movement, but you are only intersted in presenting a distorted reality. He continues.
I describe this corruption in my book, CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back. I explore what happened to us as we were lured by politics and money. So lots of folks who are in the Evangelical/Republican/Roman Catholic establishment and who are still earning a good living through the culture wars hate my book (and me) for spilling the beans.
Oops, sorry, this is where he plugs his book on how he is above trying to make money and peddle influence, so by it and see how self-righteous a person can be. Let’s get to more claims.
That said… First, a nod to reality: even if Roe were reversed (it won’t be no matter who is president) the abortion pill and the acceptance of at least some types of legal abortion by most Americans guarantees there will be access to abortion. Besides, on a state-by-state basis abortion would remain legal in most states no matter what the court does. And as we have seen the Republicans haven’t really changed anything in thirty years.
This may be his most valid point. However, he is still distorting reality. In my opinion (since this map would indicate a conservative state majority) that a majority of states would either outlaw or heavily restrict it. I have no idea how he came to his conclusion and I would love to know. Besides, even if his baseless claim was correct it SHOULD be a state issue any way. Let the people decide not 9 judges who are above any kind of checks and balances. He still has more.
It isn’t just a matter of voting for Obama. Americans who want there to be a country left in which to argue our issues must vote against McCain. As his support for the Bush lies about Iraq shows McCain is hung up on his own version of post-Vietnam traumatic stress disorder. This is a man who would take our civilian culture down in flames and sacrifice it to his sense of death-or-glory military “honor.” How do you “win” a wrong war? McCain will make the world more dangerous. You think Bush was a cowboy? Just try McCain.
Wow, some pretty nasty claims made in that whopper. He takes the position that because we found no weapons new weapons of mass destruction (however, Saddam did have older weapons that were not apart of the UN sanctions, but are still just as deadly) that he lied to the people. Here is the fly in the ointment that everyone looks past. There was an International community of intelligence that had the exact same information that we did. That is one dilly of a conspiracy.
Bush has destabilized the world. The latest evidence of this is the fact that Russia attacked Georgia. In the climate of Bush’s aggression, where is our moral standing to criticize Russia? McCain offers no alternative. These too are life issues.
Not even worth arguing. It is COMPLETELY different situation, but why let that get in the way of good spin and coercion? Bush went through the UN, got a “Coalition of the Willing” together, gave Saddam several warnings for months and months without compliance. Whereas Russia just invaded without warning to signify their return to imperialistic power. Russia then promised a cease fire and have yet to comply with their own promise. Meanwhile, Iraq has a new government that was selected by the Iraqi people, a chance to become a very prosperous nation with trading leverage with oil. How is it even remotely the same thing? I think Frank has lost his moral standing.
At heart of the abortion reality is this: we are a consumerist society with a heart of stone when it comes to the poor, who account for four times the national average of people having abortions, mostly because of economic needs that Republicans don’t lift a finger to address. And we still denigrate women and female sexuality.
That first point is simply untrue. How can he sleep at night making claims like that? There are fundamental differences between the way conservatives and liberals view the poor. Conservatives believe that by letting the poor pull themselves up by their bootstraps and letting them earn their own living free from government control. The liberal philosophy is to use taxpayer money to give them welfare until they get back on their feet. I see one very strong problem with this philosophy. It creates laziness. People become complacent and have no desire to remove themselves from receiving welfare. Who would stop receiving free money for no reason? This creates a burden on the tax payer. Both are just theories of what happens and it all depends on human nature. He has the gall to go on.
For all you sanctimonious Evangelicals out there, also note: when it comes to squeaky clean family values, Senator Obama — not Senator McCain — should be your role model. The Republican right wants us to draw back in horror from Obama because he is pro-choice, but this is the same group working to get a philanderer who abandoned his wife because she had a disfiguring accident, elected.
OK, now I have heard just about everything. Obama is squeaky clean? Wow. First of all, no one has ever said that McCain is squeaky clean. Here are Obama’s values. They say you can tell a lot about a person who you associate yourself with. If that is the case, Obama has a very terrible personality. Obama’s good friend “William Ayers is the worst kind of person. While at an Obama fund raiser at his house, he rejoiced in the murder of Sharon Tate because she disagreed with him. He also bombed the New York Police Department, the Capitol, and the Pentagon. His only regret: He didn’t do enough. While he did not kill anyone he caused a pipe to burst and shorted out all the computers. We were fighting the Vietnam War at the time and the Pentagon lost contact with most of the soldiers in the sky. One of those soldiers just happened to be John McCain. Obama was a staff member for years for the government program ACORN which has done little else then register illegal immagrants and deceased people to vote. This is the politics he learned in the still corrupt Chicago Political Machine. A Richard Daly has been mayor for over 100 years.
Obama’s Mentor Frank Marshall Davis sympathizes with the Soviet Union. I guess killing tens of millions doesn’t really bother him. I wonder how much rubbed off on Obama? Yet, another friend of Obama is a former member of the PLO Rashid Khalidi. Khalidi hated Israel and is a friend of Yasser Arafat. Is this the kind of extremeism that will bring this country together? Let us not forget Jeremiah Wright. He is important to note because Obama atteneded his church for 20 years. 20 years of racism and hatred from the pulpit. Then all of a sudden, when it was not politically viable he stopped going. In his press conference he asked if we had ever been in a church where you disagreed vehemently with the pastor? No, you jackass. I have never once had a pastor ever say anything related to politics from the pulpit. Ever. It is not appropriate for church, well real churches anyway. I can also say that if a pastor ever spouted any form of racism, I would not hesitate to leave right in the middle of the service. I guess Obama was OK with the racism. Why would he keep going?
It isn’t just a matter of voting for Obama. Americans who want there to be a country left in which to argue our issues must vote against McCain. As his support for the Bush lies about Iraq shows McCain is hung up on his own version of post-Vietnam traumatic stress disorder. This is a man who would take our civilian culture down in flames and sacrifice it to his sense of death-or-glory military “honor.” How do you “win” a wrong war? McCain will make the world more dangerous. You think Bush was a cowboy? Just try McCain.
The only threat to our current culture is Obama. His universal health care will be like every single government program to come before it - a disaster. The card check bill that dems are licking their chops over will put an end to secret ballot elections for union membership. This will basically force people to join unions if one is organized at their workplace. I will die before I ever join a union. There is nothing more useless in my opinion. So crappy universal health care and tons more unions. It will become more and more like the Soviet Union. Ask any russian how great the Soviet Union was. I dare you. You won’t though because it will ruin your pie in the sky idealistic view of them.
The Republicans have contributed to climate change by coddling oil companies and car companies and ducking the hard environmental and energy policy questions for thirty years. They have literally sold our country to the highest polluting bidders from the Saudis to the Chinese. Therefore the Republicans have literally risked the ability of our planet to sustain all human life born and unborn. So much for human life values.
Just when I thought I have heard everything, he unloads another load of crap. Yes, this is crap. There is no other way to describe it. Apparently, Frank has not seen the republican’s All of the Above energy plan. Saying that is has contributed to climate change is not only baseless, is has not been proven. It’s nice to say because whoever says the magic words of climate change will get funding and it works to scare people into thinking the world is ending so they will pass legislation that will destroy the economy all in the name of suedo-science. Also, he MUST be live under a rock or has an inability to read. It is Nancy Pelosi who wants to keep getting oil from the Saudis. Republicans want to Drill Here and Drill Now. Republicans want to get rid of dependence and move to alternatives. The democrats want to take a vacation. I would love to know how oil is making human life unsustainable on this planet. It can’t be explained because it is simply not true.
Who will help us to become a nation that values life — abortion rhetoric aside? Obama.
This makes absolutely no sense and is completely baseless. Here is the problem with his opinion. He presents it as fact which is impossible to prove. You need to look at voting records and who Obama is likely to appoint to the Court. It’s not about Roe v. Wade, it’s about keeping the restrictions in place and the Obama appointed court will only decrease restrictions based on their “interpretation” of the Constitution.
So there you have it. I hope I have enlightened a few. It is important not to take things as fact, or even viable, especially if it comes from the Huffington Post. They are the worst.
Todd
