The Christian Right and G.W. Bush in Plato's Cave
 

June 6 2006
Counterbias.com
MEL SEESHOLTZ

In the Cave, shadows were mistaken for reality. Those “in power” had a vested interest in maintaining the illusion, just as they did in the 1999 film The Matrix, an updated rendering of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” George W. Bush and the Christian Right – from the bowels of the Cave – are again arguing for the reality of those “threatening” shadows in order to preserve their own “vision.”

Beware the Gays! They’re out to destroy “marriage,” the “family,” and America! Tony Auth’s June 6, 2006 cartoon in the Philadelphia Inquirer was right on target.

Using a different metaphor, Mike Luckovich’s June 2, 2006 editorial cartoon in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution – “U.S. ship’s going down” – was a snapshot of reality. How appropriate Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, began his May 2006 call-to-discrimination with

All hands on deck! When the captain of a ship shouts that command, everyone knows that something of great magnitude is happening. A storm is brewing, or an attack is mounting ... and every crew member is needed to win the day.

 

That, my friend, is the call that we at Focus on the Family Action have sounded in the battle for marriage.

“The battle for marriage”? Interesting how the Christian Right always see things in terms of war.

That the Christian Right and their pocketed politicians used the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) as a ploy to energize the fanatical flock prior to November’s election is obvious to everyone. Virtually every commentator and political pundit – and even Sen. Bill Frist – have noted that, but none with more panache than White House correspondent and bureau chief for Talk Radio News service and news analyst for Fox News Channel Ellen Ratner in her June 5, 2006 article, “Same-sex marriage and Emperor Bush”:

And then came last week, the crowning insult – Bush and Rove, having spit on their conservative base, looked around and probably had a conversation that resembled the following: “Looks like our base woke up about immigration, and our poll numbers continue to skid. We have to distract them. After all, there are elections in ‘06, and if churches don’t turn out those Bible thumpers and morons to the polls, the Democrats might take the House and/or Senate and we might be looking at impeachment proceedings. Why not fire ‘em up about gay marriage? Maybe we can’t win the war, can’t control spending, and can’t secure the borders – but we sure can bait ‘em about this red-meat issue! Grrrrr!”

 

And so the president, doubtless on advice from pollsters, levied his final insult to his own base – “You’re so stupid,” he said in effect to his (former) right-wing friends, “that I can derail your serious concerns with some nonsense about marriage.”

 

It was the ultimate declaration of Bush’s political weakness. This president is on his petard, hoisted so high by his incompetence and dishonesty that even his base now sees him for what he is.

George W. exposed his shadowy agenda and helped everyone understand “his incompetence and dishonesty” in his June 3, 2006 radio address advocating the Marriage Protection Amendment: “As this debate goes forward, we must remember that every American deserves to be treated with tolerance, respect and dignity.”

How do Mr. Bush’s support of the MPA and his desire to make them permanent second-class citizens demonstrate “tolerance, respect and dignity” toward gay and lesbian Americans?

Actually, given his abysmal ratings and the fact that the vast majority of Americans don’t believe much of anything he says, it’s “fulfilling” that Bush supports the MPA. Tony Auth’s May 31, 2006 editorial cartoon made clear why: another politically “convenient untruth” from George W.

Bush’s June 5, 2006 televised press conference in support of the MPA was… well, “hackneyed” and “pathetic” are the words that come to mind. He used the “activist judge” mantra at least three times, supplemented with “over-reaching judges” and “activist courts” references.

Bush said he, his manipulators in the Christian Right, and the MPA seek “to strengthen families not undermine them.” Knowing – as he must – that gay and lesbian parents are rearing hundreds of thousands of children, such a statement is nothing less than malevolent and reinforces the words of John D. Moore, professor of health sciences and psychology at American Public University, in his March 8, 2004 Advocate.com article:

When President George W. Bush decided to publicly embrace a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, cloaking his remarks in the guise of religion, he psychologically violated millions upon millions of gay and lesbian youth around the nation as well as the many millions more who are their parents and relatives. In short, Mr. Bush has made it fashionable to declare “open season” on a segment of our society. Make no mistake – his intolerant message was quite clear: “You and your family are not part of the American family.” …

 

Consider what one 20-year-old student wrote in an essay about this topic in a class I instruct on gender psychology: “I have beaten up faggots before, and I used to feel guilty – not anymore! Bush says fags don’t count, so I guess it’s cool to do it.”

As for same-sex marriage “threatening” heterosexual marriage, a comment from a viewer – “Paul” – CNN aired after Bush’s pandering said it best:

I have two children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. I have been married a long time. I’m still trying to figure out why legalizing gay marriage would threaten my marriage or any other heterosexual marriage.

The uniter-turned-divider reiterated his “As this debate goes forward, we must remember that every American deserves to be treated with tolerance, respect and dignity” line, which seemed even more hypocritical as officials of the Roman Catholic Church of Corruption in the audience were shown applauding.

For months now minions of the Christian Right have been whining about how Congress and the Bush administration have not fulfilled their agenda. In a May 25, 2006 article for Focus on the Family’s Family News in Focus newsletter Kim Trobee moaned that “For the remainder of the [Congressional] session they’re working hard on ethics, energy and immigration, but family issues are missing.”

And what are those “family issues”? They were succinctly summarized in an April 15, 2006 CNN article:

GOP hones its core agenda

Flag burning, gay marriage, abortion top Republicans’ Senate plan

 

Between now and the November elections, Republicans are penciling in plans to take action on social issues important to religious conservatives, the foundation of the GOP base, as they defend their congressional majority.

In other words, those “Christian” family issues are curtailing freedom of speech, embedding religious dogma and discrimination into the U.S. Constitution, and negating the right of women to make one of – if not the – most personal of decisions.

“Religious conservatives” hiding behind their misleading “pro-family” self-identification will use whatever means necessary to achieve their shadowy goals. Quite simply, they are frauds and hypocrites.

“Religious conservative” Don Wildmon is a good example. The tactics he and his supposedly “pro-family” American Family Association (AFA) use are economic. They try to hurt American businesses that treat their gay and lesbian employees equally or that promote civil equality. In a June 2, 2006 article carried by Agape Press, Wildmon chirped about hurting the Ford Motor Company and the families it – and its suppliers and dealers – support:

More than 20 pro-family groups are currently boycotting Ford, which also makes Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover, Mazda, Lincoln and Mercury. The American Family Association, which initiated the boycott, has learned that Ford dealers recently met with corporate officials, and the boycott’s effect on sales was the major topic of discussion.

 

In fact, while Ford’s financial difficulties are not new, the company’s woes appear to be accelerating. The automaker’s sales dropped 5 percent in March and 7 percent in April, and Ford’s stock has dropped more than 14 percent since the boycott began, reaching the lowest price in nearly 20 years.

Like Bush’s comments, the “pro-family” designation is blatantly fraudulent, hypocritical and, in this case, malicious. How many families – including Christian and “traditional” ones – are being adversely affecting by this “pro-family” boycott? Do the AFA and their allies care? Not in the least.

In relation to the MPA,

Don Wildmon is encouraging his fellow evangelicals to take action. “It’s critical right now,” he says, “for everyone … to call their two senators and say, ‘I want you to vote for the Marriage Protection Amendment; and, if you vote against it, in essence you’re voting for homosexual marriage.’” [italics added]

Along with discrimination, bigotry and anti-family economics, apparently blatant lies are “evangelical” truths in Wildmon’s cave.

Another classic example is the “religious conservatism” and “family values” of Louis P. Sheldon and his rabidly anti-gay Traditional Values Coalition. “Lucky Louie” was definitively linked to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, he argued against giving aid to the surviving members of gay and lesbian partnerships, many of whom had children. Sheldon and the TVC oppose the MPA because they say it would permit states to “allow for civil unions [and] domestic partnerships.” Sheldon and his organization want to crush gay and lesbian families, completely. How’s that for malevolence hiding in the shadow of religion and the “pro-family” ruse?

On June 3 and 5, 2006 George W. did as his masters ordered. No doubt so too will another of the Christian Right’s pocketed politicians, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has championed the Christian Right’s causes against gay and lesbian Americans but who now is also facing their wrath as they frantically seek any scapegoat to explain the failure of their “family issues” agenda:

GOP Presidential Hopeful Blamed for Massachusetts’ Marriage Fiasco

By Jim Brown - May 30, 2006

 

(AgapePress) - Some pro-family groups and the conservative media are being accused of covering up the fact that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is “the founding father of homosexual marriage” – or so says a parents coalition leader in that state.

 

The Massachusetts-based Parents’ Rights Coalition (PRC) claims it was Governor Romney’s “illegal” executive order that imposed homosexual “marriage” in the Bay State, not the controversial Goodridge court decision in November 2003. … [italics added]

“Imposed homosexual ‘marriage’”? Did it ever dawn on these people that the reason courts keep striking down faith-based discrimination is that civil law and the Constitution call for the equality of all citizens in relation to all civil institutions? That’s the whole point of the MPA and similar legislation: they have to create a legal basis for discrimination.

But, being a quivering tower of political Jello, Romney – like Bush – will no doubt redouble his efforts and further suck-up to the Christian Right, just as he did when the scandal-ridden Catholic Church wanted an exemption from anti-discrimination laws in relation to adoptions in Massachusetts. How sad that a state pivotal in America’s fight for freedom – religious freedom and freedom from religion – is in the hands of such a “governor,” for the time being at least.

The last-gasp, “grassroots” efforts on behalf of the Marriage Protection Amendment were spearheaded by James Dobson’s Focus on the Family syndicate. That’s not really surprising since FOF has been a leading anti-gay organization from its inception. The current issue of their Citizen magazine attests to the anti-gay agenda almost as well as one of Dobson’s “reasons” for opposing same-sex marriage. According to “the kingmaker,” if gays are allowed to enter into a civil marriage, “The culture war will be over, and the world may soon become ‘as it was in the days of Noah.’”

Citizen magazine’s current cover story – appropriately titled “Showtime” – is by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council that, in collaboration with Dobson’s FOF, sponsored the theocracy-on-parade Justice Sunday shows (JS I, JS II, JS III). It’s as nonsensical as Dobson’s “the world may soon become ‘as it was in the days of Noah.’” According to Perkins, “the radicals” – his term for those who oppose writing faith-based discrimination into the U.S. Constitution – “do not want to increase the number of happily married couples; they want to end marriage altogether.”

What is this man talking about? Perhaps if he’d crawl out of the cave Mr. Perkins might notice that gay and lesbian Americans are fighting for the right to participate in the civil institution called “marriage.” That hardly seems like the behavior of people trying to “end marriage altogether.”

But scare tactics are all the Christian Right has left in their losing campaign to legitimate discrimination and remake America in their own malevolent, theocratic image. And fortunately for the country, George W. Bush and the pandering GOP are tethered in the darkest corner of the Christian Right’s cave. As Edward M. Kennedy put it in his June 5, 2006 Boston Herald article, “GOP says ‘I do’ to bigotry...”

It’s no coincidence that “evil” spelled backwards is “live.” The Christian Right and their political sycophants are dedicated to killing “live” and dragging everyone – and the nation – back into the Cave where their illusions and delusions are “reality.” As with the MPA, failure is certain.

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