The Christian right's self-destruction is unfolding before our eyes - Raw Story - Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism
By: Heather Digby Parton (Raw Story - Celebrating Years of Independent Journalism)
buh bye hypocrites, go get thumped...
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
I almost feel sorry for Herschel Walker. He is so clearly unfit for the job of United States senator that it's uncomfortable to watch him flounder about, unable to coherently answer even the simplest questions or offer any reasons why he should be one of the most powerful people in government. He was a star athlete, forever to be revered by college football fans, and now he's just a pathetic tool of cynical politicians, particularly, of course, Donald Trump. Still, Walker willingly allowed himself to be used and that's on him.
Once again we see the shamelessness of the Republican Party and the rank hypocrisy of the conservative evangelical Christians who form its strongest base. They're sticking with Walker no matter what, with ludicrous excuses that wouldn't pass theological muster in a fourth-grade Sunday school class.
There was a time when conservative Christian morality was considered the backbone of American society and everyone in politics was obliged to genuflect to their leadership, regardless of party. This week, as the latest Walker scandal unfolded, I was reminded of the hysteria that engulfed American politics in the 1990s when right-wing Christians spent eight long years in a frenzy over the immoral, draft-dodging, womanizing, lying baby-boomer president, Bill Clinton. (They didn't much care for his feminazi wife either.) From the Christian right's point of view Bill and Hillary Clinton personified the sexual revolution, which they claimed was sending the country straight to hell.
Right-wing Christians spent eight years in a frenzy over the immoral, draft-dodging, womanizing, lying president. But not the one who immediately comes to mind.
Over and over again they bellowed that "character matters" and when the Monica Lewinsky scandal hit, offering proof of Clinton's perfidy, they went into overdrive. Televangelist Pat Robertson told 3,000 cheering members of the Christian Coalition, that Clinton had turned the White House into a "playpen for the sexual freedom of the poster child of the 1960s" and solemnly declared that "our national trust has been deeply wounded." Focus on the Family's James Dobson sent a letter to 2.4 million conservative Christians insisting that Clinton should be impeached because his behavior was setting a bad example for "the children" and bemoaning the lack of moral among the millions of Americans who saw through the right's hypocritical crusade.
Clinton, as we know, survived that impeachment but the power of the Christian right was actually strengthened. The conventional wisdom after George W. Bush's dubious Electoral College win in 2000 was that the Democrats had lost because Americans were disgusted by their general immorality. Abortion once again became the issue that illustrated that most clearly with middle-path Democrats dominating the conversation and wringing their hands over the supposed need to "reach out" to "pro-life" voters or face permanent political exile. Op-eds with headlines like "Why Pro-Choice Is a Bad Choice for Democrats" proliferated and voters had to endure endless discussions of the "God gap."
Cowed by this criticism, many Democrats labored to avoid any kind of confrontation over the issue. It came to a head during negotiations over the Affordable Care Act when "pro-life" Democrats, with the help of the same pearl-clutching pundits, carried the day. Abortion coverage was not required and the odious Hyde Amendment, banning abortion coverage under Medicaid, was not repealed. The conservative Christians still hated Obamacare, of course, but they had proved they still had clout.
Then along came Donald Trump, the very personification of everything the Christian right had railed against for years. He was an inveterate philanderer who'd been married three times with one of his children even born out of wedlock. He bragged incessantly about his sexual exploits, lied compulsively about everything and literally ran gambling houses (including the nation's first casino strip club.) He cavorted with the likes of Hugh Hefner and appeared in a softcore porn movie. As we know, he has been credibly accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women and was caught on tape bragging about impulsively grabbing women's crotches and getting away with it.
And the Christian right couldn't possibly have loved him more. In fact, they were his most ardent supporters in 2016, and remain so today. All that talk about how leaders must exhibit personal morality was forgotten in favor of a ruthless pragmatism they make no effort to conceal. They just want to win by any means necessary and worship power for power's sake.
Herschel Walker's case illustrates this even better than Trump. In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which hit this midterm campaign like an 8.0 earthquake, Walker has been accused of paying for a woman's abortion while professing to support a ban on abortion with no exceptions. Politico reported that Walker's Christian supporters couldn't care less, quoting one pastor saying, "The dilemma is, do you wait for a candidate who is perfect? Or do you take what's given to you and make the choice between the options?"
I think we can safely say that Democrats no longer need to listen to the religious right's pompous braying about "character," or to lend them any credence on moral issues.
That's very pragmatic, which is fair enough. But I think we can safely say that Democrats no longer need to listen to the religious right's pompous braying about "character" and have absolutely no obligation to give them any credence when it comes to morals and values. They are political actors, doing what political actors do. And we know they're religious phonies too: Look at what happens to those who refuse to go along, like theologian Russell Moore, a former leading figure in the Southern Baptist Convention who quit rather than continue to support the moral rot at the heart of his organization, which includes a cult-like devotion to Donald Trump. The contrast couldn't be more obvious.
A new report from the Pew Research Center shows that the Christian majority in America is rapidly fading and may become a clear minority, perhaps as little as a third of the population, over the next 50 years or so. One big reason why that's happening is because many young people are leaving Christian denominations in large numbers in favor of no religion at all, with no guarantee that they'll switch back as they get older. It's impossible not to conclude that the rank hypocrisy of the Christian right, which has been granted such a prominent role in religious and moral leadership for the past 40 years, is repulsive to people who actually have principles and ideals. If that collapse comes to pass, it's almost certainly a good thing for America — and the Christian right only has itself to blame for sowing the seeds of its own demise.
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All ignorance will be deleted
you know it...
The Christian Right? More like, the christian wrong!
Small c christian conservatives made Christ dirty...
those prosperity gospel xtians are all a bunch of scam artists and scumbags. like that falwell pervert that was jerking off in the closet while watching his wife grinding on the pool boy. amen!
Fundies turn Jesus into a damn Ponzi Scheme!
better than a ponzi, their scam is tax exempt...
God is green and he folds to these scum artists
The immoral majority - fucking hypocrites
Always the first ones caught with their pants down
... especially around kids and hookers.
Check out my article on Michael Flynn and his freak show/road show Army of God and their spreading hate and fear about evil democrats/liberals/progressives and LGBTQ, etc etc etc etc
And we are the evil ones
I had to edit my 1st comment 3 or 4 times there...
Newt is the poster boy for being a phony Christian recently surpassed by Thunder Mouth.
Walker said it best when he said ''I'm not that smart''..
I was just watching a news show where one of the black panelists just said (I'm paraphrasing) that it's no coincidence that herschel is an example of how white republicans in the south think of all black men.
I can't understand why they allow themselves to be pawns for those assholes
money and power...
How quickly those of us who don't have a price forget, those of us who don't sell our momma for a buck
so much for the right's moral high ground...
Or any other issues such as public health...
A Study Finally Shows Just How Much Deadlier COVID Has Been for Republicans (msn.com)
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I couldn't get that article to fetch from 2 different sources. >croak< thanks FOX news!
Does it have a paywall ?
I dunno, maybe, probably operator error...
The link works for me. Here is the original site from Slate.
A study finally shows just how much deadlier COVID has been for Republicans. (slate.com)
Your Slate study is suspicious:
Indigenous, Latino, Pacific Islander and Black Americans all have significantly higher COVID-19 mortality rates than either white or Asian Americans once the data are adjusted to account for age distribution differences among racial and ethnic groups. Nationally, every group except for white Americans has a higher mortality rate after accounting for age, and Latino Americans see the greatest increase between crude and age-adjusted rates. Age adjusting allows for more apples-to-apples comparison among racial and ethnic groups.
The study was tracking the differences in outcomes between political parties, not minority communities. There have been much higher excess death rates and risk of severe Covid among the obese, diabetic and unhealthy Americans as well as those minority communities, perhaps that's another factor as to why the rates were 76% higher among rightwing conservative Republicans.
Unhealthy lifestyles associated with a higher risk of severe COVID-19, highest risk for economically disadvantaged (medicalxpress.com)
A key takeaway from this "study" was:
Less likely as compared to whom? Again, I'm more confident with the CDC reported numbers.
Considering they were comparing political parties, just who could it be.... hmmmmmmm /s
I have had the original COVID vaccination, two boosters and last week I got the new vaccination. No one asked my if I was an Independant or registered in a Party during any of those appointments.
Then clearly you weren't part of any of the polls or studies done. And I applaud you for swimming against the tide of other Republicans who chose ideology and conspiracy theories over the safety of their friends, family and neighbors.
I’m sorry if I somehow confused you into thinking that I was a Repub.
Dana Loesch, a conservative radio host and former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, put it best this week when she said : “I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate.”
This is who the Christian Right is. Control of the Senate is the goal, and no path to getting there is out of bounds.