In politics it seems that no one has the gonads to be themselves any more. After all, aren’t they supposed to be representing the people they elected, not the special interests that funded their campaign? On the political left, they seem forced to pander to the environmentalists or the “?” rights campaigns. On the political right you have to have the backing of big business/big profit, big oil, or the fanatical religious nuts who don’t represent the average American but have the resources to deliver church buses loaded with people who are blindly pre-programmed as to how to vote.
I’ve always said that if only the Republican Party would buy its soul back from the “Religious Right,” I might actually consider returning to the party that I grew up in. With that in mind, about a month ago I decided it was time to fulfill my tagline of being a conservative trapped in a Liberal’s body and try leaning to the right a little... if only to keep my computer from falling off the left side of my desk.
I began my quest by looking into potential Republican presidential candidates who I might actually seriously consider voting for. There was Bill Frist, who was connected and well spoken, but then he sold his soul to the oil lobby by “trying to buy Alaska for the price of two tanks of gas.”
Then I thought of John McCain. The respected Senator from Arizona seemed a little closer to the center, a Vietnam veteran, someone who actually did serve his country for more than a weekend at a time, and someone who seemed to be scandal-free. Another plus in his favor was that he didn’t seem on the surface to be foaming at the mouth with platitudes from the religious right’s hymnbook.
Then on Saturday May 13th, I discovered things hadn’t changed much. I’d always admired McCain for standing up to the right-wing Bible-beaters, but there he was on TV kissing up to his own arch-foe Jerry Falwell. It broke my heart to see the senator groveling at the feet of the man he’d loathed since being forced to give up his 2000 White House aspirations in South Carolina by tangling with the self-appointed “Baptist Pope” there. My fears were confirmed that the Republican Party was doomed once again to feel that if they didn’t fall to their knees before such pompous asses as Falwell and kiss their rings, they had absolutely no hope of gaining the Presidency.
Of course one of Falwell’s first demands was that McCain back another failed attempt at a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. McCain “sort of” turned him down, saying it should be left up to the states. Then Falwell came up with a better idea. The televangelist has been falling out of the national spotlight of late and was feeling neglected by the press, so he requested McCain speak at his Liberty University’s commencement ceremonies. This had only one purpose; to make it appear that all candidates had to publicly kiss Jerry’s ring and grovel a little in order to gain his favor. Falwell would then appear to be the Baptist Church’s first “Pope.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Mark, and thanks for the prepublication suggestions
Solus mei sententia
Jet
2 - Jet in Columbus
I'm finding it helarious that some computer is actually advertising the "Help John McCain" by joining "Straight talk America" on this article!
...Solus mei sententia
Jet
3 - Dave Nalle
Don't ever forget that McCain is and always has been pro-life. This is not something he started believing in to please Falwell, it's always been something he believed.
Dave
4 - Jet in Columbus
Then why did he need to involve Falwell???
It's like he's cutting his own political throat by alienating everyone but the right wing evangelicals... I had a lot of respect for him until this came up.
DAMN IT I wanted to write my first "right leaning" article and it was snatched out of my hands!
Dave... I wanted you to be proud of me!
Solus mei sententia,
Jet
5 - Al Barger
Brother Jet, I know you've got issues and all, but c'mon here. I do not like John McCain, and I would never, ever vote for him- but this isn't any reason against him.
It doesn't sound like he's selling his soul, changing any policy positions to buy support. What, McCain gave a commmencement address and made nice with some of those Christian primary voters? What's he think he's doing, running for president?
Do you think that the best route to actually try to get elected president is to make a big point of gratuitously ridiculing the party base? That strategy didn't work too good for McCain in 2000.
6 - Dave Nalle
I don't think that most people see Falwell as that extreme. If you have to choose between going to Liberty Baptist for a speech and going to Bob Jones for a speech, McCain made the more moderate choice. Bush went with BJU and still got elected I might note.
I'd be a lot more worried if McCain were hanging out with one of the more politically aggressive fundamentalist leaders like that nut James Dobson from Focus on the Family or even nuttier Pat Robertson.
Dave
7 - Jet in Columbus
No Al, you're completely missing the point of my article! Up until recently McCain and Falwell were mortal enemies, because of Falwell sabatoging his primary run in South Carolina.
Up until a few months ago, they only had the most bitter words for eachother, and now suddenly they're all buddy-buddy with eachother for only self-serving hypocritical reasons. Falwell wants attention and to feel like he's needed to win the 2008 elections, and McCain wants those bus loads of pre-programed and mindless "christian" voters.
Solus mei sententia,
Jet
8 - Jet in Columbus
The day is young Dave, the day is young.
Maybe McCaine wants to see what the reaction to courting Falwell is, before going to Jones.
I'll give him credit for not starting his campaign by gluing himself to Bush.
As for Robertson, I'm still waiting for the next thing he says that his followers will think is "cute"
I'm also waiting for McCain to back Bush's militarization of the Mexican border! I bet you're going to feel much safer down there in Texas.
Solus mei sententia,
Jet
9 - Al Barger
Jet, I understand that Falwell and McCain have had hostilities in the past. But the idea of democratic politics is to encourage people to work together in overcoming their difference and building coalitions. That seems to be what McCain is doing here. If he can get their support just by making nice - without substantively changing policy positions to do so - then that's exactly what he should be doing.
There are a LOT of evangelical Christians, and they get to vote, too. Do you really think that gratuitous public hostility to the Christian community is the way to go?
Plus, as Nalle points out, Falwell really is at this point a voice of moderation within the evangelical community.
10 - Jet in Columbus
Falwell, Frist & Company have just announced this very morning on CNN that they are bound and determined to introduce a bill into the Senate by no later than early June to make same-sex marraige illegal.
They intend to CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES to honor some right wing bullshit religious hate agenda.
Sorry Al I'd hardly call that a "Voice of Moderation" Sorry you think that.
Solus mei sententia,
Jet
11 - Silas Kain
They'll get their way on the anti-gay marriage bill. As a gay male, I am terribly disappointed in those who share my lifestyle. We have the money and the creativity to beat these sons of bitches into submission yet we do nothing.
Let Frist, Falwell and crew have their way. It doesn't matter. The Apocalypse is at hand and it is NOT the Second Coming. It is the revelation that Christians have been duped by power mad despots since Christ came of the Cross. Christianity may have advanced Civilization but it did so with the blood of innocents in a two thousand year holocaust that never gets any attention.
Senior, vestri vernula precor pro vestri reverto ut ingero vestri ira super spolio!
12 - Jet in Columbus
Silas, I just wish there was some way to energize the gay vote. If we could we'd have numbers to equal the religious radicals at their own game. I've always considered it a shame that the vast majority of all U.S. citizens don't vote.
Someday the Falwells and the Robertsons will take it away from us, then it'll be too late to learn our lesson.
As it is now, look how much Bush has done without the will of the people!
I yearn for the day when the majority of people vote for their chosen candidate, instead of against someone.
Solus mei sentential,
Jet
PS I had to look up my latin, was wrong a few times, and have no idea what the last line of your comment reads... sorry.
13 - Silas Kain
Translation: Lord, Your Servant prays for your return to inflict your wrath upon the despots!
14 - Dave Nalle
One of the problems with mobilizing the gay vote is that so many gays are politically compatible with the GOP on most issues, except for the GOP's reluctance to embrace gay marriage, despite the party basically being run by a circle of gay insiders. IMO the GOP needs to get over that particular prejudice. I'd be glad to trade away some fundies to get more Log Cabin Republicans.
Dave
15 - Jet in Columbus
Ah, Thank you Silas... nice quote.
16 - Jet in Columbus
Dave, isn't it ironic that the one thing the republican party, or the democratic party for that matter, can't figure out is that even politically Gays are just like everyone else in this country...
The only difference is who we sleep with...
...and our sense of style-(which doesn't even count in my case!)
Solus mei sententia,
Jet
17 - Silas Kain
One of the problems with mobilizing the gay vote is that so many gays are politically compatible with the GOP on most issues...
That is so true. I am a Reaganite. I was the first Republican in my family since the days of Calvin Coolidge and proud of the distinction. Now, I am ashamed of what the GOP has become. They have defiled the memory of Ronald Reagan. This may get me in trouble but the Rightists have twisted the Reagan message much like the Church has twisted Christ's message. There are so many false Reagans among us and we are too blind to see it.
18 - Jet in Columbus
Amen
Solus mei sententia,
Jet
19 - Al Barger
But Jet, McCain is not supporting the gay marriage amendment. But other than as a point of pride, I could imagine a politician who doesn't agree going along with that anyway, and not entirely unjustifiably writing that off as a compromise on an unimportant issue to get support to let them tackle much more critical issues.
The gay marriage stuff is highly symbolically important to you and Brother Silas, which point I'm sympathetic to. Still, in fact a gay marriage amendment yea or nay would not make a reasonable list of the top hundred most pressing issues facing the republic. I'd reluctantly accept with a grain of salt a president who supported an anti-gay marriage amendment but also would squash Iran rather than a more socially progressive candidate who wouldn't. Priorities.
20 - Silas Kain
Brother Al, I feel your pain. My priority is creating a government that is both responsive and accountable to those who placed them in power. That can only be facilitated by creating an active and vocal electorate. It's time to make the first Sunday in November Election Day and open the polls across the country at the same time. No more staggered closings. Base the polls' operations on Washington Time, period.
While we are at it, I also support the military performing bombing exercises on K Street. There are plenty of buildings and infrastructure to be destroyed and we wouldn't have to put that reconstruction out for bid.
21 - Al Barger
But Silas, that the government has to be responsive and accountable to the electorate is the problem. It's an unavoidable problem, as other forms of governance are even far worse than democracy. But still, the American public at large is pretty clearly uncomfortable with gay marriage. There are more evangelicals than homosexuals in America, best I can tell. Seems to me like a bit of meaningless sweet talking such as McCain's doing is a bare minimum gesture to expect if you want their support.
22 - Silas Kain
Frankly, Al, to deny me the right to choose my life partner and invoke all the rights of marriage to the same is Unconstitutional. We've far more important woes in America. But by using the gay marriage issue, the Right will have you believe that America will be okay as long as queers have no rights. Any fundamentalist religious organization which uses its resources to influence the civil government is freedom's enemy. Osama bin Falwell cares not about America but about maintaining his sphere of influence in Washington.
William Hazlitt once said "Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse." It is my contention that Falwell, Robertson and all those who subscribe to their brand of hatred are perpetuating a 'reformed popery'. We've blindly led our young to the slaughter in the Middle East. We've blindly allowed the ultra-right to convince Middle America that the heathens are America's ultimate problem. These poor Stepford minded backwoods Americans haven't a clue.
23 - Jet in Columbus
CHRISTOPHER ROSE IS JUST NO FUN ANY MORE!!!!!!
24 - Jet in Columbus
Al#19 You're as wrong as you can be! The gay marraige "thing" is what got all those born agains on packed busses to the polls, and is definately what won Bush the election.
That my friend has nothing to do with my preferences or agendas-it an undenyable fact
Period
25 - Silas Kain
Get your hairspray into your holsters, girls, the Real Rainbow Revolution is upon us!