The One With Aldacron

It doesn’t take much for someone from the religious right to make my blood boil. The stupidity that comes out of their mouths wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t so often laced with bigotry and hatred. Their involvement in government has contributed to the total mess Bush has made of it. The ideas they tend to support would halt social progress and move America, socially, 2000 years backwards if they were ever implemented as policy on a large scale. So when I’m exposed to large amounts of far-right lunacy, my blood pressure really shoots up. I’m an easygoing guy, but these people are a disease to temperance.

Over the past day or two I’ve been seeing quite a bit about the 2004 Texas GOP platform. It’s a manifesto that essentially declares an intent to turn the United States of America into a theocracy. In my last post, I wrote about the fact that America isn’t really a democracy, although we tend to say it is. There are certain aspects that are democratic and the degree of democracy in America is much greater than it was in the beginning. But at its heart the United States is a form of republic. Today, public opinion can and does influence policy. And the public certainly has tremendous influence over who gets elected to office. Now, more than ever, is the time to test the limits of democracy in America.

The far-right is most certainly not a majority. Polls have shown that in recent years more people than ever identify themselves as independent. Most people do not adhere to a strict point of view and are liberal on some issues but conservative on others. What that means, to me, is that most people would not be willing to live under a government that restricts their liberties and forces the word of God down their throats. If that’s true, then those people need to pay attention to what’s going on and make damned sure the Texas GOP platform doesn’t wind up becoming national government policy.

Aside from being loaded with gay-bashing bigotry, the platform supports teaching religious propaganda in public schools; it supports withdrawal of the US from the United Nations; it supports impeachment of federal judges who don’t toe the party line (which would essentially cripple the separation of powers); it’s opposed to hate-crime laws; it supports excluding from the Americans with Disabilities Act those who don’t fit the bill of Christian morality (e.g., homosexuals, people with infectious diseases or drug addictions and more).

There’s much more, of course, but if all of that is not disturbing enough, try this on:

The Republican Party of Texas affirms that the United States of America is a Christian nation.
Our Party pledges to exert its influence to restore the original intent of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and dispel the myth of the separation of Church and State.

The original intent of the First Amendment? The myth of the separation of Church and State? These people blatantly ignore any bit of history that doesn’t fit their own misguided beliefs, while finding support for their position in places where it doesn’t exist. The separation of Church and State is most certainly not a myth. And the United State is most certainly not a Christian nation. It’s a nation full of Christians, yes. But I’m quite confident that the majority of them would not want to live in an extremist theocratic state as envisioned by the Texas GOP.

So if you do feel, as I do, that these people are raving lunatics, or at least if you don’t agree with them and can’t imagine yourself living under such restrictive and socially destructive rules, you have a duty to yourself and to your fellow Americans to help ensure that such nutjobs never get the chance to impose their policy. If you are in Texas, don’t vote for people who believe in this Theocratic Manifesto. Keep up with the Texas Freedom Network. Fight against state legislation like House Bill 1287, that would force all public Texas high schools to teach Bible courses as a way to further their agenda. Every inch you give to these lunatics brings them a mile closer to their goal, and brings you closer to oppression.

If you don’t live in Texas, you need to keep your eyes open for similar movements in your own state. These people pose a danger to our future. The Bible-blinded, far-right brand of politics is not only oppressive, but very, very reckless in terms of foreign policy. If you don’t want to live in a state of perpetual war, you need to do everything in your power to keep these people out of power.

The Bush administration, staffed by a number of people whose policies are guided by their religious beliefs (and others who are just guided by greed and lust for power) has already shown how destructive a government can be when only influenced by religion on a small scale. If you think a Christian theocracy would be more tolerable than the Muslim theocracy of the Taliban, you’re highly delusional.

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