The Crusades

By Laraine Newman

Watching the separation of Church and State go up in flames in this campaign is kind of like watching people in a department store who see one person getting away with stealing and figure why shouldn’t they?  Every time I see anyone’s theocracy become an aspect of their platform it’s as if there’s a fire in a building and nobody’s pulling the alarm.

During these last Republican debates, when all the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they thought Global Warming was a serious issue and  ‘man made’ not ONE of them would stick their necks out, so to speak.

What I see as a clear pattern in the conservative Republican mind set is a smug defiance of science and a sublime indifference to the intrusive aspects of the Evangelical Christian doctrine which has infected and polarized our country.

Unfortunately, those voters who are attracted to candidates of this ilk are

the same people that voted this catastrophic Administration into office. They are blind to the fact that they’ve supported the people who are the cronies of those responsible for the ever-growing divide between the haves and have-nots.

Who do you think has outsourced your jobs, denied your insurance claims when you’ve paid the premiums or profited from a war fought by your overextended and exploited children? Who do you think has spent your tax dollars to support a war that perpetuates their profit with nothing left for education and social programs? Aren’t you appalled by the fact that there’s not even enough money to care for your children who come back wounded or worse from this phony war?

But, back to the issue of Religion in Politics.

Any intelligent conservative HAS to be employing the most effective form of denial to keep going.  The possibility that Mitt Romney, a person who believes that Jesus came to America and hung out with the Native Americans, could possibly be a serious consideration as Presidential material can’t be thinking straight.  But the most frightening trend is the momentum Huckabee has gained.  Not because he isn’t an effective, experienced politician, even if I don’t agree with him, but because of his insistence on waving his religious credentials around as an asset to his resume. Espousing Creationism to the exclusion of evolution is devolution.  This isn’t evangelism, it’s a crusade…. and we all know the legacy of The Crusades.