How REPUBS And BIG BIZ Allies DUPED Millions of Evangelicals Into Voting For A CORPORATE AGENDA

[Segami]

" The bible-thumping white underclass have given a big boost to the corporate bottom line."


by Frank Schaeffer




Tens of millions of American voters got duped badly in the 2010 election. The bible-thumping white underclass thought they hit back at what they regarded as the nefarious forces trying to "take our country away."


They were bought, paid for, sold, traded and manipulated by the most powerful in the US election: a Billionaire Lynch Mob led by Rupert Murdoch, Karl Rove, the Koch brothers, and hundreds of millions in organize corporate cash.

They peddled a fear agenda:

fear of immigrants,

fear of government control of our lives,

fear that their country would become irrevocably changed.



Here's how it happened:


Where the Fear and Loathing Began


A bedrock article of faith among many of the anti-Obama white voters is that America had "Christian origins," and that today America must be "restored" to "our religious heritage." The "Puritan heritage" of America is constantly cited as evidence for our need to return to our "biblical roots." The Constitution is also waved around as if it too is some sort of Bible to be religiously believed in. Of course the Billionaire Lynch Mob doesn't care about such quaint ideas as individual liberties, let alone "biblical absolutes," but many of the people who believed the anti-Obama lies did care.


The earnest, mostly Evangelical dupes have a point: by calling for a "return to our roots" (be they biblical and/or constitutional) they are actually maintaining a grand old American tradition: religious delusion as the basis for conquest. The Puritans believed that they were importing "authentic Christianity" to America, especially as written in the Old Testament. They said that they were on a divine mission, even calling themselves "The New Israel" and a "city set upon a hill." John Winthrop (governor of Massachusetts Bay) transferred the idea of "nationhood" in biblical Israel to the Massachusetts Bay Company. And the Puritans claimed they were God's "Chosen People." They said that they had the right to grab land from the "heathen." These were the American Indians whom the Puritans thought of as the "new Canaanites," to be slaughtered with God's blessing and in the case of the Pequot Indians burned alive.


There are many threads in the anti-Obama tapestry but three are ignored at our peril:

1) The End Times fantasies of the Evangelicals;

2) The rise of so-called Reconstructionist theology and

3) the culture war launched over the legalization of abortion.


These "threads," not the economy alone, are also the source of the vote where white lower class and white middle class Americans voted in droves against their own self-interest.

Let's unpick these fraying threads one at a time.



1. "End Times" Fantasies

The evangelical/fundamentalists/Republican far right is in the grip of an apocalyptic "Rapture" cult centered on revenge and vindication. This "End Times" death wish is built on a literalist interpretation of the Book of Revelation. This fantasy has many followers. For instance to take one of many examples, Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" series of sixteen novels represents both a "reason" and a symptom of the hysteria that grips so many voters.



cont'


<http://www.truth-out.org/frank-schaeffer-how-republicans-and-their-big-business-allies-duped-tens-millions-evangelicals-votin>

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[demosincebirth]

1. 90% of fundies always vote repub.

[RKP5637]

2. They are often led by the nose with their religion and gullible, and get

used all of the time. The "block" thinkers, easily duped and contributing greatly to the unraveling of America.

[AnArmyVeteran]

5. Word Association: FUNDIES = gullible, stupid, ignorant, easily manipulated.

[Segami]

7. The Folly of Lemmings

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea8ki0yAXwY&feature=related>

[madrchsod]

3. excellent article by someone who was one of them...

[Scurrilous]

4. Thanks.

K & R :thumbsup:

[patrice]

6. Frank Schaeffer, son of one of the founders, and ex-member, of the Religious Right,

traces anti-government sentiment to a Christian cult called Reconstructionism which seeks to replace the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights with their interpretation of the Bible, because,

"... democracy and Christianity are incompatible: 'Democracy is the great love of the failures and cowards of life ... One faith, one law and one standard of justice did not mean democracy. The heresy of democracy has since then worked havoc in church and state… Christianity and democracy are inevitably enemies."

Just in case you doubt this, co-sponsored by Sam Brownback and currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109%3AS.520%3A
1. seeks to establish immunity from SCOTUS for Federal, State, & Local government entities acting in their belief in God;
2. seeks to end stare decisis.