Ellis Henican
The Party of God is now fully in charge of the City of Earthly Advantage, and the faith-based finger-pointing has only begun.
| Whoa! Is that St. Augustine I see over there, wearing the cowboy boots and a black tie? |
It's another four years for a leader who considers himself as God's own prophet, a man who says he can't even imagine someone serving in the White House "without a relationship with the Lord." Like it or not, we have a president who just convinced half a nation that Republicans and Republicans alone have a clear-channel, exclusive pipeline to God. And he's not stopping now.
| This is, of course, a rant against the religious proclivities of the Evil Publicans. Ellis' guy lost, y'see? |
Even yesterday, George W. Bush stood at dusk on the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument, and he previewed an inaugural address studded with allusions to the divine. "We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom, and America will always be faithful to that cause," he said to the shivering crowd, again invoking the Almighty in support of worldly political goals.
| He said on a previous occasion that democracy was God's gift to mankind. Despite my being both agnostic and often irreligious in my outlook on life, that statement doesn't bother me in the least, perhaps because I don't regard democracy and individual liberty to be theoretical concepts... |
It's the same thing that the Rev. Jerry Falwell was driving during last year's campaign. Jesus, Falwell was certain, had officially endorsed Bush.
| Does anyone pay any attention to what Jerry Falwell says? Besides Ellis Henican, I mean?... Ummm... Now that I think about it, does anybody pay attention to what Ellis Henican thinks? Are most people aware of his existence, and do those who are care? |
"For conservative people of faith," the politically powerful reverend said, "voting for principle this year means voting for the re-election of George W. Bush. The alternative, in my mind, is simply unthinkable."
| Well, I agree. It would have been pretty unthinkable for people who believe in God and take that belief seriously to toss a vote toward John F'in' Kerry. We're not talking about Mr. Sincerity here, are we? |
Here's a little more: "I believe it is the responsibility of every political conservative, every evangelical Christian, every pro-life Catholic, every traditional Jew, every Reagan Democrat and everyone in between to get serious about re-electing President Bush." Get used to it. And don't think it didn't help Bush.
| I belong to the very first of Falwell's categories, and I agree with that statement, too. What's wrong with it? There's a subject and a verb and everything... |
He's a president who doesn't just wear his religion on his sleeve. He stuffs some in his boots, puts more in his pockets and always has extra to spare.
| Thank you for your opinion, Ellis. You haven't presented any real evidence that this is the case, nor have you explained to us why it would be a Bad Thing if it is in fact the case. You've merely said it. |
But as his big day arrives - his first clean-shot inaugural, the swearing-in outside the Capitol, the big parade to the White House - a vicious wind is blowing up Pennsylvania Avenue.
| Vicious, I tell you! Vicious! |
Snow and ice are everywhere. You have any idea what slush like this can do to a pair of Tony Lamas?
| Tony Lamas are pretty good boots, Ellis. They stand up to snow and ice, as well as the occasional pile of bullshit... |
Maybe that's what the Democrats meant when they said Bush would get four more years "when hell freezes over." Looking around this locked-down capital yesterday - well, who could say it hadn't?
| First you have to equate the capital to Hell, which most people don't do. 750 years of Purgatory, perhaps, but not Hell... |
David Domke is a professor from the University of Washington.
He's been busy counting all the times Bush has been mentioning a higher power in the speeches he gives. It was 10 in his first inaugural address and another 14 in his three State of the Unions for a first-term average of six references per speech. That easily beats Ronald Reagan's 4.75. Even Jimmy Carter, famous for his piety, managed only two mentions of God in four trips to the big podium. Franklin Delano Roosevelt at 1.69 and Lyndon Johnson at 1.50 bring up the rear among God-citing modern presidents.
| Maybe Carter and Johnson should have relied more on the divine? Neither is ever going to be featured at the top of the list of great presidents. And Roosevelt died in office, so maybe God struck him dead for not doing Him honor? On the other hand, a professor — God knows of what — wasting time, attention, and resources on counting the number of times the president refers to God in his speeches strikes me as a spectacular waste of resources that could be better spend documenting the sex life of the common guinea pig... |
But it isn't just the numbers, Domke says. There's something different about the way Bush cites God.
| "It's the way he scrunches up his eyes..." |
"It's one thing to state that there is a God and that Americans should listen to Him, which is what presidents have generally done," Domke said. "In contrast, Bush speaks as if he knows exactly what God wants." And the confidence that brings may be part of the problem here as this second term begins.
| Bush has these ridiculous concepts of "right" and "wrong," when as we all know the world is actually made up of uniform shades of gray, none lighter or darker than the other. It was "right" to strike back at our enemies when they attacked us. It was "right" to try and bring individual liberty to the Middle East, where it's regarded as a perversion. It was "right" to oppose the holy men behind the current wave of worldwide terror because they "know exactly what God wants"... |
But that'll have to wait one more day. Last night, the Bushes, George and Laura, were busy dancin' with the ones that brung 'em here: Three candlelight dinners for donors who contributed $100,000 or more for the inauguration and then Texas State Society's "Black Tie and Boots Ball."
| Y'know what? They had more money to give than I had, and I'm not jealous. Ellis is, and he didn't give anything. But I'm not. |
All of it is following a sprinkled-with-religion Bush-populism theme, geared to the kind of populists who believe in giving money to Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Defense - not taking money away from them.
| Don'tcha just love these unspoken assumptions? Big Oil is Bad™, despite the fact that it puts Big Gasoline in your tank and you have fairly abundant Big Heating Oil to heat your house. Big Pharma produces the drugs that keep our children from dying of dyptheria and cholera and mumps, and that alleviate the pain of terminal cancer patients. For that they should be vilified and all their money taken away. Oh, and Big Defense provides the weapons and transport systems that enable us to hunt down and kill the people who aren't capable of producing sophisticated weaponry themselves, but who're vicious enough to hijack civilian airliners and run them into civilian buildings in New York, killing thousands of our citizens. |
But while the tanked-up donors had their inaugural fun around town, a scarier presentation was under way on Ninth Street at the Renaissance Washington Hotel. It was the Republican National Committee having its 2005 Winter Meeting.
| [Begin Vincent Price's voice...] |
The star of that show was Ken Mehlman. It was Mehlman who ran the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, and yesterday he got his earthly reward, the party chairmanship. To repeated thunders of applause, Mehlman vowed to round up enough gun owners, right-to-lifers and religious conservatives to create "a durable majority" that will keep Republicans in power for decades and decades to come.
| I own a gun. I haven't used it in years, not even for target practice. But that does make me a gun owner, which I consider a good thing, not a bad thing. I think that any law-abiding citizen should be able to own a gun, whether it's for self protection or hunting or just to take it out on Saturday nights and look at it fondly. I'm not convinced someone else has the right to tell me what to do with it, assuming I'm not holding up liquor stores or plugging my brother-in-law because he didn't return my lawn mower. I'm nearly as troubled by the ins and outs of abortion as I am bored by the subject. My reluctant opinion is that it shouldn't be legal, because little babies are defenseless creatures that we adults are obligated to protect and raise as best we can — but I also recognize all the arguments on the other side. Discounting the silly one, that puts me somewhere around 51-49 against abortions. In Ellis' eyes that makes me categorically wrong and probably in league with Jerry Falwell. I'm hardly a religious conservative, but I do have this idea that some things are right and others are wrong. Probably there are enough people like me that the Publicans will build a durable majority, if only because the Sinners have nothing to offer but abortions. |
"We can deepen the GOP by identifying and turning out Americans who vote for president but who often miss off-year elections and agree with our work on behalf of a culture of life, our promoting marriage, and a belief in our Second Amendment heritage," Mehlman said. Say amen to that. If this doesn't scare you, nothing will.
| Frightening. Simply frightening. |
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