Abu Ghraib Nation
Smugness. Arrogance. Parochialism. Violence on demand. It seems that George W. Bush is but a shadow of the US electorate. It was bad enough that he garnered as many votes as he did in 2000, but this election is truly, truly appalling. Say what you will about John Kerry, but every ballot cast for Bush this year was like a postcard sent to a grieving Iraqi family member inscribed with the words We do this because we can. Deal with it.
Let's cut to the chase. Listening to NPR today, practically all I heard about was how "moral values" trumped voters' other considerations at the polls. Something like 18% of voters named this as their top priority. "Moral values" in this country is a transparent euphemism for religion, in particular a reactionary brand of Protestantism which about one third of Americans espouse. That's 95 million people. Bush won the election with 59 million votes. You do the math. I haven't seen exit polling for numbers of evangelicals who voted yesterday, but suffice it to say that this core of Flat Earthers has enormous political power - even after the post-Reagan decline of groups like the Christian Coalition and Moral Majority. There are innumerable bad reasons for voting for Bush, but there is something particularly galling to me about the we-have-the-same-God rationale that was apparently employed with abandon at the polls. If there's one subject on which I am occassionally guilty of allowing my general instinct to respectful discussion and debate to slip into smugness and contempt, it's religion. I am an atheist, which is to say that while I don't know how the universe ended up here or how we ended up in it (like agnostics), I have yet to see a shred of evidence to suggest the existence of supernatural powers (unlike agnostics). Following from that, I consider any argument based on the existence of supernatural powers to be prima facie absurd. So, while my eyes may be rolling as I hear that tens of millions of Americans consider Bush to be the man for the job on Iraq or the economy or...anything, they positively pop out of my skull when I'm reminded that the Enlightenment has yet to reach large swaths of the supposedly most advanced nation on earth.
All of that is to say that if there is a culture war to be fought (really fought, whatever exactly that means), let's embrace it. That doesn't mean eschewing respectful approaches vis-a-vis working people in the so-called heartland who are convinced that their economic interests are being best served by the corporate raiders who happen to share their views on abortion. But I don't want to see one fucking inch given to the religious right as such. I don't want to get along with their ideology, I don't want to make compromises with their ideology, and I don't want to pretend that their ideology has even a shred of merit. If that further "divides" the country, so be it.
Let's cut to the chase. Listening to NPR today, practically all I heard about was how "moral values" trumped voters' other considerations at the polls. Something like 18% of voters named this as their top priority. "Moral values" in this country is a transparent euphemism for religion, in particular a reactionary brand of Protestantism which about one third of Americans espouse. That's 95 million people. Bush won the election with 59 million votes. You do the math. I haven't seen exit polling for numbers of evangelicals who voted yesterday, but suffice it to say that this core of Flat Earthers has enormous political power - even after the post-Reagan decline of groups like the Christian Coalition and Moral Majority. There are innumerable bad reasons for voting for Bush, but there is something particularly galling to me about the we-have-the-same-God rationale that was apparently employed with abandon at the polls. If there's one subject on which I am occassionally guilty of allowing my general instinct to respectful discussion and debate to slip into smugness and contempt, it's religion. I am an atheist, which is to say that while I don't know how the universe ended up here or how we ended up in it (like agnostics), I have yet to see a shred of evidence to suggest the existence of supernatural powers (unlike agnostics). Following from that, I consider any argument based on the existence of supernatural powers to be prima facie absurd. So, while my eyes may be rolling as I hear that tens of millions of Americans consider Bush to be the man for the job on Iraq or the economy or...anything, they positively pop out of my skull when I'm reminded that the Enlightenment has yet to reach large swaths of the supposedly most advanced nation on earth.
All of that is to say that if there is a culture war to be fought (really fought, whatever exactly that means), let's embrace it. That doesn't mean eschewing respectful approaches vis-a-vis working people in the so-called heartland who are convinced that their economic interests are being best served by the corporate raiders who happen to share their views on abortion. But I don't want to see one fucking inch given to the religious right as such. I don't want to get along with their ideology, I don't want to make compromises with their ideology, and I don't want to pretend that their ideology has even a shred of merit. If that further "divides" the country, so be it.
1 Comments:
Amen.
Tee-hee.
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