In a Hateful Mood About Politics

I hope the next time the Democrats are in power – and it will happen – that they are as vicious and divisive as Rove and his gang of Dividers-not -Uniters working for the Decider. The viciousness will be necessary because Karl Rove is a kinder, gentler reincarnated Joseph Goebbels and as Christian as Marilyn Manson; the divisiveness is necessary because the truly Compassionate Conservatives must be separated from the looters.

I love being told that I’m against people of faith because I approve of keeping a woman’s right to do what she wants with her body and permitting those of us who were born different the same protections and freedoms as the rest of us. I love being told that I’m not very patriotic because I’d rather bring our troops home than see them fight and die for a whim and a lie in a civil war that our Leaders could not foresee.

Although it’s been fun being called unpatriotic, anti faith, anti-rapture and especially an “intellectual” (one who reads, thinks, and respects science), I’d rather be called divisive for wanting to separate myself from the people who call me those names. And from the selfish.

Okay I’m mostly a liberal. And I may be cynical, but anyone who votes with his wallet defines the term. Really, any good conservative should be cynical as hell when the honorable philosophy of conservatism gets hijacked by a group of people who speak from their corner, yet are nothing more than looters. But what is a liberal? Someone who would help you if he could and thinks that the world would be better if that inclination occupied a higher place in our morality. Call him stupid for believing that’s the only thing that works in the long run and refuse to be led by him, but don’t call him selfish.

Not being selfish is the only thing that works in a practical sense. Bush knows this, or he was told this, when he chose to use the word “compassionate” to define his brand of conservatism. He knew or was told that most Americans believe in the redemptive power, the Christian redemptive power, of that word.

Let’s get something straight. Bush is not compassionate. His leadership in the Katrina horror shows this. His faith in Rumsfeld, who treats soldiers like stale cookies, shows this. His disregard for middle and lower classes, as evidenced by his gifts to corporations that allow them to plunder and loot, shows this. He’s a failed businessman, a party guy who found Jesus.

He’s wasn’t good in business, but nevertheless he has hold of the theory that corporate profits will benefit everyone below the free stock gift level, which is as boneheaded as the decisions he made during his tenure as a business failure. Ditto Cheney. Why raise the minimum wage? They don’t care. “We don’t have to care, because your bosses will create an economy in which you won’t need to make more in order to have more.” Tell me I’m wrong about that, as far as minimum wage is concerned. Don’t tell me about the hits business will take if it rises, just tell me I have their attitude wrong. All they talk about is the business hit angle. Why? Because it’s too difficult to deal with, the poor dears. It’s much easier to just keep the wage where it is.

Bush is, as a conservative talk show host commented recently, a radical fundamentalist, politically speaking. He doesn’t want to downsize government, he wants to dismantle it even more than Grover Norquist. His way of making everything but the Treasury, the military, and state representation disappear is to bankrupt it. Privatize everything else, put all of the social programs that are the shining light of this formally admired nation into the hands of his friends.

And he’s a religious fundamentalist, similar to Osama bin Laden. I believe in a soul, but I don’t know when it begins. The idea that in begins at conception was decided by men – it’s not in the Bible, another human-generated document. I distrust men making decisions like that. They don’t know, pure and simple, yet they call me a supporter of murder. Personally, I don’t know what use a blastocyte has for a soul. I would say that a soul comes into existence with the capacity to love, but that’s just me. No, men made this decision that binds Bush’s ideology. He wants to protect young souls, but doesn’t mind sending them into frivolous wars to die like so much whim fodder. (What the hell, they’re dying for Jesus – more fundamentalism.) He doesn’t mind dismantling, through underfunding, the agencies that watch over our youngest souls. Let them live, yes, but tough luck to the abused and abandoned ones among them. His followers – his former followers, I should say – in the Christian Right profess the basic tenets of their faith, including Good Samaritism, don’t they? Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said this: “We all love Jesus when he gives us what we want. The sticking point comes when Jesus challenges us to reach out to those on the edge, to those beyond the boundaries of our own community and self interest.” And the Bible says this: "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed." (Luke 14:13) That looks a little like communism, doesn’t it? So Bush, in professing his faith, resembles a commie pinko, believing that his rich friends, who literally are the government, with their legal bribes to our lawmakers courtesy of the run-amuck lobbying system, will share their wealth. Like the rich communists shared theirs.

If you want true Christianity, look to the Amish. They offered help and prayers to the family of the man who brutally executed their children, their girls. I’m not suggesting a foregoing of retribution. The Amish too would have wanted the murderer to pay for his crimes. I’m suggesting that Christianity is better served in the hands of people who have respect for its true spirit.