The Holy GOP

Sept 13th, 2011

Image from "The Response" via

In light of last night's astoundingly tasteless GOP "Tea Party Debate," with it's emphasis on ritual over ideas, I found something Andrew Sullivan wrote yesterday to be particularly on the mark. We are no longer dealing with a political party.

We are dealing with a new denomination. Sullivan writes:

"That's how I explain the current GOP. It can only think in doctrines, because the alternative is living in a complicated, global, modern world they both do not understand and also despise. Taxes are therefore always bad. Government is never good. Foreign enemies must be pre-emptively attacked. Islam is not a religion. Climate change is an elite conspiracy to impoverish America. Terror suspects are terrorists. When Americans torture, it is not torture. When Christians murder, they are not Christians. And if you change your mind on any of these issues, you are a liberal, an apostate, and will be attacked." EMPHASES HIS

There is a real danger in continuing to treat this new fundamentalism in the manner we used to treat other political movements. First, it legitimizes their detachment from reality. Second, frankly, it wastes our time. The far left and others disappointed in the current President would be wise to recognize this and turn their attention exclusively to the defeat of this new Holy GOP. This isn't pragmatism. It's survival.

We are not dealing with an opponent in any democratic sense. We are dealing with an enemy who thinks they are on a mission from God. What's more, they are making up their gospels as they go.

The Free Market Party?

Aug 23rd, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

Let's say that there is an activity which is perfectly legal under the laws of the United States.

This activity involves financial transactional behavior.

One could actually argue that it is part of the service economy.


With this in mind, some private citizens who require access in this marketplace elect to make agreements with private corporations to assist the way in which payments for these services are rendered.

Now... let's say that a small group of social activists feel that these arrangements are "wrong." Based on a series of religious rationales, they fight to interfere with this market by passing laws which forbid these private citizens from entering these private contracts for this legal activity.

It sounds crazy in that context, doesn't it? If, perhaps, you thought I was referring to the tenets of Sharia Law which govern "usury" or "interest," boy are you wrong.

Welcome to the American Republican Party in 2011 and its attempts to render illegal the use of private insurance policies to pay for abortions.

Constitutional Fundamentalists

Aug 20th, 2011
F. Grey Parker

Whether they call themselves "originalists" or "Tenthers," it's become clear over the last two years that the American right has taken one of its more dubious, longstanding and previously fringe arguments to a whole new level.

Alan Keyes... What Happened???

April 19th, 2011

There was a time when I found Alan Keyes' arguments intellectually frustrating. I sometimes found them infuriating. There were even times when I found them downright dangerous. But I have never before found them to be so wildly removed from the realm of reason that my jaw dropped. Apparently, living in the margins these past few years has not done him any favors. This is nuts. He has become a disaster of epic proportions.

HT to Right Wing Watch