The United States of Jesus [View All]

"What this issue has done is it has galvanized people the way nothing could have done in an off-election year. That is what I see as the blessing that dear Terri's life is offering to the conservative Christian movement in America."

- Rev. Lou Sheldon, founder of the notoriously anti-gay organization ‘The Traditional Values Coalition’

And O my Lord, how the money rolled in. The quote above comes from a New York Times story describing how far-right groups like Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coalition, along with Operation Rescue and RightMarch.com, are cashing in on the furor that has arisen around the matter of Terri Schiavo. The Puritans believed you could tell if a person was in good graces with the Lord by seeing if they had a lot of money in the bank. Some things, I guess, don’t change.

Rank hypocrisy, of course, is as constant as the North Star. We have progressed beyond hypocrisy this week, however, and are barnstorming towards a kind of fundamentalist theocracy that is cancerous to the basic underpinnings of the republic.

First question: Who is actually running the country? The easy answer is George W. Bush, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief. An easy answer, but wrong. As has been conclusively proven, no catastrophe or threat can dislodge George when he has boll-weeviled into his Crawford ‘ranch’ for some sorta-earned vacation time. Yet last week, in the dead of night, he boarded his chariot and raced back to Washington to sign that ‘Save Terri’ legislation.

At whose request? Why, at the request of Rep. Tom Delay. The warnings in the summer of 2001 about an imminent and massive terror attack on the United States could not dislodge George from his repose, but DeLay crooks his little finger and George comes a-runnin’.

Mr. DeLay, with the Traditional Values Coalition, Operation Rescue and RightMarch.com at his back, is fast becoming the most powerful politician in Washington. His strength comes from people like this:

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/images/posts/9/Schiavo1032505.bmp

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/images/posts/9/Schiavo2032505.bmp

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/images/posts/9/Schiavo4032505.bmp

These are but a few of the protesters who have followed DeLay, Frist and the fundamentalists into the maw of the Schiavo struggle. While the polls say some 80% of Americans do not approve of the congressional sideshow that has been playing out on this issue, DeLay and his crew know where their collective bread is buttered. People like those depicted above make up the backbone of the GOP, the hard-right flank that always always always votes, and votes Republican. These folks are so devoted a GOP voting bloc that if the God of the Righteous swooped down from Heaven on a flaming chariot and denounced George, DeLay, Frist and the rest as craven scumbags, these folks would petition to have Him arrested for disturbing the peace.

Some of them can be a wee bit too devoted, as was the case of the Florida man arrested for trying to steal a gun so he could “take some action and rescue Terri Schiavo.” I wonder how happy the fundamentalist leadership was upon hearing this story. I’ll bet, secretly, they were pleased. You can’t buy this kind of passion, and if a few eggs get broken in a shootout at the hospice, well, perhaps that’s the price of doing the Lord’s business.

Second question: What is the ultimate goal of all this?

There are a number of answers. This Schiavo matter, clearly, helps these far-right groups line their pockets. It gets the far-right grassroots worked up into a froth. The leaders of this push believe it provides them with a wedge issue with which to attack Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, a supposition yet to be proven. The more strategery-minded in the crew saw it as some cheese dangled before Senate Democrats to lure them into a ‘Culture of Life,’ mudfight, and perhaps as a distraction to deflect attention from the looming battle over the filibuster. Thankfully, the Senate Democrats refused to take the bait.

There’s more to it, though. Much more...

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/25/10383/0260