Upheaval In Ranks Of Religious Right

This item comes directly fromis somewhat inspired by the keyboard of Kathleen Parker, whose columns of both last wk. & this (unless we're ascribing too much intent to Ms. Parker's stylings) doubtless lead to something; we only hope we've overturned the rock it's hiding under by the time we finish reading the columns. Last wk. brought the tale of an eminence grise of the right, California's own Howard Ahmanson, publicly renouncing the Republican party. Parker talked to Ahmanson, and it becomes obvious that he's playing w/ a less than full deck. 

Ahmanson, who was born to and inherited great wealth, has spent a lifetime trying to figure out what to do with his good fortune. It has been, at times, a burden of guilt, complicated by a lonely childhood. He also has Tourette's syndrome, which has contributed to his reclusiveness. [...] One can't mention Ahmanson without also discussing his association with Calvinist theologian R.J. Rushdoony, who believed in a literal application of biblical teachings and is credited with inspiring the Christian home-schooling movement.

Well, that's putting it mildly. Old Rushdoony's "literal application of biblical teachings" includes the stoning (to death) of "homosexuals" & many other harsh biblical favorites. "Association with," of course, means financing the old bastard's fantasies of theocracy. 

Too much could be made of Ahmanson's move, as a lot of his ire is specifically toward the California Republican Party. And we suspect he'll continue to fund outfits like the Discovery Institute (no relation whatsoever to the Discovery Channel) & campaigns like California's Proposition Eight. What's going to happen to his money was a big question among those to whom Parker spoke, & the first line of her column is: 

Just as news breaks that political fundraising is down for both parties, Republicans have lost one of their more generous contributors.

Which brings us to Ms. Parker's column this Sunday. Some of the more intelligent (it's all relative) may have realized that there was an indeed an election (Just last November, wasn't it?) & their lunch was handed to them by quite a margin, a fact seemingly lost on many on the right who are still shouting about "the usurper Obama," the monolithic mainstream media giving the election away, and the country somehow having been taken from them, ad nauseum.

The older generation, represented by such icons as James Dobson, who recently retired as head of Focus on the Family, has compromised too much, according to a growing phalanx of disillusioned Christians. Pragmatically speaking, the Christian coalition of cultural crusaders didn't work. For proof, one need look no further than Dobson himself, who was captured on tape recently saying that the big cultural battles have all been lost.

(Really? There was some sort of Xmas a couple of months ago, wasn't there? Or did they lose that war, & we're remembering an earlier Xmas? Or was the war for Xmas not one of the "big cultural battles?" It certainly seemed important at the time. )

Essentially, tails dragging behind them after a good whipping, they've decided to pull their turtle heads inside their shells & pretend to be Xians again until the whole thing blows over, when a new generation of drooling ninnies will decide again that the only way to get Jeezis back for the big end-of-days blow-out/rapture is by imposing Xian sharia. 

For Christians such as Moore -- and others better known, such as columnist Cal Thomas, a former vice president for the Moral Majority -- the heart of Christianity is in the home, not the halls of Congress or even the courts. And the route to a more moral America is through good works -- service, prayer and education -- not political lobbying.

Back to how they plied their scam prior to the Moral Majority & other such naked grabs at political power, in other words. Someday they may even realize that the economic policies pursued by their partners in repression from the Country Club/Wall Street section of the Big Republican Tent are infinitely more anti-family than anything the Gawd Squadders have imagined concerning welfare, "gay agendas," sex on tee vee or McDonna.  Billionaire Ahmanson is fine w/ his former party's realignment. 

He did make some observations about the GOP, however, and said he sees the party's current problems as tension between "the upscales and the downscales" -- the upper middle classes and the lower middle classes. "If I were in the GOP, I'd advocate the party should be downscaling." Heading, that is, toward a populist position.

Ah, more tea-parties? Sober, cloth-coated Republicans standing up against Wall St. excess? Would-be small business owners? (Sam the not-licensed plumber, baby!) Smart-assery aside, that's not necessarily a good thing for the Islamo-Marxist-Leninist conspiracy here. A (Dare we say it?) center-right party, lighter on the self-righteousness, and at paying more current lip service to middle-class economic concerns wouldn't be unappealing to certain reactionary elements. (That is, middle-class sheep, as they are fondly called around here. Especiallly as their world of debt & home equity collapses around them.) 

And as exciting as the nihilists here find the prospect of that Big Republican Tent going up or down in flames, 

Whether James Dobson's admission of failure -- or Deace's challenges to Minnery -- foretells a crackup of the older Christian right remains to be seen. But something is stirring, and it sounds like the GOP may be losing its bailout money. God apparently has his own stimulus plan.

"You have the choice between a way that works and brings no credit or money or national attention," says Thomas. "Or, a way that doesn't work that gets you lots of attention and has little influence on the culture."

It is hard to imagine a political talk show without a self-appointed moral arbiter bemoaning the lack of family values in America. But, do let's try.

Oh, let's do! 

That aside, our patience wears thin. Though it would seem that Ms. Parker is ready to kick the Christians tout of the tent & drive a bus over them, we fear that the GOP will be in a holding pattern until the 2010 election, whose results will probably determine how or if they split themselves. 

Continuing in the patience being tried vein, just when the hell are  the financial system & economy going to finish falling around our ears? We want to see the streets filled w/ people selling apples to each other. (Oh, wait. Check the freeway off-ramps. Yeah, more likely to be oranges, but you can compare the two in this case.)