Not long ago, GOP Chariman Michael Steele asserted the ridiculous argument that gay marriage would be "bad for small business." If you believe this, Ol Mom and Pop could not compete in a true free market economy with Pop and Pop, Mom and Mom-like the ink is just going to fall off the money if a gay person touches it. It's total bullspit, but it's the kind of bullspit that's being used as ostensible cover: code. The core of the GOP's gay marriage opposition lies in the Old Testament.
Last Saturday, I saw Man of God Mike Huckabee on Fox News, huddled up with some guests to guide viewers through the "bad for small business" game plan for health care. Obamacare is bad for small business. Socialism. Blah blah blah.
Same slogan, different twist, and a hole in the rift between fiscal and religious conservatives big enough to drive a circus through. In the case of gay marriage, the "bad for small business" argument is being used to cloak a religious objective as a financial argument. In the case of health care, "bad for small business" is a financial argument used to enable the religious right to ignore one of Jesus' basic tenets of Christianity: Healing the ill, and helping the poor.
Is GOP God Jesus, or the Free Market Economy?
Republican Jesus:
This one time, Jesus walked up to this leper in the gutter, and said "I'd totally help you out, brah, but it would be bad for small business. I really don't want to get in trouble with my pharmaceutical, HMO, and conglomerate insurance campaign contributors. You know how it is. Losing the next election would really jack up my self esteem. Tell you what, if you can come up with 5,000 Caesar coins, I'll put one of your legs back on; or do you want something for nothing you lazy, socialist pig?"