I was watching CSPan this morning and it looks like they're back on the topic of those fake "Death Panels" again because the hostility towards that Black dude is easing and the corporate controlled media cannot allow that so, naturally , Cspan had to bring it back up and scare the peeps. Now callers are calling in ranting and railing against what they call "Obamacare" and decrying Obamas hatred of old people. Usually, I listen to the first part of this program because I get a kick out of the random display of ignorance on any given subject, but as I listened to these people, I began to wonder why they are so ignorant in the face of the facts.
Of course you have your main culprits, the Right Wing Media and Talk Radio entertaining and rebel rousing them. You have your Jezabels Sarah Palehorse , Christine O'Dummy and Michelle Batshetz who wink, lick their lips and shuffle their hair distracting the men who are not really focused on what they say, but rather how cute they look saying it. You have all of that, but there's something else that's making these people act on the lies that they are being told. There is something else that's making them blindly vote against their interest and gather in front of the White House or on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with fear, anger and hatred. It's not just the shallow reasons I mentioned above. It can't be.
For example, we on the Left get just as angry on certain issues. We yell and march too. We chain ourselves to the symbols of power structures. We make our point. We make calls. But no matter how hot our Anthony Wieners and Barack Obamas are, we are still capable of expressing our own opinions and if we disagree with them on any given issue, we are sure to make that known while still holding them in high regard for the most part. No matter how much we love Ed Schultz, sometimes he's wrong and we say so. Even Keith and Rachel , as talented as they are, are no match to our free expression of thought. They cannot herd us even if we agree with them on most issues.
So what is it that makes the Left able to comprehend basic policy be that policy Republican or Democratic and the Right can't ? Are they all that stupid ? We joke about this all the time. We have basically deemed those on the Right as high functioning autistic Americans and we have left it at that and we deal with them having that pre-assumption. However , those of us who find the possibility of millions of Americans being high functioning retarded unbelievable , have convinced ourselves that they know they are wrong but that their love of the name and idea of republicanism is so strong , they just sell out their morals and go with the flow.
I think it's something else. I notice a similarity between the political right and the average layperson in Evangelical church. I only mention the Evangelical church because I was raised Evangelical, but I suspect the same is true for all Americanized versions of various faiths. As I listened to the callers call in , they reminded me of the laymen and women in the churches I used to go to. They come to church, sit in the pew and obey orders for an hour and a half to two hours and go home and many of them have been doing this since they were children. What do I mean by "obey" ? Well, here's a typical Sunday in an Evangelical Church.
Let us all stand
Open your hymn books
Let us all sing
You may be seated
Look at your neighbor and say "Bla Bla Bla"
Look at your other neighbor and "All the time"
Amen ?
Now open your Bibles to a scripture I'm gonna misinterpret and turn political and tell you how to vote.
This is what it means Amen ?
Now open your wallets and your purses
Put the money in the baskets
Look at your neighbor and say "I'll be blessed now"
Now stand up and sing again
Now sit down and listen to me
Now look at your neighbor and say "He's right"
Now before we close is there anyone who wants to come join us ?
Come to the alter right now because if you leave and get hit by a car you're going to hell
Now everyone sing again
Let us pray
Come back tonight and bring some more money
That was a typical day for me at Church but surprisingly even to me, that wasn't ultimately the reason why I left Americanized religion. I left because of the blatant sexism. I wanted to be a preacher like my father but our denomination has a religious hierarchy that limited my God given talents as I was only "permitted" to teach the kids in Sunday School how to color pictures of Moses , Jesus , Paul, Ruth, Esther and Daniel. If I tried to teach them who these people were and why they are significant , well, that was a problem because I was a woman and they didn't like my "feminist leaning style". I wasn't supposed to focus on the wisdom and bravery of the women. Just the men which was difficult because in most of the Bible stories, the women played the key roles. I didn't know I was supposed to be teaching the Church Hierarchy. I thought I was supposed to teach the Bible. Let's just say, my style was more Lilith than Eve. wink wink
In any event, back to the subject of my diary and why I think Republican constituents are so lock step in line with their perceived authority figures. According to polls and research , most Republican constituents are self described conservative and the majority of those are Evangelical or Religious conservatives. I can't help but notice that they respond to their GOP leadership the same way they respond to their pastors and leaders. They don't question their pastor even when he says something that's not in the Bible because many of them don't read it. The reason why I know the scriptures is because I was a rogue COGIC pastors daughter and he trained us to be in the ministry. He knew about the hierarchy and even though he himself struggled with his own sexism against women, having all daughters , he did not want us to be taken advantage of by the Church. Being himself raised by a single mother, I suspect that's why.
He forced us to study for ourselves so that when we hear something that's not true, we will not blindly follow a man, but rather Christ. Because of his insistence on me learning the Bible for myself and the context of the times in which it was written and the understanding that the books in the cannon are not the only scriptures that are out there and to continue seeking a relationship with Christ beyond the books and the buildings and the pulpits, I can look back and I can forgive my father of his own sexism towards us because he made an effort to protect us from the Church Hierarchy even though he himself fell short. It is because of this I can be a believer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a social progressive who is a registered Democrat.
But (MOST) Laymen don't read the Bible. They go to Church and they get all their learning from the Church and from the pastor. And because of their lack of fact finding capabilities; because they have been conditioned from early childhood to believe everything that an authority tells them, they do not question facts or motives and as a result are open to deceit and lies by both their pastors and their political figures. It is that Authoritarian Hierarchy that creates the type of political sheep that fuels the Republican Party and keeps them alive. That's why they are they way they are and vote the way they vote and call into Cspan and say the stupid things they say. They have been told how to think and believe because they think something bad will happen to them if they don't. Like rejection or Hell.
It is growing increasingly clear to me that the only answer to the religious and political Right in this country, is in fact the religious and political Left in this country. We need to stop being spectators and stand up for the truth. You cannot win a theological war with secular armor. Its time we take that same Bible they have been thumping over our heads out of their hands , open it up and force the to actually read it for themselves. If they do, they will realize that the selfish nature of the Republican party is not in line with Christ or his teachings. And if we can get them to actually read the Bible, we can get them to actually read legislation instead of let someone else tell them what's in it. Then maybe they will stop voting against their interest and blindly obeying the commands of Glen Beck.
(NOTE) Poll question says WHO. Should be WHY. My apologies.