Meteor Blades caused an epiphany for me this morning and to be honest, it was a major DUH moment. Sometimes the obvious is too blatant to recognize and the fog of frustration caused by dealing with the right's propaganda dulls the senses by osmosis.
When Blades highlighted on Open Thread for Nightowls the lie that Palin was repeatedly spouting in 2009 about how her son was going to have to face one of Obama's death panels, the first thought to come to mind is how can these Tea Baggers (and the entire GOP for that matter) hypocriticly wear their Bibles on their shirt sleeves and tell such preposterous lies on a daily basis and get away with it like they do? I hope that you'll all agree with me that an epidemic of lying has infected the GOP. Maybe it's always been that way but it seems so much more prevalent since the GOP donned the mantle of the Religious Right. I almost feel like a kid at home again!
Then the answer, the perfect foil for their strategy, came to me. More below the fold...
I wish that I could wax eloquent about this but there's an axiom in engineering and computing circles that the the best solution to any problem is the simplest. And, the beauty of this solution to the constant Tea Bagger/GOP propaganda stream lies in it's simplicity. It requires no explanation and I wish that our politicians would have the courage and audacity to employ it at every opportunity because there is not a good response to it. Drum roll please...
The question that should leave them speechless is this:
Since when has the Ninth Commandment become irrelevant? Since when is lying no longer sinful?
For those that aren't Bible scholars, Exodus 20:16, King James version reads: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Modern scholars of all ilk interpret this as a command for truthfullness in all things and all humans are your neighbor: "The ninth commandment concerns our own and our neighbour's good name. This forbids speaking falsely on any matter, lying, equivocating, and any way devising or designing to deceive our neighbour. Speaking unjustly against our neighbour, to hurt his reputation. Bearing false witness against him, or in common conversation slandering, backbiting, and tale-bearing; making what is done amiss, worse than it is, and in any way endeavouring to raise our reputation upon the ruin of our neighbour's. How much this command is every day broken among persons of all ranks!"
The beauty of this question is that unlike all the other Commandments that are broken singularly by politicans of all parties (as well as the rest of us) on a daily basis, the Ninth Commandment is broken daily En Masse by the GOP and they know that they are lying. It's obviously their strategy and they will not have an adequate answer at their disposal. Their self-righteousness (their perceived strength) is indeed their truest vulnerability. I mean, did they convene a constitutional congress to amend the Bible or something? Did anyone invite God, Jesus or the Holy Ghost? Did they get a vote?
Next time you refute one of those e-mails from one of your wingnut friends, try this out. See what they have to say. I can't wait to hear it from Chris Matthews or Keith Olbermann or please, please, please, pretty farkin please...in a DEBATE!
Palin, Bachmann, Perry, Romney, Pawlenty, you name em...every last one of them should be hoisted upon this, their adopted religious petard of choice.