Friday, November 05, 2004

Running From the Religious Right

By Elaine Cassel

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Posted 11/05 | Add a Comment

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  1. What is the point of this rant?  Are we expected to take any of it seriously?

    And don’t give me that crap about your outlook suddenly changing on Movember 3.  This is the same crap we’ve been reading for the last four years.

    I guess some people just don’t understand the concept of a backlash.

    Posted by Scott Brady from Anoka, MN  on  11/05  at  09:06 AM

  2. I to ran away from the religious garbage of my childhood. I used to spend 5 out of 7 days in church.  I was often told the church takes care their own and everyone else just does without.  Well they sure didn’t take care of my grandmother after she devoted her whole life to them as church secretary. 

    You’re right about this government and the direction its heading. I’m almost 60 years old and if I’m lucky I might get 15 to 20 more years.  I won’t be around to see the full results of this right wing agenda on the country but I can most certainly guarantee its not going to be very pretty.

    Posted by Marilyn Moore from  on  11/05  at  04:18 PM

  3. Fine piece of writing.  Thank you Elaine.

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  11/05  at  09:02 PM

  4. Hi Elaine! I have enjoyed many of your essays. (’Onward Ashcroft Soldiers’ was especially good!) You are thinking clearly. Relax. I know that’s not easy. I left before Bush was elected. A friend at the time said, ‘Oh, they’re gonna put that guy in office! If I could, I would be outta here. I don’t blame you. Not a bit.’ Little did I know how on the money he was. After 9/11 I returned for a while, thinking I could help in the U.S.; you know, try to defuse the madness I was hearing about (much of which you write about), try to stop the war, that kind of thing. That was a delusion. I began to feel like I was pointing out that the earth was, in fact, round and that, in fact, the heavens did not rotate about it. I got a lot of flack from a few friends when I decided to leave the U.S. again. One looked at me and said, ‘YOU can’t leave, what kind of message is THAT?’ I told him about Adorno, Horkheimer and Bloch who hightailed it to sunny California. Relax. You are deciding to conscientiously and strategically reposition yourself topographically so you can continue your critical work. Good for you!

    Posted by Theo from  on  11/06  at  08:50 AM

  5. This is guaranteed to cheer people up…

    Posted by j cummings from  on  11/06  at  09:59 AM

  6. Theo is right, Elaine.

    “You are deciding to conscientiously and strategically reposition yourself topographically so you can continue your critical work. Good for you!”

    How observant of you, Theo, too.

    Posted by Nader Rider from  on  11/06  at  11:34 AM

  7. Before you “run” anywhere, Elaine, you might want to read the piece on GREEN KANSAS that appears on ZNet today. The “religious right” might not be what they appear to be...in each instance.  Regarding the Rehnquist remark, I recommend your checking out http://mth.blogspot.com/ today. If you do bolt, consider...not forgetting to write...about something else...from another angle...as there are many, yes?  Would be interested in what you think about Zinn’s take this morn on ZNet too.

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  11/06  at  11:48 AM

  8. Elaine’s done a lot of work for us Nader Rider. She deserves a chill spell. Europe’s nice Elaine. I’m imagine if you snoop around a bit, somebody can get you some kind of job/working papers, etc. It’s >bleeping< weird to flee America . . . but they are getting kooky back home. A nice coffee and a witty, underground European political pamphlet will do you some good. Keep us posted.

    Posted by Theo from  on  11/06  at  02:06 PM

  9. Yes. Too many years of shouting “fascism!” at phantoms have left many leftists unable to recognize the religious variant when it punches them in the nose.

    Did you read Jane Smiley’s piece reflecting on her religious relatives and the election? It’s at:
    http://slate.msn.com/id/2109218

    Posted by pattrice jones from USA  on  11/06  at  02:08 PM

  10. Yes, I did read Smiley. (Amazing how folks tore into her in The Fray!) However, I tend to disagree with her statement that: “Progressives have only one course of action now: React quickly to every outrage” red state types love to cheat and intimidate, so we have to assume the worst and call them on it every time.” I prefer the angle espoused by Jeffery St. Clair today on CP and recently Slavoj Zizek reviewing Tom Frank (Over The Rainbow, LRB) that red-staters and leftists are natural allies ... they just don’t know it yet. I do agree with Smiley’s conclusion that the hatred we feel in the U.S. will likely implode ... the effects of which could be interesting. To put it mildly.

    Posted by Theo from  on  11/06  at  02:31 PM

  11. After reading what Elaine has written about the religious right taking the country by storm, I was befuddled.  I then prayed to God with all of my might to seek guidance from the Mighty Fortress.  I prayed hard, more so than George Bush, John Ashcroft, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, and their good Christian Zionist friends combined. 

    God said to me, “Don’t mean nothin’.  Forgedaboutit.”

    That’s what He said and God doesn’t lie at all.  When George Bush and all of his thumpin’ buddies get to the Pearly Gates, they’re in for a Big Surprise.  God will axe George Bush, “George, did you ever cause anyone to suffer down there on earth?” George will answer, “No God, all of my good Christian friends were treated kindly by me.  Everybody was tickled pink to help me fight the good fight.”

    “Are you positive?” asked God.

    “Well, I think I did ok in the eyes of the Lord,” said George.

    “Well, think again,” God angrily retorted.

    “You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do,” God went on to say.

    “To hell you say,” replied George.

    “Yes,” said God, “To hell.”

    God has George’s book of faults.  There is hope for this world, ‘whispering hope’.  Not from George Bush, though.  He’s gone to hell in a handbasket.  God’s had enough of him.

    Posted by MDPB from  on  11/06  at  02:56 PM

  12. On second thought, I would suggest that anyone, who is considering expatriating themselves, include another option.  Pick a blue state of your choice and work exhaustively to get that state to secede.  If I’m going to disjoin myself from the country I love, I might as well try to take some kindred souls, who live in the same state, with me.

    Posted by Nader Rider from  on  11/07  at  02:12 AM

  13. Oh come on now!  Aren’t we getting a little carried away?  Bush is not the anti-Christ.

    I wish we could talk again four years from now.  We could go through your predictions line by line and you would see they aren’t so. 

    “Wait until Bush tells you that God told him that all Unitarians or Jews who don’t accept Jesus can’t get a passport.” Please.  Take your vacation.  You need one.

    So you teach psychology?

    Posted by a from  on  11/07  at  02:24 PM

  14. Perchance anyone is contemplating giving the merits of secession only a cursory glance, I submit this color commentary for your added consideration.

    Think what you will about secession.  It still is, nonethless, a revolutionary act that spills no blood.  And, therefore, a viable option for consideration for all advocates of nonviolent direct action.

    Posted by Nader Rider from  on  11/07  at  03:26 PM

  15. There’s a wonderful chapter in St. Clair’s BEEN BROWN SO LONG.... that details how our gov’t diseased its own population, hurt it...much more than anything SH ever did to the Iraqis. The only reason Bush sdn’t be viewed as the anti-Christ is the objectionable framework that such a designation is derived from; the Christian terminology/POV must be dispensed with for gen’l health. Nonetheless, the thrust of calling him such a name is soiled spot on.  And --joined at the diseased hip to the vast majority of people in this country (certainly including the bulk of the Democratic Party)-- is slated to do much more horrible damage than anything delineated here. Regarding SECESSION...I’d love someone to capsule what that link has to say...in one or two sentences; just give me the basic point that one must consider to be motivated to delve into the load of words that are there, if you will. Merci many times.

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  11/08  at  12:13 AM

  16. And...anyone who’s thinking about running out of the country should read St. Clair’s GREEN OUT piece from this weekend’s CPunch http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair11062004.html
    It’ll cure ‘ya, for sure.

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  11/08  at  01:03 AM

  17. Rather than give you a Dan Rather soundbite re. the article, Richard, when an Amy Goodman version would be more deserving, I’ll just excerpt a small portion of it to reveal, what I believe, is its bottom-most line.

    “And so to the core issue… why are pro-democracy political philosophers so hostile to secession? Is it because of what secession is, or because of what secession does? Apparently the second of these: it is not the secession itself they fear, but its effect.

    Secession allows the democratic process to be circumvented or evaded, without a direct attack on the government. In a secession, the existing government is not overthrown, the nation is not colonised, the people are not murdered or enslaved. Something is added, a new state. Only territory is taken away - disregarding nationalist claims that national unity is itself sacred.”

    Hope that motivates you to read it with your favorite libation.

    NR

    P.S.  I’m gonna ask Santa for a spell check capability here.

    Posted by Nader Rider from  on  11/08  at  01:23 AM

  18. dear elaine, i hope that you read these commentaries on your totally understandable article. i wrote you an email because we need people like you in the belly of the beast, i.e. governmental washington. if we all would run off, i would probably be in south-western france indulging myself in delish cassoulet but what good could i do there? that the frankfurt school philosophers went to california was because of the war and they chose its climate and freedom of movement. we need strong, clever educated womyns
    in the maws of this crazed regime. the struggle is wonderful in itself. forget about rehnquist, ashcroft or bush, they are only the puppets for the puppet masters and pushing them off is not the issue. as oxman wrote, look at the article green kansas. you are needed here and there. best, gui

    Posted by gui rochat from new york  on  11/08  at  02:55 PM

  19. Very nice blog.

    Posted by Misho from Germany  on  09/01  at  10:09 AM

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