The wingnuttery continues to devolve. Last night, Rachel Maddow covered, among other recently related points, the new Rightwing “Pray for Obama” movement supporting, and selling merchandise in support of, Psalms 109:8 which begins this way: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office,” and continues with “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
Frank Schaeffer, repentant former rightwing fundamentalist evangelical, and now a contributor here at The BRAD BLOG, was on her show last night to discuss that point, and where it seems to signal that things may be frighteningly headed.
He also raised another point, in condemnation of critics on the Left, with which I’ll offer a slight quibble. The video of the full Maddow interview follows, along with a crucial excerpt from the text transcript, and my thoughts on where I disagree with one of Frank’s now-repeated assertions…
Now, most Americans will see the bumper sticker and smile and think that it’s facetious. Unfortunately, there are 22 million Americans, or so, who call themselves “super conservative evangelicals”. Of this, a small minority might be violent, but the general atmosphere here is really getting heated.
And what surprises me is that responsible — if you can put it that way — Republican leadership and the editors of some of these Christian magazines, etc. etc., do not stand up in holy horror and denounce this.
You know, they’re always asking “Where is the Islamic leadership denouncing terrorism? Why are the moderates speaking out?”
Well, I challenge the folks that I used to work with, that I talk about in my book Patience With God, and I would just say to them, “Where they hell are you? This is not funny anymore, and be it on your head if something happens to our President, if you are going to go around supporting, and not speaking out against this stuff”
It’s not a question of whose doing it. The bigger question is, where are the people speaking out against these things? I don’t hear those voices raised in the evangelical fundamentalist community. And, until I do, my opinion is, they’re culpable.
Schaeffer has been a clarion voice on these issues for some time. Let’s hope he doesn’t some day turn out to be a prophetic one.
There is one point, however, which he also raised last night, about which he has written previously — for example, in a quick graf in his post here yesterday on “Sarah Palin – America’s Evita” — on which I’d like to register a slight quibble, some constructive criticism, or at least an alternative viewpoint, in reply.
After the comments quoted above, Schaeffer added, as the segment concluded:
This is serious stuff. The chips are down. He has real enemies. Some of them are violent. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s time to support our President, stand with him, and not only wish him the best, but as a believing Christian myself, pray for his safety in the face of these religious maniacs who, everyday… You know, one time I was on your show a while back and they were talking about “Is he the anti-Christ?” Now they’re saying he’s an unjust ruler and they’re asking God to strike him down. There are not a lot of steps left on this insane path.
I’m in full concurrence with Frank’s points on the “maniacs” and the “insane path” they seem determined to be on. But I believe there is a nuance that he may either be missing, or glossing over, in his virulent chastisement of those Obama supporters who have been critical of him for “not moving towards change as fast as we’d like in every area.”
Support for Obama, standing with him, wishing him the best and praying for his safety, is not mutually exclusive from the important civic duty of criticizing him, and applying pressure on him to do the right thing, by holding his feet to the fire when he does not.
Obama, while on the campaign trail, reportedly alluded to a comment from FDR purportedly said in response to a group of civil rights activists who met with him to argue their point. “You’ve convinced me,” FDR supposedly told the activists, “Now go out and make me do it.”
Whether FDR actually said that is a matter some dispute, and I was unable to find Obama’s oft-referenced campaign allusion to it. Nonetheless, apocryphal or not, the point is an apt one. We do no favors to Obama, or anybody else, by holding our tongues when there is legitimate criticism to be offered. (Note I say legitimate criticism. The bulk of the nonsense offered by the wingnuts and tea baggers of late, sadly and shamefully, has no relationship whatsoever to fact-based legitimacy.)
There are, no doubt, many on the Left who “snipe” too quickly as they fail to fully appreciate the extent of the various Constitutional and bureaucratic hurdles Obama faces in driving his agenda, not the least of which is a Congressional Democratic caucus which is too-often maddeningly hypocritical, short-sighted and cowardly in addition to being the frequent stooges for their corporate benefactors. Moreover, there is something to be said for taking action in a way that does not echo, and thus legitimize, his predecessor’s penchant for an Imperial Presidency wherein Congressional powers are usurped with the stroke of an Executive pen, even where such actions may have been established as “legitimate” and “legal” by his predecessor’s horrible precedents.
But, at least so far, there remain many points where Obama has failed to bring the bold change he’d promised so fervently, about which legitimate critics are fully within bounds to ‘make him do it’. Indeed, I believe it is every patriotic American’s duty to do just that.
Frank’s language, when he mentioned to Maddow that supporters “had better start speaking up in support of him” is uncomfortably close to Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer’s infamous warning that “all Americans…need to watch what they say, watch what they do”, in response to Bill Maher’s criticism of the Bush Administration following 9/11. Yes, Fleischer’s pulpit (the WH press room podium) and immediate audience (the WH press corps) were very different, but the underlying dark tone of “warming” from both men is equally troubling.
Yesterday, Frank expressed a similar sentiment to that mentioned on Maddow’s show in his piece on Palin earlier in the day:
Where any “friends” of Obama would “trumpet” him as a “failure” at this still-early stage, I’d agree with Frank that such “friends” are indeed rather “juvenile”, as well as short-sighted. But to paint such an overly-broad swath of an “impatient juvenile left” or to warn that “Obama supporters … had better start speaking up in support of him, and not sniping at him all the time”, in apparent disregard of the duty of all of us to do so legitimately — Obama supporter or otherwise — seems short-sighted on its own, and (dare I say it in the most respectful, constructive sense, if it’s possible) even “unAmerican”.
I suspect that sort of thinking and language could remain as a bit of a holdover from Schaeffer’s “radical” days as a far-rightwing leader in a community where those who don’t follow the word of the gospel are seen as a direct threat to the gospel itself. So I offer this well-intentioned criticism in hopes that it might spark either a fresh reflection from the good Mr. Schaeffer (who is, of course, welcome to respond in full here as he sees fit) and/or a spirited debate on these points, including discussion of the sometimes-overly critical and unfair attacks from some on the Left, which I also find to be cringe-worthy from time to time.
Thanks for paying close attention to language, Brad. I believe if more of us had paid serious attention to the language being used by the “Silent”/”Moral” majority years ago (and even to the mainstream evangelical community)a lot of the anger and ignorance we see today would have been recognized a whole lot sooner.
This is for all of you who say: “Oh! You’re just as bad as them! Calling them Teabaggers!”
Tea-bagger enters popular lexicon
MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe discusses the news that the Oxford University Press chose tea-baggers as the runner-up for the 2009 Word of the Year.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/34004419#34004419
DICK Armey and John BOehNER would be proud of the TeaBaggers! And so would Dick Boner.
I’m not trumpeting Obama’s “failure” because he hasn’t “fixed everything” in “just one year.”
I am, on the other hand, calling a right-of center, pro-corporate sell-out that when it’s what I see.
1. Approving the TARP bailout,and taking advice from criminals and idiots who got us into the mess in the first place.
2. Not standing up to the Generals and making some hard decisions about Iraq.
3. Starting the negotiation for a massive health care reform by negotiating against himself and taking single payer off the table before he even started, thereby guaranteeing that we’d end up compromising for a pathetic and limited public option AT BEST.
4. Not getting rid of the Bush appointees in the Justice Department and then taking their advice, like allowing Seligman to be pushed around by the same criminals who put him in jail in the first place, making him no better than Karl Rove.
5. Not prosecuting the hell out of Bush, Cheney and the criminals of the last 8 years.
6. Continuing so many of the illegal activities of the previous administration, as if they were not illegal, and by doing, become culpable.
And the list goes on.
It’s not that Obama hasn’t “fixed everything” in the last year. It’s that except for a few superficial decisions, he hasn’t fixed or even changed ANYTHING.
No, I won’t vote for a disgusting, nut-job Rethuglican in 2012, but I won’t have any trouble sitting on my hands either.
And, maybe if I’m lucky, the Rethuglicans will run a centist, the nut-jobs will run an ultra-rightist, Obama will sit at the center, and somebody (probably not a team-player like Kucinich, but SOMEBODY) will stake out the progressive left and maybe capture 28% in a four-way race and win a symbolic but uncovernable place in the White House, assuming they can get past the politics of the House of Reps. Ahh, to dream.
For those who wish to contact the company to register their rage ( and/or the Secret Service ), the T-shirt company that makes this seditious T is named Zazzle.com
More information about Zazzle:
Zazzle.com
1900 Seaport Blvd
4th Fl
Rewood City, CA 94063
US
Domain Name: ZAZZLE.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact: Barbara Tam(?)
phone: 650-872-8000
also associated with crusaderpatriot
Thank you so much, John Bryans Fontaine! I intend to let them have it…
Wow…seems zazzle has already been duly razzled.
http://blog.zazzle.com/
”
Nice work, everyone.
I know this is about the redigious part of rep. But anyway.
I can’t help but think. That with the Reps labeling Obama as a socialist. They are telling what there biggest fear is. Just like the muslims showed the world, what could hurt them most, under the crisis caused by drawings.
Would be fun to see what happend, if some nobody ran for president and proclaimed himself as a socialist. The reps might spend there funds on getting him alot of free attention in the media.
But would probely not get an invitation to Bilderberg, so no hope for winning anyway.
If you fell that you cannot support President Obama because of what he has not done, Could you at least stand up and raise your voice against the American Taliban?
What is the matter with the rest of us?
What are we not fighting against them? Every time they bring up the Hitler comparison on President Obama, I think of all the people that sat in their homes, did nothing and let Hitler get elected.
Frank Schaffer is right. These loons are dangerous, armed, well funded and organized. They are also deranged.
It is all of ours responsibility to stand up to these people before they take this country over and WE become the enemy of the rest of the world.
Diane @9
Well stated…however most folks are too worried about their jobs or finding a job, keeping their homes and trying to pay exorbitant utility and gas, food costs to get really active.
That’s what happens in times like these. The “powers that be” push the population to the margins and keep us focused on simple survival. it’s the ultimate distraction from their machinations to rob us blind.
Made up media distractions such as Sarah Palin, Levi Johnston, Glenn Beck and Entertainment Tonight keep the duller of us occupied.
Also heinous crime is reported more fervently…that affects our sense of security.
These are all well tested and used distractions to divide the populace. I’ve been hearing a lot about psyops lately…It’s been working well.
Well, I applaud Mr. Schaeffer for his conscience and bravery in calling out these anti-American – and I use that term very deliberately – menaces to our country. Except (mostly) for the brutality of their methods, ‘taliban’ is an appropriate comparison.
It is so exciting to have a president who’s intelligent, thoughtful, capable, and rational. Folks need to take the longer view of Mr. Obama’s young presidency. The hurdles he/we face and the horrendous mess the wrong wing has plopped us into make rapid, substantive change nigh unto impossible. I don’t like the ‘sniping,’ but I see that it’s a feature of our society to want what we want when we want it, and to feel aggrieved when we have to wait a little bit.
Mr. Obama has a job comparable in complexity to what Vladimir Putin (and for that matter, Boris Yeltsin) faced in transitioning Russia out of its totalitarian past. We need to be patient AND supportive of our excellent president. I travel to Russia, and I enjoy not being hated there for Bush and his intellectually rotten ilk. I like my country to be a good world neighbor, and not the cowardly bully the previous administration made us appear to be.
When certain former Soviet states like Ukraine and Georgia underwent their ‘democratic’ transitions, it seemed to me that folks in those countries were impatient for the magic of democracy to improve their individual lives Right Now. That’s not how it works. America has been stuck so deep in the poo by the corporatist and quasi-religious right wing that it’s hard to see the sun. We need to pressure our president to do what’s right for all Americans and for our country as a whole, being supportive and appreciative for what he’s trying to do for us in general.
Mr. Obama is MY president and I’m oh-so proud of my country for electing him. I am not proud of my country for tolerating these dangerous un-American christianists to the extent it does. We’ll be sorry when their true colors – evil black and blood-red – act in ways sure to harm us all. Harm us again, I mean…
Chris @11
Well said….