I first read this in a Kos diary. Digby sent me to the original post at Stories in America. The author is a liberal journalist who is driving around America interviewing, il Ducetto’s “base” (the word translates to “al-quaeda” in Arabic).
What do you like about Bush?
He's a praying man of god. He's a family man and he does care. He gets blamed for everything. If this country would turn back to god, things would get better. You can't go on killing babies and allowing homosexual stuff to stay. We do love the people, but we don't love their actions. [--snip--]
What does it mean to be a Republican?
Republicans pick the people who believe like we do.
You mean believe in the Bible?
Yes and godly principles. If we kick god out, we'll be like other countries that have AIDS, sickness and poverty. God created the earth, he created the rules and he knows what's best for everybody.
Unfortunately, we have AIDS, sickness and poverty in this country.
Yes, because we allow homosexuality.
You blame homosexuality for AIDS, sickness and poverty?
Well, sometimes people are innocent. This nation is in trouble. The ACLU are run by communists and funded by communists. What does that tell you? They want to take god away from us.
As a Christian, let us assure Mrs. Fowler that we feel much the same way about you: we hate the horrible and perverse sin you commit by your allegiance to il Ducetto and the Republican party, but as a sister in Christ we love you and pray that you soon will turn away from the evil path on which you walk in willing ignorance. Everyday we pray for sinners like you.
As a queer, let us observe that the Republican Red Christians have cornered the market on political organization through bigotry and hate – even if the blues wished to organize that way, they could never be as effective as Pat Robertson and Karl Rove. So it would it hurt Democrats to call Red politicians on their hatred. Could we run a few candidates in red enclaves who explicitly say things like –
My opponent is going to use a lot of code words in this campaign – he’s going to say that he’s a praying man of god who will keep you safe from queers and end abortion tomorrow. And he’s going to imply that I’m not the Christian he is. Well I’ll just spare him the expense of the attack ads and get it out of the way right now. I am not the Christian he is. I don’t believe in a Jesus who died so we could hate and fear. The Redeemer I pray to is about love and hope and his preachers don’t pretend to have a market on all that is right and wrong with the world – much less their congressional district. So if you let the 700 Club do your thinking about politics for you – and you don’t mind that they seem to think politics is all about hating folks you haven’t met – then you vote for my opponent.
I happen to think you’re better than that. I happen to think you care about why prices for gas are so high and wages aren’t going anywhere even though corporations keep saying their profits are up. I happen to think you care about your kids getting a decent education – by which I do not mean taking a test set by some bureacrat in Washington, D.C. every six weeks. I think you care about getting decent healthcare and wonder why we can afford to pay Halliburton for work it doesn’t do in Iraq when we can’t afford to pay for the medicines our doctors say we need right here at home. I think you care about social security and you’re terrified that all the so-called experts in Washington are willing to ruin your retirment security for the sake of some political game that you’re not even playing. If you want to talk about these issues, great.
If you’d rather pray to a Jesus of fear and hate, you go talk to my opponent – he’s got a lullaby about queers and abortion to sing you to sleep – when you wake up you’ll have lost your social security, Iraq will still be a mess, the schools will be falling apart and all you’ll have left, if your lucky enough to spend your retirement working at Wal-Mart, is the politics of hate he’s stuffed you with. He’s like a child sticking fingers in his ears and shouting, “I can’t hear you,” because he actually can hear you and he’s terrified because he knows he has nothing to say, he’s wrong and he’s been caught. So he’s standing in the corner with he fingers in his ears shouting, “JESUS, QUEERS & ABORTION.” I’ll pray for him, but I’m not going to play his game.
Now if you want to talk about social security, I’ve got something to say to you and I’d appreciate hearing what you think about it…..
Just our opinion. But we note that Paul Hackett appears to have suffered very little by speaking his mind in the reddest corners of Ohio.
