What’s one more child molester in the Senate?
Evangelicals have some very odd priorities.
Penny Young Nance, CEO of the evangelical group Concerned Women for America, told NPR on Monday that the most important issue in the Alabama Senate race is Democratic candidate Doug Jones’ support of abortion, and not whether Republican candidate Roy Moore is a pedophile.
I realize that evangelicals have decided to pretend to think that a fertilized egg is a thinking feeling planning hoping human being as opposed to a process that will become a thinking feeling planning hoping human being, but still. It seems pretty odd to be that indifferent to the well-being of thinking feeling planning hoping young girls.
NPR’s Steve Inskeep asked Nance on Monday if Moore is “worthy of being in the Senate” after eight women came forward to accuse Moore of sexual misconduct when they were as young as 14.
“That’s a question for the people of Alabama,” Nance opined. “Unfortunately, the Democrats could have won this handily if they had been willing to put forward a pro-life Democrat.”
If only the Democrats had been willing to force women to continue unwanted pregnancies, they could have had that fun trip to Disneyland, but no, they had to go and spoil it.
So Democrats could’ve sewn this one up if they’d nominated a Republican. Got it.
This has been an all too common theme among pundits analyzing the last election. If the Democrats would just quit focusing on “identity politics” and be more responsive to the [white, male, straight] average voter, they would have beat the Donald. In short, in order to pull a few votes from a group that will never mark a ballot for the candidate with (D) beside their name (especially if said candidate is a woman), they are supposed to throw over their base, the loyal people who vote for them consistently. And, of course, this is also saying that the [non-white, non-male, non-straight] “identity” voter is less important, and can just be flung away at will, because what really matters is these [angry white male] voters.
Identity politics, anybody?
https://ofliberalintent.com/blog/2017/8/1/identity-politics
35-40 years ago when I was an evangelical, I was constantly hearing about how we (well, mostly American, which left me out) needed to elect Godly men who would lead the country back to righteousness. Which seemed fine to me, if “Godly” meant things like non-corrupt, trustworthy, willing to work selflessly to the benefit of the people (especially the most disadvantaged). You know, stuff like you can find in the words of Jesus. Abortion was on the radar, but wasn’t the only issue. However I couldn’t help noticing that it also seemed to include a healthy dose of American exceptionalism and rah-rah for capitalism, which struck me as rather an incongruous, even heretical, bolt-on.
Then my former brethren went and supported Trump, and now Moore. And it becomes clear that they never meant a word about the ethical part; it was always about the exceptionalism (and covertly then but overtly now, white privilege). And abortion is just the issue used to rationalize it all. Fucking whited sepulchres.
If only the Democrats were actually all Republicans!
Also, isn’t it strange that when it was Hillary, one of the biggest claims against her was that she was alleged to be involved in a paedophile sex ring in the basement of a pizza joint. It’s hard to fathom the sheer lack of self awareness that goes into being a conservative these days; massively fanciful paedophilia is bad when it is a Democrat candidate, but serious and well-supported real paedophilia is not a worry when considering a Republican.
Holms, I have a few friends and associates of a conservative persuasion. They have long tried to maintain that conservatism is a philosophy that is a unique (and superior) blend of rigorous philosophy, business pragmatism, individual rights and responsible care for the less fortunate. Maybe it was once (maybe), but certainly not in my lifetime. I’ve taken rather uncharitably to laughing in their faces now when they try that line. Most of them have the good grace to look embarrassed and shuffle their feet. They know that, even here, the conservative movement has become a haven for racists, misogynists, the religious right, libertarians who care about nothing but themselves, climate change deniers and people who are just generally angry. Perhaps worst of all, so many of their supporters no longer give a damn about observable facts.
Republican candidate: “Political correctness is out of control and oppressing white men! There is a War on Christmas! It offends my Christian values to have to acknowledge that gay people can get married! We need to Make America Great Again, like it was in the [1950s/1850s]”
Democractic candidate: “Everybody in America deserves the opportunity to get a quality education. No American should have to go without food or housing or health care. All Americans should pay their fair share of taxes to support the services from which we all benefit as a society. Oh, and people shouldn’t have to put up with sexual harassment in the workplace.”
Political pundit: “Well, once again we see the Democrats focusing on identity politics, while Republicans speak to the issues that regular Americans are concerned about.”
“Responsible care for the less fortunate.”
Good one.
Ben, I know. That one is so unfunny I want to kick them in the shins, having grown up in less than fortunate circumstances (although having said that it could have been much much worse).