Rick Santorum: the Too Far Right’s Radical Dominionist Theolotican on a Dangerous Rip

Disclaimer: The right to one's religious beliefs is a sacred aspect of our American Values.

However, when one religious sect, organization, or leader begins to trespass against the Founding Freedoms (even egregiously misquoting and misrepresenting the Founders' words and intentions), which we have enjoyed as a nation, established around a carefully crafted secular governmental structure, then it is time to ask citizens of this nation--of whatever faith or no-faith--to earnestly attempt to determine if this kind of relio-political theolotics is acceptable for the entire public.

Ask whether such intrusions should be passed over when our votes are cast for representation in civic government? If these radicals take a path of study and research and their mounted crusade becomes onerous to such parties as may want to preserve America's historic separation of church and state. Now we must reject these who may be attempting to radically co-opt government for their form of theocracy, claiming that any rejection of their erroneous attempts to religiously inject religion into government is a process of anti-Christian persecution of themselves. Calling themselves "persecuted" over their promotion of such radical ideology is an expected protective reaction and a typical defensive tactic-in itself erroneous and incorrect.

Rick Santorum is undermining the stature of the Roman Catholic Church in America and is engendering a backlash of Know Nothing blow-back reminiscent of the KKK ugly anti-Catholicism of the 1920's.

If only the more sensible American Catholic Bishops could guide Sen. Santorum back to basic truth-telling and the vital balance necessary for the preservation of universal religious tolerance--the mature attitude we have striven as a country to achieve for so many decades.

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Rick Santorum is a Christian Nationalist. He supports a "Christian" America, he, as other Christian Nationalists, refuses to accept separation of church and state, and they are bound to continue to set out to mold, force, the rest of society to conform to their peculiar and specific sense of what is morally right and wrong-both politically and religiously. They're prime backers of the Right-to-tell-you-how-to-run-your-life-for-you crowd which is mounting its church-based efforts to Christianize American society. Sen. Santorum and such groups hold a theocratic and narrow definition of Christianity and morals based in historic Fundamentalistic, Strict Catholics, and capitalistic Calvinism. This is best exposed in Sen. Santorum's blatant attack on "mainline" Protestant churches, whom Rick claims are at the end of their influence and purposes-no longer "Christian."

Many of the religious far right are strident Puritans akin to that of the John Calvin's Geneva during the fifteenth century. Another part of the "values voters block" include individuals such as Santorum, who is symptomatic of the crusading uber-Catholic conservatives who want to see Roman Catholicism made dominate in America. This group includes Ann Arbor's Tom Monaghan of Dominoes fame. Monaghan has created distinct enclaves of "pure" traditional Roman Catholic belief, such institutions as the Ava Maria University in his idyllic theoloplis Florida town, Ava Maria, east of Naples. Tom Monaghan, Ave Maria's founder, has been criticized in the press for proposing that contraceptives, abortion, and pornography be banned from the university and the town itself. In 2007, Monaghan drew criticism from Catholics both inside and outside the university when he removed theologian Joseph Fessio as provost.

Mr. Monaghan is reputed to be a member of Opus Dei and has been aligned with a number of other very conservative Catholic organizations and causes. Santorum is a close ally of ,if not a member of Opus Dei. Both Monaghan and Santorum are knights of magistral grace in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Monaghan materials here are drawn from Wikipedia).

On the Reader:
See "Opus Delusional: Santorum - God’s Avenger" - "St. Santorum Fails the Defender of Truth Test" and more on Rick Santorum and the 2012 GOP Primary.

Response to religious right use of religion in politics in "Let the government be the government & Let the church be the church".


Original.

High up in Jim Crow’s Nest: Constant Cawing Incites Civic Upheaval by the Detroit News - Michigan View

What is the cure for the angst infusing The Detroit News' Jim Crowism? First let's look at their loud rancorous screeching spreading race related fear.

Detroit News' Jim Crower answer for Detroit's inner city, according to Gannett's select cynics, is to starve them out, cut them off from assistance, send more to prison, force them to become religious, make life/survival so miserable and oppressive they will either behave, or move away. Or it may be, take over the infrastructure and force social change by total economic dictatorship via Emergency Management , [a system akin to "embezzlement by fiat," (authoritative order)] by which TeaPartisans have legalized and enacted targeted legislation which effectively cheats the citizens of urban Detroit out of their city's assets and valuable infrastructure via legal and corporate cannibalization. (Think privatize for profit: Cobo Hall, corporatize and privately operate Metro Detroit's International Airport, push the Detroit Waterworks under suburban control/ownership, strip the Detroit Institute of Art of its treasures, etc.)

Iconic Civil Rights photo by native Detroiter the late Bill Hudson (AP/UPI)
of Firefighters turning their hoses full force on demonstrators July 15, 1963 in Birmingham, AL.

The use of the "police-power" of law and enactment of radical legislation to set back and derail voter rights and disfranchise citizens of color shanks citizens who once had the right to be equal partners in their own governmental affairs only since the late 1960's (and then only by Supreme Court Order and Congressional action).

This is wrong. Dangerously wrong.

Jim Crowers certifying a permanent underclass by default: We now have a tribe of individuals so much isolated, inbred, cut off from the culture and the wider thinking, the manners and morals of the greater society of the state of Michigan as to be crassly and effectively become classified (by the Jim Crowers) as "homo sapiens detroitsis urbanus." A de facto mythical, degrading classification for a morphological, politically differentiated population.

So out of those in the universe of the Jim Crow crowd (race fearful who create by editorial slams, thinly disguised diatribe, and prejudice) arises a strong case for creating a de facto new classification of Detroit's inner city human beings (using the power of their media). It makes perfectly svengali sense. Theirs isn't a collaborative, progressive or humane effort. Their goals are not charity and human understanding or compassion. They strive outrageously for only political and cultural advantage. They seek a "bar talk" milquetoast excuse for their racial indifference and separateness.

The Jim Crower's use of statistics, alarming anecdotal news stories, religious conclusions, or ideological prattle has made it easy to practice and separate out an entire population from, and aside from, the vastly superior "others" they believe themselves to be. The Jim Crow branding of urban Detroiters as the mythical, deridable "homo sapiens detroitsis urbanus" is not only wrong, it is ultimately evil.

Segregation's bitter taste in the Jim Crow South (National Archives)

Such de facto labeling becomes a means by which to justify the harsh and aggressive attitudes and laws now being created to control and subjugate their economic and social gulag. It becomes a means of avoiding contact, fostering further isolation, and inveighing against and diminishing the necessary and vital economic underpinning for any hope for a better tomorrow no matter how long it takes to arrive.

"Ita finitima sunt falsa veris, ut in præcipitem locum non debeat se sapiens committere"-
"Falsehood often borders so nearly on the truth that a wise man should not trust himself to the precipice."
-- Cicero

Detroit has effectively become a TeaPartisan "Plantation" and its inhabitants are being relegated to a sub-standard group of disinherited citizens (indentured servants, or worse) who are considered and characterized by Jim Crowers unable or unwilling to fend for themselves. As a lawless and amoral society( as often described by Jim Crowers) there is a need for dictatorial leadership and direct executive control of the kind that comes down from Gov. Snyder and Andy Dillion via the all encompassing powers delegated to the Emergency (Finance) Manager.

Do these savants understand what they have done to themselves by the way of taking on the ongoing ownership and sole responsibility for Detroit? What then?

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The Business Leaders for Michigan, Rick Snyder, and the TeaPublican faction of the Michigan GOP aren't capable of staying the course to any reasonable outcome. It's an unmitigated and endless democratic disaster if future efforts in terms of state funding and personal investment (in pro-active involvement don't far exceed past efforts by these elements) are not put in place. Snyder's Detroit re-invention may be the perfect academic "worse case" study for poly sci majors far into the future.

The Crow's Nesters need to heed sage advice- "ex vitio alterius sapiens emendat suum - from the mistake of the other man, the wise man corrects his own."

Parting Note: Gannett's published stance published via its editorial statement, printed 1958, presented The Detroit News as a publication that is "consistently conservative on economic issues and consistently liberal on civil liberties issues."

Where is The News today based on this stance? Anyone's guess. But it's crystal clear currently "civil liberties" have been "consistently" put aside.


Background Reading: 
Recent examples of these behaviors on the Detroit News/Michigan View by Nolan Finley - Michigan is breeding poverty (February 12, 2012) - If life's cheap, murder's not news (February 5, 2012) - Michigan to end welfare as a career choice (October 7, 2011) - The three I’s of Detroit's decline (September 19, 2010) and by Henry Payne - Send 'em to Cranbrook (January 17, 2012) - The real crime (January 17, 2012) - Peters’ failed compassion (October 4, 2011) - MackGOP: The Republican fence (September 25, 2011) - Welfare trap = wealth gap (August 25, 2011 ) and an old piece by Payne in the National Review "Eminem’s Real Detroit" (November 18, 2002).  Also last posting by "the Blog Prof", aka Chris Kobus, now a frequent contributor on the Michigan View (WARNING Disturbing Content).

On the Reader:
Responses to racism on the Gazette - "RACE as the GOP’s Dog Whistle Political “Tool”" - "Michissippi: A Rotten State of Affairs - A Brief Overview" and "Déjà Vu (Part 2): Buchanan's Pitch of Racial Undertones - "Suicide of a Superpower" a GOP Dog Whistle"

Original.

Opus Delusional: Santorum - God’s Avenger

A Rick Santorum led "Opus of Delusions," whip roiling the "Madness of Crowds," is but a toehold clue (insight) on a larger more dangerous rad religious right "crusade" to purify America and rectify the moral defects of modern society. Heading up such a "drive" Santorum has risen to stand against the majority. America, this spring is host to the "theater of the absurd" and the highly inflammable.

Rick Santorum has lit the fuse on a ticking bomb of renewed religious bigotry and sharp sectarianism. His efforts if allowed to metastasize can poison the well in the commons for all of America.

Allowing Santorum's crusade to succeed is to see the religious cultural war-as rudely introduced to politics by radical Catholic Pat Buchanan at the Houston GOP National Convention, 1994, is alarming. Buchanan's infamous presentation of "Cultural War" (as a political goal) engulfed this nation in an apocryphal fury which, still smoldering, will and can tear asunder American's unifying social and cultural fabric.

"We go out of our course to make ourselves uncomfortable; the cup of life is not bitter enough to our palate, and we distill superfluous poison to put into it, or conjure up hideous things to frighten ourselves at, which would never exist if we did not make them."
-- Scottish journalist Charles Mackay

The astute observer will conclude the Religious Rightist called together as "the Texas 150" met and anointed Rick Santorum as their choice for GOP nominee. Santorum is "God's man" to be elected by their "social conservatives"- the so-called "values voters." This religious cabal of autonomous religious authority figures (and the flocks they command) are driven by what has been described elsewhere: "a binary, Manichean vision of life and a hunger for conflict."

As a group, these devote religionists (cum political powers) have a highly malleable command in hectoring the religious voting block: "Their minds appear to have no more give and take than that of a terrier staring down a rat hole," that is, they continence "no compromise" on their issue no hint of dissuasion. Note, their loyalty and their commitment to a distinct set of "social issues" (to which they are called to support by their aggressive religious leadership) is without equal. Mediocre in their vote-getting efforts, they are not!

Albrecht Durer woodcutting "The Penitent" (1510) which
shows a man scourging himself (British Museum).

Suffering Santorum ("santorum" literally means "saint") & the Martyr’s Complex

This quote is the verbatim claim of candidate Santorum describing how American institutions and our nation's way of life are falling to evil forces:

"This is not a political war at all. This is not a cultural war at all. This is a spiritual war."

"And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies, Satan, would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age?"

Take Note: This is not a "dog whistle, it's a disaster siren to his base: Rick Santorum isn't about politics per se; in his mindset he's all about serving God and suffering for one's beliefs. Religious fervor buoys Rick and his social conservative supporters (who project into the politics of such candidates as George W. Bush, and now specifically, Rick Santorum) their fears of evil and the unknown which they harbor and labor under.

Rick's surname is a term derived from Latin meaning: "connected to someone acting as a saint, or who has connection with religious things (a sacristan)." What a perfect candidate for a kind of "martyrdom" in a hostile political arena. Yet Santorum seems to be saying: Bring it on!

For Sen. Santorum and his "values voters following" modernity, technology, and science are very spiritually threatening. Fighting off these threats feeds driving motivations for the aggressive religious right's desperate commitment to be "winning for Jesus." It all centers in promoting their exclusive, banded, "Jesus polices." This fanatical faction expects national leadership and policy to flow from their man once ensconced in White House. With close observation, we can extrapolate a partial portfolio of their prime goals and aims in this crusade. It's not a comforting picture.

The hot winds of a swilling and rabid religious storm are following, surrounding and supporting the front -running GOP candidate, Rick Santorum. Out of this storm we see that Rick has assumed role similar to that of one Father Coughlin of the troubled and turbulent 1930's, a cleric and strict Catholic. Coughlin was an arch-provocateur and agitator riling the fears and paranoia of religious conservatives. Eventually Father Coughlin crossed the line and his ranting was unplugged, long after deep damage was done to the country.

Coughlin's 1930's flock of extremists believed in no compromise. Coughlin's militant crusaders and fans were individuals for whom the Devil is real and the Devil's disciples are both identifiable and clear targets (think: liberals, secularists, 1960's activists), enemies perfectly attacked as the "enemies of God's people " and even "enemies of God himself." These terms were part and parcel of Dr. James Dobson's attack on Congress's judicial appointments and Sen. Patrick Leahy, all who opposed Dobson's intrusion into the process with his church based /national crusade designed to skew the SOUS appointment process toward the religious, extreme right's wishes.

Identify Santorum as a man lost in a one dimensionist's moral delusion, conceiving of only stark Black or lily White, he's Manichean. "Manichean" is widely applied as an adjective to a philosophy or attitude of moral dualism, according to which a moral course of action involves a clear (or simplistic) choice between good and evil, or as a noun to people who hold such a view." (Wikipedia)

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Operating in the religio-political arena which the "spiritual" leadership of Protestant-based Moral Majority remnants (ala Jerry Falwell) engendered are folk who can be moved by panic stampede. Appealing to them we now find Santorum. This faction, led by Tim LaHaye (still in the business of religious king-making) wants to mount Santorum's kind of red-meat political slug-fest. Santorum willingly provides fodder-hate radio style.

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."
-- Scottish journalist Charles Mackay (who warned and informed his readers of "the madness of crowds.")

On the Reader:
See Also: "Diehard Fundamentalist Evangelicals & Pentecostals have essentially a no-choice “choice” for GOP Candidate for President"and "St. Santorum Fails the Defender of Truth Test".
More on Rick Santorum and the candidates in the 2012 GOP Presidential Primary on the Gazette.

Original PART 1 and PART 2.

Déjà Vu (Part 2): Buchanan's Pitch of Racial Undertones - "Suicide of a Superpower" a GOP Dog Whistle

MSNBC Sacked Pat Buchanan - Why? His "Suicide of a Superpower" & other of Pat's - Dusty Books (filled with racism, and bigotry) have found their way into the subtext of GOP Candidate's stump speeches and unscripted comments: Too much renewed interest in Buchanan’s racist & anti-immigrant rants, raises public awareness of the GOP’s "dog whistle" use of race as a  conservative voter stimulant. This harms the unity of the country and even dooms the GOP candidate in November, whoever he is.

Continued commentary on the struggles of the religious right with their candidates in the GOP Presidential Primary with comparisons back to 1996 campaign of Pat Buchanan. Pat has acted as a tapeworm in the bowels of our body politic for a very, very long time. His Cultural War speech in Houston, 1992 was but one strong example of how his exulted hyperbole and propensity for partisan fisticuffs has bruised our republic-with all respect to free speech.

"I'm like a Jesuit missionary to the Iroquois over there (at MSNBC)"
-- Excerpted from Buchanan's mea culpa to Glenn Beck concerning his (former) employment at MSNBC (10/28/11)

Ironic that the old Cultural Warrior and Race Baiter would use this analogy: The Iroquois being "an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America. (T)he Iroquoian... coalesced as distinct tribes, by the 16th century or earlier, they came together in an association known today as the Iroquois League, or the 'League of Peace and Power.'" (Wiki)

SEE ALSO PART 1 - Déjà Vu All Over Again: A Flashback to Another Fiery & Bizarre Michigan GOP Primary

Been here before: "The Suicide of the West" by former Marxist,
turned radical right conservative author James Burnham (1964)

AAP's David Bauder, AP Television Writer, reported (2.17.12):

"MSNBC dropped conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on Thursday, four months after suspending him following the publication of his latest book.

"Buchanan's "book "Suicide of a Superpower" contained chapters titled "The End of White America" and "The Death of Christian America." Critics called the book racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic, charges Buchanan denied.

"MSNBC President Phil Griffin said last month that he didn't think Buchanan's book "should be part of the national dialogue, much less part of the dialogue on MSNBC."

See also this video clip of Pat Buchanan as he ruminates with Glenn Beck, who pontificates to Pat that President Obama is a "Marxist" while pitching his latest book "Suicide of a Superpower".

Power of the apocalypse: Tools of right wing encoded messaging
and political power in Buchanan's "Suicide of a Superpower"

Buchanan's recent chapter, "The Death of White America" is a textbook example of "dog whistle" and "bat language" to radicalized Republicans promoting racial fears. And should be outed for what it is.

The old warrior has fallen on his own sword.

Pat Buchanan Trumpets “The End of White America”

Pat Buchanan's key jabs, quotes, and factoids are often "clip and paste" in a clever and twisted manner from liberal or progressive sources to aggregate them cleverly into his edgyand provocative, radical racist premise found in his 2011 book, Suicide of a Superpower.

The following points taken from Buchanan's chapter four entitled "The End of White America":

• The Year 2042 is "the white peoples deadline," engenders the fears in the white minority
• Race is the real source of the over-the-top rage
• Beginnings of a 30 year racial struggle
• The Tea Party's Town Hall events were almost all white.
• What is coming is a "national existential reordering"; May cause "some Americans run off the rails"
• Last gasp of White America..."your time is limited, real damn limited..."
• "As long as you think you are white there is no hope for you" " co-opting Baldwin's quote
• Obama's 2008 victory-Payback for white bigotry
• 2009 Blue collared men have lost pace;-Blue collared white men have lost the largerportion of jobs (510K jobs lost), 17% of illegal aliens now own jobs
• Plurality of Americans lost confidence in the Federal Government
• Election sweep in 2010: WHITES MADE UP OVER 3/4ths of the vote nationally, In the South 2010, Whites voted Republican 73 to 27 Democratic
• White Democratic national congressmen from the Deep South are close to becoming extinct
• If there's an epicenter of angst it is "among Whites without college degrees" 64% of whom blamed the government in Washington

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"The atmosphere in this recording is, as you may expect, dark, grim, apocalyptic."

Source: Alternative Right (Alternative Right's founder, Richard B. Spencer, was formerly an editor at The American Conservative magazine and Taki's Magazine. AltRight became a media project of the National Policy Institute).

Pat Buchanan is...

"(t)he author of six New York Times bestsellers traces the disintegration to three historic changes: America's loss of her cradle faith, Christianity; the moral, social, and cultural collapse that have followed from that loss; and the slow death of the people who created and ruled the nation.

"America was born a Western Christian republic, writes Buchanan, but is being transformed into a multiracial, multicultural, multilingual, multiethnic stew of a nation that has no successful precedent in the history of the world.

"'Where once we celebrated the unity, the melting pot and shared experience, that the Depression and World War gave us, our elites today proclaim, 'OUR DIVERSITY IS OUR GREATEST STRENGTH!'- EVEN AS RACIAL, RELIGIOUS, AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY ARE TEARING NATIONS TO PIECES.'
(emphasis added)

Buchanan book quotes:

"'Rejecting the commitment to a God-given equality of rights for all as inadequate, our government is engaged in the manic pursuit of equality of rewards, as it seeks to erect an egalitarian utopia that has never before existed. Less and less do we Americans have in common. More and more do we fight over religion, morality, politics, history, and heroes.

And as our nation disintegrates, our government is failing in its fundamental duties, unable to defend our borders, balance our budgets, or win our wars.'

"How Americans are killing the country they profess to love, and the fate that awaits us if we do not turn around, is what Suicide of a Superpower is all about."

Source: Amazon Book Description

Back to the future: Pat Buchanan's version
of Burnham's sixties spirit in "The Death of the West" (2001)

Couching his ruminations and anger in religious terms and emotions, Buchanan tries to seed great fear and anxiety into the minds of the country, specifically targeting the minds and emotions of the radical religious right - a vocal mob who are the most reliable GOP base, the uber-loyal voting bloc, the angry Teapartisans of 2010.

Currently Rad Religious Radicals are seeking a way forward out of a disoriented electorate embarrassing itself here in the spring of 2012, behind all of that confusion and angst is a strand of Buchanan's race fear.


Background Reading:
James Burnham, author of "The Suicide of the West" (1964) just one of many quotes from Burnham:

"Modern liberalism, for most liberals, is not a consciously understood set of rational beliefs but a bundle of unexamined prejudices and conjoined sentiments. The basic ideas and beliefs seem more satisfactory when they are not made fully explicit, when they merely lurk rather obscurely in the background, coloring the rhetoric and adding a certain emotive glow."
-- James Burnham in The Suicide of the West (1964)

In a later book, "The Machiavellians", [James Burnham] argued and developed his theory that the emerging new elite would better serve its own interests if it retained some democratic trappings - political opposition, a free press, and a controlled 'circulation of the elites'." (Wiki)


Review of "Suicide of the West" by Morton Blackwell at the conservative "Leadership Institute":

"First published in the early sixties, "Suicide of the West" is a withering indictment of liberalism.  Far from serving as a bulwark against communism, liberalism, Burnham shows, is the ideology of Western suicide, communism in its preliminary stage.  Though Soviet communism has collapsed, liberalism remains, and as long as it does, Suicide of the West should be read by conservatives."

On the Reader:
A series of articles on Pat Buchanan over the years at The New Republic (1990-2009). Also Pat Buchanan book "The Death of the West" (2000) read a synopsis.

The Integration of Theory and Practice: A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement by Eric Heubeck based on the writing and teaching of Paul Weyrich founder of the Heritage Foundation, CNP, ALEC and a number of other right wing institutions, on the complete defeat of "the Left" referred to by Newt Gingrich as "replacement of the Left".

PART 1 - Déjà Vu All Over Again: A Flashback to Another Fiery & Bizarre Michigan GOP Primary


Original Part 2A and Part 2B.

Déjà Vu All Over Again: A Flashback to Another Fiery & Bizarre Michigan GOP Primary

As this year's Michigan Republican Presidential primary 'cynical circus' approaches next month (March) it might be a good time to take a look back at a little history. Many of the same feats were performed in the past that can be observed in this cycle's 'circus'. What is to be learned from that history? Let's take a look and see how it informs us and applies today.

Harold Meyerson's classic print piece takes us down memory lane with a master provocateur and raconteur. It was candidate Pat Buchanan on the stump in southeast Michigan vamping for populist support to underpin and boost his fading bid to be President of the U.S. It was St. Pat playing to the workers of Michigan like a virtuoso strummer on a two string guitar with a silver tongued pick.

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It’s the Michigan GOP silly season of primary voting as wackos escalate. That short  period when the more and more radicalized Four Horsemen of the Rad-Right Apocalypse will gallop about the state in full Crusader armor/regalia.  They will loudly pontificate with unholy god-speak, aggrandizing/dangerous hyperbole, and “drown the government” psyco-talk.

STOP!

Let’s step back and take the long view, the common sense inhale, and consider the history of social /cultural warfare in Michigan the home of Father Charles E. Coughlin and the dusty bramble of George Wallace and Patrick Buchanan on the hustings.

We’ve seen it before, it’s happened over and over and this ride is but one more plunge into the muck of racism, despair, corporate disinformation, and wild media ads and blitz. Stay in control of your disbelief.

(Ted Soqui Metro Times) Original Caption -
"Bully Pulpit: A tremendous performer on the stump, Pat Buchanan
holds rallies that are like nothing else in American politics today."

In 1996, any sensational, shocking cord Pat could hit, he would, he did !

Writer and Opinionator Harold Meyerson penned "St. Pat's Day" in the Mar. 21-27, 1996, Metro Times Detroit a concise clip: "Pat Buchanan, avenging angel of the white working class, guns for the conservative elite."  Meyerson's assessment:

"Buchanan himself is uncomfortable with his leftward march--"We're moving onto terra nova here," he tells me early on. Mainstream American conservatism has always been more capitalist than traditionalist, placing a higher value on corporate freedom than on the claims of community.

With the globalization of once-American corporations, though, Buchanan has shifted himself onto the community side. "This libertarian strain of conservatism has really gone too far," he tells me. "The worship of the great god Efficiency has gone too far. And the indifference to the impact on communities and families and towns of this rapid, turbo-charged global economy and accelerated change--you just want to say, 'Stop! What is it we are celebrating?'"

Pat Buchanan: "Maximum efficiency and the tremendous change that capitalism engenders is having a devastating impact on the other values we're supposed to cherish."

"Buchanan talks the language of class warfare more bluntly than any other American politician--emphatically including Democrats. For Buchanan, it's the ability of corporations to pay 10 cents an hour in China for work that Americans used to perform that's at the heart of the brave new world economy. "That's why middle-class incomes are stagnating while profits soar. They're pocketing the difference!"

(Break)

"We need an equalization tax with some countries," he told me, "especially some countries that have very able labor forces but very, very low pay. You know, many of the countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Mexico and Latin America."

(Break)

Buchanan's lunch with UAW members (1996) in LaPeer, just outside Flint--site of the 1937 sit-in where workers won their first contract with GM, and in some sense, then, the birthplace of both the CIO and of America's middle-class majority--is a LESS THAN OVERWHELMING AFFAIR. ONLY 40 AUTO WORKERS ARE PRESENT, NONE OF THEM SO MUCH AS A LOCAL SHOP STEWARD.

(Break)

Buchanan's union supporters are invariably two-fers: they're also drawn to him because they loathe gun control, or favor home schooling, or dread affirmative action, or believe abortion is a sin.

The gap that has opened between Buchanan and (Newt) Gingrich, say, on economics is huge. No public figure is more committed to the agenda of America's multinationals than the Speaker. No public official is less committed to that agenda than Buchanan, even though he still favors a Gingrich-like deregulatory agenda here at home.

(Break)

How much room there is for compromise is another question. The Republican Party cannot easily repudiate free trade, nor Buchanan embrace it. At the level of fundamental ideology, Buchanan is not likely to transform the GOP from Gingrich's hypercapitalism to his own ASSERTIVE NATIONALISM.

Like Coughlin, Long and Wallace, Buchanan has become a distinct third force in American politics, outside the camp of either party. What's distressing is that there doesn't seem to be a first force."(emphasis added)

Concluded Meyerson:

"In the mid-1930s, historian Steven Fraser has written, German- and Polish- and slavic-Americans could turn on the radio and choose between the social conservatism of Father Coughlin and the social democracy of John L. Lewis, father of the CIO. In the mid-'90s, when the economic crisis takes the form not of unemployment but of declining incomes, the heir to Father Coughlin is alive and well, tromping through California all this week. (That candidate was cultural warrior, Patrick Buchanan)

The heirs of John L. Lewis have a ways to go yet: the new leadership of the union movement is just embarking on a long journey of reconstruction, while the Democratic president (Bill Clinton) prescribes only more training to restore the living standards of America's workers.

(Break)

Buchanan's answer...resonates...deeply in some pockets of working-class America. And as the world market continues to wreak havoc among American workers, as the potential for xenophobia continues to mount, Buchananism may grow stronger yet. Defeated in the primaries, he is not yet done cashing in on the promise of Coughlin and Wallace."

In the 2012 Primaries - GOP Paranoia Spreading like Kudzu


On the eve of the traveling cynical circus, media mash (made up of the four remaining major GOP presidential primary candidates) begins its sweep across Michigan in search of delegates, Meyerson's throw back to the era of Pat Buchanan (with its: rabble rousing, stoking the fires of anger & fear, blames-laying and hyperbole) strikes a baseline for such Michigan based political events.

Buchanan's fictional exaggerations are both a guide, a stern warning, an archetypical example of the extremes emanating from the drive to defeat an opponent and rally that netherworld of dangerous provocation believed to be needed to harvest votes-regardless of fact or civic virtue.

Application to this cycle's Michigan’s GOP Primary
Just as George Wallace's shocking Michigan primary victory was able to garner the angst of Michigan workers and appeal to their racial and religious distrust and fear, and as Father Coughlin’s tirades and bombast.  He was the fiery broadcast  Catholic priest (leader of a huge populist following out of Michigan's Royal Oak) who could stir men to radicalism; moving from one "enemy," one strawman to another, moving as a powerful negative yet compelling religio-political voice.

There's warning and prophetic meaning here in Meyerson's report; enough to temper and shape the impact of this ongoing campaign characterized by James Marshall Crotty (as published by Forbes Magazine) in "Why Do Republicans Gleefully Embrace Idiots as Presidential Candidates?":

"The question naturally begs a larger question: How can a country, with the world's highest national GDP, and absurdly complex systems regulating everything from credit default swaps to nuclear missile safety, possibly allow onto its national stage men and women of such transparently inferior intellect?

"The easy answer is that there has always been a long, pathetic history of anti-intellectual paranoia in American politics, as Richard Hofstadter documented in his book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963). It is like kudzu. You just can't kill it. No matter how advanced the U.S. becomes in technology, biomedicine, and weaponry, it not only attracts, but promotes, under the rubric of equal opportunity, a confederacy of dunces as Presidential candidates."

Michigan must learn not to suffer fools.

This is PART 1 of 2: 
See also Déjà Vu (Part 2): Buchanan's Pitch of Racial Undertones - "Suicide of a Superpower" a GOP Dog Whistle

Recommended Reading:
More on Hofstadter and anti-intellectualism recently - an interesting review and contrast of Richard Hofstadter’s 'Anti-intellectualism in American Life' and Susan Jacoby’s 'The Age of  American Unreason' and a Jacoby interview with Bill Moyers. Also,listen to Michigan's 1930's firebrand Father Coughlin in "Somebody Must be Blamed".

On the Reader:
More on Pat Buchanan and the candidates in the 2012 GOP Presidential Primary on the Gazette.

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Snyder Snippets: Auto Manufacturers "regret" their move to Right-to-Work States

Just in case he's thinking of forgetting things he might have said, here are the statements made by Rick Snyder on Feb 8, 2012 in reference to Michigan workers and Right to Work (for less).

"We (Snyder and team) were meeting with some of the auto companies at the auto show (who) say that their companies regretted being in the southern part [of the country, where right-to-work laws are common] because they weren't getting the SKILLED WORKFORCE the same way that they would in MICHIGAN."

-- Stateline Online

See the complete INTERVIEW with Snyder in "Seven questions for Michigan Governor Rick Snyder" conducted by Melissa Maynard and Jim Malewitz, Stateline Feb 08, 2012

Important Snyder Snippets:

STATELINE: Do you think the research is clear on whether right-to-work would help improve Michigan's economy, political considerations about the fights over getting it passed aside?

SNYDER: No. Actually I think if you look at some of the labor agreements out there, there are some really competitive ones. And if you look at productivity overall, we actually had people when we were meeting with some of the auto companies at the auto show say that their companies regretted being in the southern part [of the country, where right-to-work laws are common] because they weren't getting the skilled workforce the same way that they would in Michigan and the flexibility. They were having people taken away for other lower wage situations versus having the right talent at the right place.

SNYDER: This is not something people should overreact to. In many respects when people say right-to-work, it's like one of those red flag kinds of issues where too many people just sort of have a visceral reaction and say "ok, here's my position and I'm not open to listening to anything else." That's not how good government should operate. I want to listen and hear it and work on it.

STATELINE: What about the state's labor relations with its own employees?

SNYDER: We had successful collective bargaining with our own employees at the state level. I want to give credit to [UAW President] Bob King. It was literally a case where the UAW took the lead and he had great people working for him, but Bob and I got on the phone and we actually met a couple of times to sort of hash through issues. WE GOT THINGS RESOLVED. In the end IT WAS GREAT that when we hit a loggerhead we just sat down and talked and got a good agreement done. (emphasis added)

For all of those of you with limited legislative experience or knowledge of Michigan's political history: Former Gov. John Engler often said, "Michigan's autoworkers are world-class!"

FULL TRANSCRIPT of Rick Snyder Interview with StateLine.

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Tricky Rick & His 'Nerd Herd' Play Dangerous Economic Game in Michigan

"Re-invented" Michigan is headed in a disastrous economic direction: Feed the Corporations & Business Buddies v. Starve the Poor, the Elderly, and Shank Our Children.

How Truly Nuts Is This?

Snyder's slick 2 billion dollar tax increase/shift means: Less sales taxes, less commercial, fewer new customers and other diminishing business activity and expansion of small businesses. These are the direct results of headstrong, stone-hearted Tea-Publicans in Michigan's Super Majority Legislature having pushed through 2011 massive tax hikes on the poor, having stolen promise and limited savings from retirees, and having upped the daily survival expenses of vital public sector workers.

READER: "Titanic shift in Lansing" by Judy Putnam on February 25, 2011 at the Michigan League for Human Services


Herd of Robber Barons during turn of the century Age of Greed

All of this Snyder CEO inspired "harvesting" of nearly $2 billion in new taxes was raised to blatantly treat the Nerd's business buddies with a massive and excessive business bail-out/gift. Tax hikes of this magnitude will impact directly consumer demand and sales across the state. Less sales taxes, less commercial, fewer new customers and other diminishing business activity, as well as fewer small business successes will be the result.

Exactly how much of a cut-in-demand will result from Snyder's massive new taxes remains to be seen. But unavoidable reductions will gut the joy of the Michigan State Chamber of Commerce (now luxuriating in its power to strip monies away from the poor, the retired on limited incomes and pensions, children, and public servants) is headed for a rude awaking.


Snyder and a few of the political gaggle following the Nerd Herd, Signing Business Tax Cuts June 2011 (Official Photo)

The new Michigan Income Tax hit on investment income will dull and diminish the draw Michigan has had with retirees who have husbanded a personal portfolio intended to care for themselves to the end of life. Given the very nature of the radical shift from reasonable taxes on business and industry (sectors that utilize the common spaces and infrastructure as a means to produce profit and trade) to those whose working days are over is especially off-putting and repulsive to elders who can easily move themselves and their "kitty" to a friendlier state. Start subtracting retirees from drug stores, restaurants, retail stores, and from doctors and hospital care, then see for yourself what a terrible blunder the Nerd herd has committed. Seniors with their carefully stashed savings are a huge, stable financial asset to any community.

Add to the Nerd's negative tax scenario the hard facts about jobs in Michigan reported by Susan Demas:

"While Michigan added 63,500 jobs in 2011, it could have been more. Why? Well, the private sector grew, as University of Michigan economists reported. There were 77,500 private-sector jobs added. But the overall number of jobs added was brought down by the decline in government sector jobs.

CALCULATION: 2011 Lost 14,000 or is it 17,000?

And that's one reason why Michigan's economic recovery hasn't been as robust as downturns past. 'It's been brought down because government jobs are declining,' economist George Fulton.

That trend is set to continue in the future. Private sector jobs are projected to rise by 35,300 in 2012, 35,500 in 2013 and 52,000 in 2014. But government job declines will offset growth in all three years, according to the U of M forecast, bringing the overall projected total for the state to 26,000 jobs in 2012, 28,500 jobs in 2013 and 46,800 jobs in 2014.

And Michigan's unemployment rate isn't projected to slip below 9 percent, on average, until 2014.

So while the right-wing economic argument -- that has practically become accepted as fact -- is that government doesn't create jobs, the reality is that it does. And cutting government has a real economic impact, and it's not always positive." (emphasis added)

This is the Michissippification of Michigan, plain and simple.

READER:
Poorest families hit 1,000 times harder than rich by Michigan tax changes (Rob South Feb 1, 2012) and Report: Tax Changes Hit Low-Income Families the Hardest (MLHS Feb 2012)

See Also: Michigan Republicans say Taxes are a Sin. But Taxing the Poor to Prop Up, Bail Out, Corporate Cronies Isn't?  -- Discover Michissippi’s (Michigan's) Corporate Bosses: The Elites Who Now Run Snyder & the GOP Super Majority Legislature  -- The Free Fire Kill Zone: Snyder’s War on Michigan’s Real People

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Michigan View's Gary Wolfram Resurrects 18th Cent. Racial Bigotry in His Vision of Economic “Freedom” (ala Adam Smith)

Response to Gary Wolfram in "The wealth of our nation" in the DetNews/Mackinac Center driven Michigan View on Feb 2, 2012.

"(I)t may be true, perhaps, that the accommodation of an (sic) European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king."

-- Adam Smith Quote from Chapter I from the "Of the Division of Labor", Vol I of "INQUIRY into the NATURAL CAUSES of the WEALTH OF NATIONS" (1776)

According to Gary Wolfram:

"Smith recognized that people coming together to trade among themselves would result in an increase in living standards for all..."

(break)

"Smith's other published book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, is less well known - but it was well read in his time and went through six editions. A powerful work, it lays out his observations of human behavior and an understanding of how and why certain customs lead to greater social harmony. For example, a society in which we can interact with one another peaceably to our own benefit requires a sense of propriety. Smith teaches that traditions are important - and (form) a foundation of conservative thought from Edmund Burke to Russell Kirk.

But 'Wealth of Nations' is his most famous work."

Wolfram:

"'Wealth of Nations' is one of those great books that everyone has heard of but few have read. It was a delight to spend time at Hillsdale with people who had not only read Smith - but had studied him. American(s) would benefit if every Legislator read Smith." (emphasis added)

Wolfram:

"The book was an analysis of why parts of the world were mired in abject poverty while Britain enjoyed 'opulence.' Yet it may be true, perhaps, that the accommodation of an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king,' notes Smith."

Prof. Gary uses this quote to make his point and doing so telegraphs a backhanded racist statement: Wolfram projects Adam Smith's reference to British "opulence"(which we all are viewing as Downington Abby in the fading, last days of global British Empire) and the ordinary worker in British society in Adam Smith's times.

Make mention then, as Prof. Gary does, concerning the accumulation of many an "African king." So doing Wolfram sites Smith as he brags a "frugal peasant" in Imperial Britain-with its military homogeny over vast sections of the globe-at that time) has a sizable "accommodation." In Smith's estimation, that pot of material things owned by the 18th century working Brit exceeds the wealth of "many an African King", who using the current words of Prof. Gary, lived in parts of the world "mired in poverty."

Wolfram's assertion: That "African King" (who is in Smith's representation the "absolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages") was not as well-off as a British common laborer in Smith's time. 

This sociologically unbalanced comparison was set in a past century when such racially slanted speech was commonly accepted. However braggadocio or prejudiced, the writers in contemporary times of Adam Smith thought nothing of using an "African King" as model-a bold comparison/contrast to the degree of accumulation held by a man of "labour" in Britain-compare and contrasted with an "African King" at the time of Smith's 18th century....
-----


In the PICTURE above, just behind Gary Wolfram (holding book) is Lawrence W. (Larry) Reed, President of the Foundation for Economic Freedom, former Pres (and still Pres. Emeritus) of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Harry C. Veryser, Jr. professor at Walsh College (past at Hillsdale & Northwood), former Judicial Commissioner (Engler), Board Member at the Acton Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.  From an event on October 13, 2009 at the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies in a a panel of economics to debate the issue of government intervention during economic recessions.

-----

The point Prof. Gary attempts to make in his blog, "The Wealth of Our Nation" is a grand argument for his quaint economic theories. The airy prof utilizes Smith's dated, bigoted example to prove his point- mindless of the racist implications implicit in this select quote. The lines he chose to use. This bigotry only aggravates the imbalance and ignorance of Prof. Gary's proofs offered the reader in his essay's conclusion below.

Wolfram's bromide based on bias and bigotry:

"(T)he gap between the richest and poorest in the United States and other market capitalist states is NOT AS LARGE CLASS WARRIORS WOULD HAVE US BELIEVE." (emphasis added)

Wolfram:

"I tell my students that the difference between their life style and that of Bill Gates is not that great. Like Gates, they live in a house with indoor plumbing and air conditioning (80 percent of all poor households in the US have air conditioning) though his may be bigger. Like Gates, they have a car (three-quarters of all Americas' poor have their own car) though his may be nicer. Like Gates, they can fly to California though he may have a private jet. Like Gates, they probably eat what he eats, and so on. Basically, they live a similar life.

"NOW COMPARE THEIR LIFE TO SOMEONE LIVING IN A REFUGEE CAMP IN SOMALIA."

"That is a stark contrast. In this time of Occupy Wall Street rage Smith's observation is worth repeating. Adam Smith told us that we need in order to achieve the wealth for all, including the "INDUSTRIOUS PEASANT."

"Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: All the rest being brought about by THE NATURAL COURSE OF THINGS."

"Our federal government has grown far beyond this to the point where it regulates our daily life from how much water our toilet may flush to what kind of car we may drive. The massive health care and financial regulation bills of the Obama administration do not fit Adam Smith's prescription for an opulent society. Perhaps in 2012 we will return to the philosophy that brought us the wealth of our nation." (emphasis added)

Wolfram's Thrust: Why are American Blacks mired in poverty? Just read Wealth of Nations. In fact, he says "American(s) would benefit id every Legislator read Smith".


How instructive to compare Detroit's African-American community's economic status with the status of "Someone living in a refugee camp in Somalia." NO VALID COMPARISON!


Comparison relative to the ACTUAL IMPACT OF POVERTY and UNEMPLOYMENT in urban Detroit must be CONTRASTED with status of 1% LUXURIATING in the wealthy Oakland Co.suburbs; that's the REAL CONTRAST. 

Dissect that Prof Gary!


READER: The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (1776)
More responses and posts on Gary Wolfram on the Gazette.

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Rick Snyder’s Relentless Positive Action (RPA) Has Devolved Into Pitiless Regressive Aggression & Trespass (PRAT)

Rick Snyder has untiringly attempted to put a "positively" false face on his complete failure to bring any semblance of REAL positive action to Michigan:

- No Jobs / High Unemployment

- Crushing New Taxes / "Business Buddy" Bailouts

- Un-conscionable Attacks on Public Ed & Teachers

The Word Twister's Work Exposed:

"He who dictates and formulates the words and phrases we use, he who is master of the press and radio, is master of the mind. Repeat mechanically your assumptions and suggestions, diminish the opportunity for communicating dissent and opposition. This is the formula for political conditioning of the masses." 

-- Joost Meerloo

The Nerd hopes he can continue to DECEPTIVELY TWIST the frame that displays his tenure and strives to succeed with clever word-play BELYING THE ACTUAL TRUTH, THE FACTS concerning his runaway, destructive administration.

More on Rick Snyder in the Gazette.

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Mitt Romney: America’s Nascent Holy “god” & Possible President?

"For missionary and public relations purposes, the LDS may present Mormonism as an 'add-on,' a kind of Christianity-plus, but that is not the official narrative and doctrine." 

--Father Richard John Neuhaus

Father Neuhaus: Romney's Mormon Religion Holds The Catholic (Universal) Church a "Fraud"

Conservative theologian, the late Father Richard John Neuhaus stated :
Traditional Christian doctrine and beliefs as lined out in the Nicene Creed is a " Christianity that LDS teaching rejects and condemns as an abomination and fraud."

Article: Richard John Neuhaus, Is Mormonism Christian? A Respected Advocate for Interreligious Cooperation Responds,

The following points concerning Mormonism are those outlined by Father Richard John Neuhaus:

- Mormonism teaches that there is a plurality of gods.

- Mormons dislike the term "polytheism," preferring "henotheism," meaning that there is a head God who is worshiped as supreme.

- If Christian doctrine is summarized in, for instance, the Apostles' Creed as understood by historic Christianity, official LDS teaching adds to the creed, deviates from it, or starkly opposes it almost article by article.

- LDS TEACHING THAT BELIEVERS ARE ON THE WAY TO BECOMING GODS has, of course, interesting connections with early church fathers and their teaching on "theosis" or "deification (see footnote)," a teaching traditionally accented more in the Christianity of the East than of the West, but theologically affirmed by both. (emphasis added)

- Some Mormon thinkers have picked up on those connections and have even recruited, not very convincingly, C. S. Lewis in support of LDS doctrine. (Lewis simply offers rhetorical riffs on classical Christian teaching and in no way suggests an ontological equivalence between Creator and creature.)

- ...(O)ne must ask (Mormons) what it means to be Christian if one rejects the two thousand year history of what in fact is Christianity.

- Christianity is inescapably doctrinal but it is more than doctrines. Were it only a set of doctrines, Christianity would have become another school of philosophy, much like other philosophical schools of the Greco-Roman world.

- Christianity is the past and present reality of the society composed of the Christian people. As is said in the Nicene Creed, "We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church." That reality encompasses doctrine, ministry, liturgy, and a rule of life.

- Christians disagree about precisely where that Church is to be located historically and at present, but almost all agree that it is to be identified with the Great Tradition defined by the apostolic era through at least the first four ecumenical councils, and continuing in diverse forms to the present day. That is the Christianity that LDS teaching rejects and condemns as an abomination and fraud.

What about the source of moral and religious authority in the Mormon Religion? How is it derived?

Father Neuhaus:

Today's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is, allegedly, in direct succession to Smith, and the First Presidency claims powers that would have made St. Peter, never mind most of his successors, blush.

The top leadership is composed, with few exceptions, of men experienced in business and with no formal training in theology or related disciplines.

The President (who is also a prophet, seer, and revelator) is the oldest apostle, which means he is sometimes very old indeed and far beyond his prime.

Decisions are made in the tightest secrecy, inevitably giving rise to suspicions and conspiracy theories among outsiders and a substantial number of members.

Revenues from tithes, investments, and Mormon enterprises have built what the Ostlings (Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, Richard N. Ostling) say "might be the most efficient churchly money machine on earth." They back up with carefully detailed research their "conservative" estimate that LDS assets are in the range of $25-30 billion.

Father Neuhaus: The sanitized story of Mormonism promoted by the LDS tries to hide so much that cannot be hidden.

-----

For those who are most intensely interested in nominating and campaigning for a Republican who is a "Christian" to oppose President Obama (whom many delusional GOP No Nothings believe Obama is a secret Muslim) and wanting intensely to defeat Obama, do so by turning to a Mormon bishop, Mitt Romney there is a serious problem with the facts.

Equating Mitts' cultish religion as equal to their historic Christian faith; holding and espousing Romney's beliefs and authority as valid is a denial of their own faith. Christian faith may not be the right's best choice, if the a Mormon is accepted and endorsed by those proclaiming that they are champions of historic Christianity-they will have sold out their treasured faith and the moral high ground they have held for decades in political discourse.

However, IF CHRISTIAN VALUES ARE NOT TO SUPERIOR MORMON BELIEFS, supporting Romney may be the right choice of all the candidates. Power-Trumps-Principle is an old path to follow.

------

If politics are more important than defending Christian Doctrine, and the real goal of the "Christian Right is simply defeating a Democrat president-seeking a second term, then politics is a higher value than championing the Catholic (church universal) faith and preserving its practices and doctrines.

None of this theological and fact-based examination presented by Father Neuhaus takes away from the Mormon practitioners their claim and right to assert their high life-preserving and family promoting life-style. In many ways the Mormon way of living puts to shame the average person professing in the Christian faith- one who does not practice the values in Christianity and keep its moral teachings.

Father Neuhaus:

- Mormonism gives a whole new meaning to being "pro-family." In Mormon belief, families are, quite literally, forever.

- widely and justly admired is the LDS welfare system, whereby the community takes care of its own when they get into economic or other difficulty. At present, in a time of economic prosperity, only about 5 percent require help from the welfare system

- a strong emphasis on chastity sharply reduces sexually transmitted diseases, while a tightly knit and supportive community makes homicide and suicide rare. Put it all together, and one concludes that Mormonism is good for your physical health. Whether it is good for your spiritual health is a disputed question. (It should also be noted that medical data on the strongly committed in other religious communities are comparable to the Mormon findings.)

- There is no denying that the prohibition of alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine has a payoff. Mormons live; on average, eight to eleven years longer than other Americans, and death rates from cancer and cardiovascular diseases are about half those of the general population.

- There is also the Church Educational System, which involves hundreds of thousands in continuing education programs here and around the world. Nor can the most severe critics deny the energy, enthusiasm, and organization of the LDS in its missionary zeal, and in its dramatic presentation of its colorful history, whether through the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or annual pageants reenacting the key episodes of its sacred stories.

- In a world that seems to be largely adrift, it is no little thing to be part of an organized crusade in which you and those who are closest to you view your life as crucial to the unfolding of the cosmic drama.

The critical decision remains: To vote for Romney, a Mormon, or not.

None-the-less, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Strict Catholic Christians, by endorsing Romney, put to shame their vociferous and "strong conviction" claims to superior beliefs and "higher morals," purer faith, and "stricter values" (than those of secular citizens or liberals) which they have been lobbying must be placed into law, for decades.

This charade of "values voting," if it endorses Romney, is but a weak imitation of former times when men's Christian principles/birthright were held inviolate and not thrown-over/traded for a cold "bowl of porridge" ladled out as a drive for power, profit and defeat of a political foe.

Father Richard John Neuhaus wrote a number of books, including The Naked Public Square. He was Editor-in-Chief of First Things - a Institute on Religion and Public Life magazine. These excerpts on Mormonism appeared in First Things, March 2000.

-----

Disclaimer: This posting is presented to draw a comparison between the starkly differing views of the Mormons and Neuhaus' cadre of hard-driving activism that has been so much in involved with and in support of the kind of Moral Majority-style ideology which has been polarizing American Politics.

Obviously, the Mormon religion has full rights to its place in America under the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the freedom of religion.

"There shall be no religious test for public office"
-- The United States Constitution in Article VI.

In the present circumstances surrounding the candidacy of Mitt Romney, and formerly of Gov. Huntsman, it behooves the public to delve into the issues and moral dilemma that an Evangelical, Pentecostal, or conservative/strict Catholic faces when choosing a "strong Christian convictions" person who meets their heretofore rigid standards [e.g. G.W. Bush-"born-again"] and a Mormon-whom Father Richard John Neuhaus characterized as an aggressive foe of Christianity-in his view.

Footnote: 

"In Christian theology, divinization, deification, making divine or theosis is the transforming effect of divine grace. This concept of salvation is historical and fundamental for Christian understanding that is prominent in the Eastern Orthodox Church and also in the Catholic Church, and is a doctrine of growing importance in certain Protestant denominations, being revived in Anglicanism in the mid-19th century."

-- Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article "deification".

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The Gizzi-Monster and the Raging Radical: Gingrich Gone John Bircher Rogue

Concerning the John Birch Society (JBS) John Gizzi writes braggadocioishly in support of the Newt's pledge to slog on to Tampa's GOP National Convention - counting down 46 more states. "Gingrich never formally conceded to Romney and reports were widespread that he did not call to congratulate the primary victor," on the heels of the trouncing The Newt took in Florida Tuesday.

Welcomed into the "fold" at the Michigan View is that old Bircher Gizzi, the salt and pepper maned-wolf with the Dirksenian-gravel voice, that wily codger represents the old, but still angry JBS. The ghost of John Birch is still at it. JBS never misses a good chance to wedge issues nearest and dearest to their fossilized hearts and their dunderhead mentality. THEY LIVE IN 60 YEARS OF HEMLOCKEN CASKS OF ANGST AND BITTER VENGEFULNESS stemming from their ongoing exile from polite and reasoned civility-due to their untoward behaviors and subversion of the political process for gnarled pleasure and the company it creates for them at gun shows and Tea Party beer halls.

Old Birchers are in their senior glory with Newt! Gingrich's our Guy!

Gizzi showed up, invited, at the Republican Mackinac Island Leadership Conference September of 2011 as a star presenter and has subsequently been comfortably settled into a feathered bed column at The Michigan View. Great. Gizzi joins with Saul Anuzis and a a"set of ardent stragglers" who have found a niche in Michigan GOP politics over the years. Saul is a disciple of Human Events and a close ally with and Newt the orfanatorio promoter. Saul is cloven to all things Extreme Far Right.

Following the rough and raw politics of insider insurgency and dark conspiracy, Saul Anuzis (Maven of HUMAN EVENTS) is at the tipping point of being so anti-government and anti-tax (as is his bosom buddy, Grover Norquist - whom Saul hosted at the GOP Mackinac Island Conference in 2009) as to have become a practical/activist anarchist.

Saul, a life-long political wonk and partisan advantage seeker, feels right at home with the grandiose/homicidal tendencies of Grover Norquist, who dreams of regicide, drowning an imperial government shrunk small enough to be "drown in a bathtub." If that isn't graphic enough, try viewing Grover as doggedly committed to a Pro-Death-to-Government-commitment and a pre-pubescent dreamer set out on a career of trying to achieve that end.

Saul has been chumming with and promoting Newt for a long time. He and Newt were together on Mackinac Island at the Bi-Annual Leadership Conference where Newt ginned up an overflow crowd at the Grand Hotel's Ballroom. Newt laid out a scheme for then GOP Legislative Leadership tailored to disrupt and obstruct former Gov. Granholm and make all things economic and tax-based more difficult; to bring Granholm and Democrats down. Senate Leader Mike Bishop did just as Newt had proposed (Bishop was hectored by Gingrich before that huge pro-Newt crowd in the Ballroom) and made obstruction the rule of the day- shutting down Michigan Government and pushing the state further into planned partisan failure.

Prophetic in his warnings, Reince Priebus, the GOP National Chairman, spoke to the insider crowd on the island September 2011 prophesying and exhorting them:

"National Republican Party chairman, Reince Priebus, urged party activists to rally behind the nominee - whoever it is: 'There is no such thing as an absolutely perfect candidate. Only one perfect person has walked the earth,' Mr. Priebus said. 'WE'RE GOING TO WIN THIS ELECTION BY ADDITION AND MULTIPLICATION, NOT DIVISION AND SUBTRACTION.' "

(emphasis added) 

Obviously Priebus did not understand the MO of the Birchers and the blood-lust style Newt has for a fierce, pitched, no-holds-barred battle and wild mythical mayhem; Newt sees himself right up there with Churchill and Gen. George Patton! Newt is way out there-as though as historian Connop Thrilwall noted "Alexander had appeared to him, armed for combat."

Gizzi and the Old Birchers love this sort of imbroglio; it's their favorite sandbox game. However, the "who can-be-the-most-radically- conservative (troupe of would be nominees in the GOP primaries) throwing sand in each other's faces will not restore Michigan or the Nation to sound policy and economic recovery.

Those who yearn for backroom power and subsequent elevation to prominence as Anuzis hankers, include: Gizzi himself, Clark Durant (son of Mr. Bullhorn, Rad Right heckler-Clark's father), and all those who serve the Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity via its grip on Michigan and Wisconsin, Ohio and other states via The pre-packaged legislation piped into state bills under the radar via The American Legislative Exchange Council (A.L.E.C.).

All those who slavishly serve the aggressive Corporatocracy and those politicos (who still hold to towing-along with JBS) are dangerous and offensive to our cherished traditions and civil rights.

"United we stand divided we fall."

Speaking of lack of unity and going it alone! What about Thomas Dean Sellers, Bloomfield Hills, owner Dean Ford, national John Bircher board member? Sellers has given Rep. Ron Paul a sizable contribution. What a subversive thing to do! Sellers wayward act makes it one "big stick" less-a-bundle for the JBS goal promotion of Gingrich or does it !/?

Ideological idiocy is just one Michigan primary victory away for Gingrich.


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