Amanda Marcotte
Posted on 10/11/2013 2:46:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Why aren’t Republicans more afraid? The entire premise of both the government shutdown and the threats to force the government into debt default is that Democrats care more about the consequences of these actions than the Republicans do. Republicans may go on TV and shed crocodile tears about national monuments being shut down, but the act isn’t really fooling the voters: The only way to understand these fights is to understand that the GOP is threatening to destroy the government and the world economy in order to get rid of Obamacare (as well as a panoply of other right wing demands). Just as terrorists use the fact that you care more about the lives of the hostages than they do to get leverage, Republican threats rely on believing they don’t care about the consequences, while Democrats do.
So why aren’t they more afraid? Businessweek, hardly a liberal news organization, said the price of default would be “a financial apocalypse” that would cause a worldwide economic depression. This is the sort of thing that affects everyone. Having a right wing ideology doesn’t magically protect your investments from crashing alongside the rest of the stock market.
The willingness of Republicans to take the debt ceiling and the federal budget hostage in order to try to extract concessions from Democrats is probably the most lasting gift that the Tea Party has granted the country. More reasonable Republican politicians fear being primaried by Tea Party candidates. A handful of wide-eyed fanatics in Congress have hijacked the party. The Tea Party base and the hard right politicians driving this entire thing seem oblivious to the consequences. It’s no wonder, since so many of them—particularly those in leadership—are fundamentalist Christians whose religions have distorted their worldview until they cannot actually see what they’re doing and what kind of damage it would cause.
The press often talks about the Tea Party like they’re secularist movement that is interested mainly in promoting “fiscal conservatism”, a vague notion that never actually seems to make good on the promise to save taxpayer money. The reality is much different: The Tea Party is actually driven primarily by fundamentalist Christians whose penchant for magical thinking and belief that they’re being guided by divine forces makes it tough for them to see the real world as it is.
It’s not just that the rogue’s gallery of congress people who are pushing the hardest for hostage-taking as a negotiation tactic also happens to be a bench full of Bible thumpers. Pew Research shows that people who align with the Tea Party are more likely to not only agree with the views of religious conservatives, but are likely to cite religious belief as their prime motivation for their political views. White evangelicals are the religious group most likely to approve of the Tea Party. Looking over the data, it becomes evident that the “Tea Party” is just a new name for the same old white fundamentalists who would rather burn this country to the ground than share it with everyone else, and this latest power play from the Republicans is, in essence, a move from that demographic to assert their “right” to control the country, even if their politicians aren’t in power.
It’s no surprise, under the circumstances, that a movement controlled by fundamentalist Christians would be oblivious to the very real dangers that their actions present. Fundamentalist religion is extremely good at convincing its followers to be more afraid of imaginary threats than real ones, and to engage in downright magical thinking about the possibility that their own choices could work out very badly. When you believe that forcing the government into default in an attempt to derail Obamacare is the Lord’s work, it’s very difficult for you to see that it could have very real, negative effects.
It’s hard for the Christian fundamentalists who run the Republican Party now to worry about the serious economic danger they’re putting the world in, because they are swept up in worrying that President Obama is an agent of the devil and that the world is on the verge of mayhem and apocalypse if they don’t “stop” him somehow, presumably be derailing the Affordable Care Act. Christian conservatives such as Ellis Washington are running around telling each other that the ACA will lead to “the systematic genocide of the weak, minorities, enfeebled, the elderly and political enemies of the God-state.” Twenty percent of Republicans believe Obama is the Antichrist.Washington Times columnist Jeffrey Kuhner argued that Obama is using his signature health care legislation to promote “the destruction of the family, Christian culture”, and demanded that Christians “need to engage in peaceful civil disobedience against President Obama’s signature health care law”.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops joined in, demanding that the Republicans shut down the government rather than let Obamacare go into effect. The excuse was their objection to the requirement that insurance make contraception available without a copayment, saying ending this requirement matters more than “serving their own employees or the neediest Americans.”
The Christian right media has been hammering home the message that Christians should oppose the Affordable Care Act. Pat Necerato of the Christian News Network accused the supporters of the law of committing idolatry and accused people who want health care of being covetous. The Christian Post approvingly reported various Christian leaders, including Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, saying things like the health care law is “a profound attack on our liberties” and lamented “Today is the day I will tell my grandchildren about when they ask me what happened to freedom in America.”
Some in the Christian right straight up believe Obamacare portends the end times. Rick Phillips, writing for Christianity.com, hinted that Obamacare might be predicted in Revelations, though he held back from saying that was certain. Others are less cautious. On the right wing fundamentalist email underground, a conspiracy theory has arisen claiming that Obamacare will require all citizens to have a microchip implanted. While it’s completely untrue, many Christians believe that this means the “mark of the beast” predicted in Revelations that portends the return of Christ and the end of the world.
In other words, the Christian right has worked itself into a frenzy of believing that if this health care law is implemented fully, then we are, in fact, facing down either the end of American Christianity itself or quite possibly the end times themselves. In comparison, it’s hard to be too scared by the worldwide financial collapse that they’re promising to unleash if the Democrats don’t just give up their power and let Republicans do what they want. Sure, crashing stock markets, soaring unemployment, and worldwide economic depression sounds bad, but for the Christian right, the alternative is fire and brimstone and God unleashing all sorts of hell on the world.
This is a problem that extends beyond just the immediate manufactured crisis. The Christian right has become the primary vehicle in American politics for minimizing the problems of the real world while inventing imaginary problems as distractions. Witness, for instance, the way that fundamentalist Christianity has been harnessed to promote the notion that climate change isn’t a real problem. Average global temperatures are creeping up, but the majority of Christian conservatives are too worried about the supposed existential threats of abortion and gay rights to care.
Under the circumstances, it’s no surprise that it’s easy for Christian conservatives to worry more about imaginary threats from Obamacare than it is for them to worry about the very real threat to worldwide economic stability if the go along with their harebrained scheme of forcing the government into default. To make it worse, many have convinced themselves that it’s their opponents who are deluded. Take right wing Christian Senator Tom Coburn, who celebrated the possibility of default back in January by saying it would be a “wonderful experiment”. Being able to blow past all the advice of experts just to make stuff up you want to believe isn’t a quality that is unique to fundamentalists, but as these budget negotiations are making clear, they do have a uniquely strong ability to lie to themselves about what is and isn’t a real danger to themselves and to the world.
Amanda Marcotte is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and journalist. She's published two books and blogs regularly at Pandagon, RH Reality Check and Slate's Double X.
Thunder on the Right: The gang of conservatives who forced John Boehner's hand on the shutdown
When you’re taking flak from the ultra-left enemy, you’re over the target.
Typical Leftist tactic of accusing your enemy of doing what in fact you are doing. Swap Democrat with Republican in the opening of the OpEd below.
"Why aren’t Republicans more afraid? The entire premise of both the government shutdown and the threats to force the government into debt default is that Democrats care more about the consequences of these actions than the Republicans do. Republicans may go on TV and shed crocodile tears about national monuments being shut down, but the act isn’t really fooling the voters: The only way to understand these fights is to understand that the GOP is threatening to destroy the government and the world economy in order to get rid of Obamacare (as well as a panoply of other right wing demands). Just as terrorists use the fact that you care more about the lives of the hostages than they do to get leverage, Republican threats rely on believing they don’t care about the consequences, while Democrats do......"
If the danger is half as bad as this writer says it is (not that I buy that) why are they holding on to Obamacare, a program that virtually hates (provided they don’t have waivers or exemptions) with everything they have?
The obvious answer is that they must hold onto Obamacare because it is the centerpiece and backbone of the one party state they hope to get into place, and they can sense that if they fail, all of their plans will come crashing down.
The Liberals are going to be so happy when we Christians are all gone, and they have the place all to themselves! At least for seven wonderful years! ;-)
Amanda Marcotte
These libturds are putrid. I have wiped better off my shoe.
Either it is they who are delusional or I am Franz Kafka.
She looka like a man....
Ah, like those who support Bubba Clintoon.
For the left, cognitive dissonance is as American as apple pie.
We are winning.
The author of this demented dribble is already long dispossessed of sanity. However, it’s hilarious. Thanks for posting it. Ha!
On one hand, you have the "fantasy" of a Christian God in Heaven overseeing the evil that mankind performs on his magnificent creation.
On the other hand, you have the "fantasy" of a government that can endlessly print money with no repercussions.
I'll stick with the former. She can have the latter.
I must have missed that poll.
Wow...on a moonbat scale of 1 to 10....this pablum is off the charts...
Defaulting on the debt would take a deliberate act. 18-20 billion due each month to meet the interest payments. over 200 billion a month of incoming taxes.
Not a Christian myself, but yes Obamacare is the final nail in the coffin of our Republic. The fight is worth it if only to sneer at them once implemented saying
“We told you again and and again. We yelled, we attempted to show you logically that it didn’t add up. We filibustered, we negotiated, we voted to de-fund it 40 times. We were ridiculed and insulted. We were called terrorists, Nazis, Fascists, Racists. We were accused of holding a gun to the head of America, to the head of the president. You own this mess. there are still 30 million people without insurance you say? We told you it wouldn’t work.”
The religion of the Left is Big Government, which lets The Anointed Few control
the powerless. This is old history for those who know history. The writers at Salon know nothing except the ungodly world view their Leftist professors taught them. This is the same teaching that flourished at the universities in Germany which allowed the Leftist Nazis to elect Hitler and killed millions in WW II.
When “intellectuals” start blaming Christians for the nation’s failures, it is very much like the Nazis blaming Jews for Germany’s problems. We all know how that turned out.
Conflating Christianity with any of this is akin to syncing my iPad with my vacuum cleaner. The difference in facing the shut town between right and left is that the left worships government and is terrified to let it stop for a few weeks or even slow down. Plus the left is also scared that people will find out just how little government we need.
Pretty much....Moody’s said the same thing earlier this week is it would not technically be a default ....if the Treasury properly prioritizes the payments. Some how I thought I heard someone from the Treasury say they “couldn’t guarantee that.” That means to me the Spite House has already laid in plans that do not reflect good financial management of the available funds.
Here is what I wrote to in freepmail to another concerned FReeper, because much of this does not make sense to lots of people....
Chris Parker from Parker Wealth Management helped explain this in laymen’s terms this morning on WTAM 1100. He claims this is a real test in the control of the optics of what is going on in DC.
We take in 225 billion a month. We only need about 20 billion to service the debt. So that leaves 205 billion to fund the government’s activities and programs.
With no increase in the debt ceiling then the government is forced to live within its means. Basically this becomes a forced austerity, forget sequestration, it is a forced austerity and Congress...more precisely the House of Representatives (Republicans) will have to decide what programs remain funded or how fully funded they need to be.
Military, Welfare, Obamacare, SS, EPA, NSA, DOJ etc.
According to Chris Parker, this will literally mean the government must prioritize payments. This could be devastating politically to the democrats and republicans depending on who controls the spin.
Republicans tend to be financial wonks and not very good at explaining to those affected this kind of stuff as where the democrats are sooooo very good at the whine.
But, long-term this can’t go on and we need tighten the belt. 0bamacare with its subsidies is not self-sustaining. Think of 0bamacare as the knife in the very heart ...
Uh, what’s the number one cable show again?
[. . .Democrats care more about the consequences of these actions than the Republicans do.]
Democrats are worried about all that federal walking around money they need to buy votes. They worry about default because they believe the MSM and the administration chicken little hysteria.
“Average global temperatures are creeping up”
Except they’ve been static for TWO DECADES! This article is ridiculous. Yet another example of the left’s blatant fear of Christianity and the end it brings to their delusions of moral relativism. Also a good example of why to keep fighting. Do you really want nutjobs like the person who wrote this controlling your healthcare, seizing your firearms, forcing you to attend sodomic rituals, and apprehending your wealth to fund infanticide all in the name of a complete mafia takeover by left wing ideologues?
Ugly, lesbionic....
Yep, she’s a leftist.
We will win.....
Exactly. Dems know that after the interest is paid and the entitlements, there will be very little money left for discretionary funding.. The funding they need to run their Fedgov scams. It’s all about funding the socialist police state. C
How many of these mental deficients would love to see the christians here being attacked by muslims like the “arab spring” festival they all support and encourage. The enemy within my friends
Reminds me of a female Adam Lanza, and she probably has slaughtered about as many kids, on the abortion slab.
“Consult your histories; you will there find that Nero was the first who assailed with the imperial sword the Christian sect, making progress then especially at Rome. But we glory in having our condemnation hallowed by the hostility of such a wretch. For whoever knows him can understand that nothing was condemned by Nero unless it was something of great excellence.”
-Tertullian
And this lying message from the memo is being repeated endlessly on the VAST majority of 'news' outlets.
To this author and all that are of the left... Burn in hell demons!
Evil permeates this demon.
Treasury’s Lew to warn lawmakers: No payments guaranteed if debt ceiling breached
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3077050/posts?page=29
Here it is. He basically has already told Congress he won’t prioritize payments. He already has his marching orders to make a mess of this in the event it happens.
Why the Republicans are not controlling the optics on these threats to the American people doesn’t make sense to me.
Ask the Expert!
Castoffs and leftovers: The mixed benefits of working for a white family
I just HATE when things like this happen!!!
Genesis 18:20-21
20. Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21. that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
Genesis 19:4-7
4. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house.
5. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
6. Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
7. and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.
Isaiah 3:9 The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.
2 Peter 2:13b Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
Ezekiel 16:49-50
49. "`Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
50. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
1. But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
3. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
5. if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
6. if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;
7. and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men
8. (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)--
9. if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
10. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;
11. yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.
12. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
13. They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
But there IS hope!!!
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10. nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If you could NOT change, you would be in most pitiful shape...
They have actually cooled. Have you looked at the NASA photos of the Arctic Ice Pack 2012 and 2013? 68% more Ice this year and colder temps.
Obama is driving 63% of all Americans insane.
Yes, we will.
The House gop/e are incapable of leading so that is why!
She’d be pretty if she weren’t so ugly...
She’s a blogtress who also writes occasionally for the Guardian. I read her annoying screeds there. She is a Texan who hates Texas and decided to move to my city (NYC) where she writes ignorant blogs about New York. Her knowledge of history starts from about 5 years ago. She’s a dunce.
Guilty guilty guilty guilty
It certainly is not getting hotter as this fugly moonbat seems to think.
Like a majority of students graduating from institutions of propaganda and feminist-justice studies.
I’d agree. In fact, I’d say some sort of demonic entity has twisted her wretched form.
my looney tune liberal acquaintance told me this also about the Tea Party being full of creationists. I told her the Tea Party isn’t even a party, it is an idea.
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