Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Andrew Sullivan: I Fear a Civil War if These Christianists Beat Obama, or Something!
Townhall ^ | September 13, 2011 | Guy Benson

Posted on 09/13/2011 10:49:10 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

This from the scribe who's devoted an inordinate amount of time over the last three years to indulging a bizarre conspiratorial obsession with Sarah Palin's uterus. His new admonition: Be careful what you wish for, wingnuts -- an Obama loss in 2012 could trigger a neo Civil War. Scary, right? We'll tackle this conclusion in a moment, but first, Sully sets the table with some (now familiar) anti-religious sociological psychobabble:

"...The GOP, deep down, is behaving as a religious movement, not as a political party, and a radical religious movement at that. Lofgren sees the "Prosperity Gospel" as a divine blessing for personal enrichment and minimal taxation (yes, that kind of Gospel is compatible with Rand, just not compatible with the actual Gospels); for military power (with a major emphasis on the punitive, interventionist God of the Old Testament); and for radical change and contempt for existing institutions (as a product of End-Times thinking, intensified after 9/11)."

Heavy stuff. Next, he primes the pump with some breathless religious warfare rhetoric:

"[Our current] political deadlock conceals a religious war at its heart. Why after all should one abandon or compromise sacred truths? And for those whose Christianity can only be sustained by denial of modern complexity, of scientific knowledge, and of what scholarly studies of the Bible's origins have revealed, this fusion of political and spiritual lives into one seamless sensibility and culture, is irresistible. And public reminders of modernity - that, say, many Americans do not celebrate Christmas, that gay people have human needs, that America will soon be a majority-minority country and China will overtake the US in GDP by mid-century - are terribly threatening."

That some Americans don't celebrate Christmas is a "reminder of modernity"? Who knew? In the immortal words of Animal House's Boon, "forget it, he's rolling." Rolling, it seems, straight into hair-on-fire paranoia about bloody, internecine armed conflict:

"If you ask why I remain such a strong Obama supporter, it is because I see him as that rare individual able to withstand the zeal without becoming a zealot in response, and to overcome the recklessness of pure religious ideology with pragmatism, civility and reason. That's why they fear and loathe him. Not because his policies are not theirs'. But because his temperament is their nemesis. If he defeats them next year, they will break, because their beliefs are so brittle, but will then reform, along Huntsman-style lines. If they defeat him, I fear we will no longer be participating in a civil conversation, however fraught, but in a civil war."

Ah, yes. We "fear and loathe" this president because of his pristinely pragmatic and reasonable civility. Good grief. (Incidentally, what was it that Sullivan wrote about this pragmatic president's budget, again? See "Update V"). Setting aside Sullivan's hyperventilatory freak-out, a sharp liberal correspondent points out an obvious flaw in his, ahem, logic:

"Accepting (for the sake of argument) that the hard right is willing to start a civil war, that war [would] follow an Obama victory, not an Obama defeat. Extremist political factions start wars after they've failed at the polls. That's what happened in 1860, to which Sullivan alludes. If President Perry or President Bachmann takes the oath in January 2013, then the hard right [would have] no casus belli."

Indeed. Based on this stellar analysis, if Sullivan truly fears civil war, he should vociferously advocate Barack Obama's defeat in 2012. Not so, he argues; an Obama victory would "break" conservatives, forcing them to regroup and re-brand in the image of Jon Huntsman. But didn't he just spend the previous half-dozen paragraphs portraying the GOP as a motley band of implacable religious zealots? Since when do extremist nutters "reform" when confronted with frustration? Faced with this apparent analytical incoherence (perish the thought!), I've cooked up an alternate theory: Perhaps Sullivan is suggesting that the Left would instigate this hypothetical civil war. In that case, I know who'd be first in line at the rebel recruitment center.

UPDATE - In Sully's defense, if I were an Obama supporter, I might be approaching my own meltdown moment:

Not only did President Obama fail to get a bounce from his jobs speech to a joint session of Congress, but his approval rating actually declined slightly following last Thursday's address, according to Gallup. In the just released Gallup daily tracking poll, which now has three days of polling since the speech was delivered last Thursday (Sept. 9th through 11th), Obama's approval rating has fallen to 42 percent. By contrast, in polling done before the speech between Sept. 5th through 7th, Obama was at 44 percent approval, and on Sept. 6th through 8th, he was at 43 percent. So the best one could say is that the jobs speech left his ratings virtually unchanged.


TOPICS: Charismatic Christian; Current Events; Evangelical Christian; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: andrewsullivan; antichristian; christians; cw2; democrats; leftwingidiocy; liberalfascism; obama; palin
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last
The Left sure loves that Huntsman guy.
1 posted on 09/13/2011 10:49:13 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I fear physical conflict too after the 2012 winners are sworn in (in early 2013), but it will not be conservatives who start it, if so. (Conservatives just may END it, however.)


2 posted on 09/13/2011 10:50:46 AM PDT by pogo101
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Did Andrew Sullivan finally emerge from Sarah Palin’s uterus? He remains obsessed with her reproductive system.


3 posted on 09/13/2011 10:50:51 AM PDT by juliej
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

If the Christian religion may not act to worship in the public square, then Christian ethos - caring for a fellow man - has no place in policy making - or guilt tripping Christian citizens to part with their wealth.


4 posted on 09/13/2011 10:52:38 AM PDT by Ouderkirk (Democrats...the party of Slavery, Segregation, Sodomy, and Sedition)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

He probably should fear the civil war if Obama wins again. If it already hasn’t happened by then.


5 posted on 09/13/2011 10:52:52 AM PDT by Never on my watch (WTF happened to my country?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Does this bologna bender still get positioned by the MSM as a moderate Republican?


6 posted on 09/13/2011 10:55:40 AM PDT by capydick (''Life's tough.......it's even tougher if you're stupid.'')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Question of the day:

When he realizes that he can’t win, will Huntsman endorse Romney or Obama?


7 posted on 09/13/2011 10:57:43 AM PDT by proudpapa (Palin-West - 2012)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I got news for you pal, the civil war has been on for decades. It is being waged by the left against traditional/constitutional and Judeo-Christian America. The only difference now is that America is finally waking up to the fact.


8 posted on 09/13/2011 10:57:43 AM PDT by JG52blackman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Never on my watch

to # 5..that’s my forecast as well. It’s beginning to seem inevitable because the chasm between the 2 philosophies is too big to bridge peacefully.....and they are a violent and hostile bunch.


9 posted on 09/13/2011 10:58:19 AM PDT by klb99 (I now understand why the South seceeded)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

CW2 PING!


10 posted on 09/13/2011 10:58:45 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (Forget the Lawyers....first kill the journalists! - Die Ritter, die sagen, nee)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Kenyan and his minions hope the threat of mau mau violence will terrorize whites into submitting to the lizard king. NOT!


11 posted on 09/13/2011 10:58:49 AM PDT by y6162
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
I fear what will happen Next Summer, Riots and All.

I also fear we are screwed either way, If Ubama wins, the Country will NOT stay together (Not my Opinion or what I want, it is just what will happen), if he Loses his Commie Base will go Berserk (not to mention ass hats like Van Jones, Trumka, and Lil' Jimmy Hoffa waiting with their armies)

Sometimes I just feel like saying BRING IT!

12 posted on 09/13/2011 10:59:20 AM PDT by KC_Lion (If Sarah can't be elected in 2012, then Phase II will fall into place, may G-D have mercy on us all)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Mouth pieces on the left projecting again.

Now we know what they are really thinking about doing if they lose next year.


13 posted on 09/13/2011 10:59:20 AM PDT by RatRipper (I'll ride a turtle to work every day before I buy anything from Government Motors.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

LOVE THIS COMMENT:

I’m going to create a new word, Christophobe. Those who fear Christians. The next time I’m called a xenophobe, islamophobe etc. I will counter with Christophobe.


14 posted on 09/13/2011 11:00:53 AM PDT by TSgt (When in the Course of human events...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is what the left wants—while trying to blame it on the right. It’s the same old crap—they do it, but blame others for what they’ve done.


15 posted on 09/13/2011 11:01:05 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Americans who created the United States weren’t afraid of war.


16 posted on 09/13/2011 11:01:43 AM PDT by RoadTest (Organized religion is no substitute for the relationship the living God wants with you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: proudpapa

Huntsman is running in the Republican primary so he can be the Democrat VP candidate.


17 posted on 09/13/2011 11:01:50 AM PDT by AZLiberty (No tag today.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

18 posted on 09/13/2011 11:05:24 AM PDT by dblshot (Insanity: electing the same people over and over and expecting different results.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

A true Christian does not seek out violence but will nonetheless meet evil head on when family or nation is threatened by evil. A coward looks the other way. As America is dragged into the moral gutter by Sullivan and those of his ilk, the rest of us are supposed to shut up and like it lest a “civil war” is sparked. I don’t think so, Andy!

Sullivan should take another look at the New Testament in order to ascertain where his own lifestyle fits in; especially Romans chapter 1 which speaks of those who change God into an image of their own liking.


19 posted on 09/13/2011 11:07:57 AM PDT by Bed_Zeppelin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Sullivan is more gay than Richard Simmons in a pink Turkey Suit mincing like a sissy fag..
He is as Queer as Juan McLaim acting like a conservative..


20 posted on 09/13/2011 11:08:06 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson