The premise of the article is that Obama's religious outreach guy Michael Wear wrote a book detailing all the reflexive anti-religious attitudes he saw in the administration. Wear then points out that if Hillary had gotten even a small percentage of white evangelicals, then she would have won. Pierce HATES that! Now, don't get him wrong. Pierce has "great empathy for the people whose lives feel so desperate, or whose spirituality feels so besieged, that they decided to hand the government over to a vulgar talking yam." BUT... f*ck those people.
He doesn't actually use the f-word, but he comes close. The whole article is nasty and seethingly insulting. It accuses evangelicals of whining: "When did the followers of Jesus become such delicate little snowflakes?" It accuses them of being dupes of Bush. It accuses them of being fooled by Trump, who doesn't even know what the Bible is apparently. Pierce then takes this quote to task:
"We also need to have a robust conversation about the support or allowance for racism, misogyny, and Islamophobia in the evangelical tradition."By arguing that:
"And who, precisely, is the Democratic politician who could embark on this 'robust conversation' among religious and sexual bigots about how their dearly nurtured prejudices were not necessarily what the gospels had in mind without being condemned as a godless infidel?"So not only are evangelicals whiny idiots, but they are racists, they hate women and they are Islamophobes. What an ass. There's more. He views abortion rights as a holy issue and laughs off the point that the Democrats no longer have room in their party for people who are pro-life because he doesn't want those people because those people shoot doctors in church and bomb clinics... that's who he thinks pro-life evangelicals are. He even bizarrely accuses Republicans of not allowing pro-choice people into their party, which is provably false just by scanning the Senate. Then he asks this hilarious, completely not-self-aware question:
"Who in a position of power in the Democratic Party is 'openly disdainful' of religion?"Can he really not see how much venom he's poured out in this article? Can he really not see how utterly disdainful he's been of religious people? Probably not, because he doesn't use his brain to think, he emotes and the emotions he does best are hate and arrogance and disdain.
This is really the problem the left has: they truly look down on those who disagree with them and they condescend to everyone they don't like. It's become such a reflex that they don't even see how they are doing it. Anthony Bordain of all people pointed to this the other days when he mentioned that East Coast elitist liberals show disdain for the rest of us and thereby drove people into Trump's arms. Fortunately for the right, the left is so deeply into this bubble that they not only refuse to believe they are doing this, but they get angry at anyone who mentions it. So there's really no hope of them repairing their relationship with white evangelicals.
Keep it up, idiots. Hate is the new black... on the left.
Welcome to 2017, everyone! :)
ReplyDeleteHopefully, this will be a great year. It has potential!
Welcome to 2017 to you, too, Andrew! Hopefully it'll be the turnaround year we need after this one.
ReplyDeleteTo the topic at hand, this is exactly what I've come to expect from years and years of the left crapping on Evangelicals and scapegoating them for so many of the world's ills. To be fair, the Religious Right has done its part to give the left ammo, but their influence looks to be waning between things like the gay marriage decision and how quickly a number of Republican governors backed down on legislation for the things like wedding cakes and transgender bathrooms (with the most stubborn on the latter issue losing reelection). I caught a transcript of that Bourdain interview as well and think he's right. The left really isn't doing itself any favors by ignoring voices like his and continuing with their...you know, I don't think tantrum is sufficient to describe what they've been up to since the election. Regardless, there's a big opportunity here for the right. Let's see if they can make the most of it!
- Daniel
Daniel,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't think of the right word either. Tantrum implies at least some rational purpose. The left is on a pure-hate bender aimed at anything that enters their crosshairs -- friend, foe, things that never bothered anyone now become live-fire targets for the "intolerantly insane". There isn't even an analogy I can come up to explain their behavior except the mindset possessed by rapists.
I think many on the left have come to see the danger in this, but they can no longer stop the beast they have built, and it is slowly eating them up and making their ideology poisonous.
On the evangelicals, I think the Religious Right has done a lot to make itself anathema to the American mindset, but the left has utterly failed to distinguish between the ideologues of the Religious Right and just "the religious." They have become so nasty about anyone who dares to think differently, especially people who believe in Christianity (and more and more Judaism), that they no longer even get how vile they are to those people. Hate is an ugly thing.
I honestly don't think 2017 will be very good. America will continue its retreat from the world stage and the world will get more dangerous. Protectionist policies will make life far more expensive in the US (think the 1970s).
ReplyDeleteMy only hope is that Trump's learning curve will be quick. I just don't think it will be.
Happy New Year, Kit. On the rest, I think the evidence suggests the opposite.
ReplyDeleteThat they have, Andrew, and that was an apt comparison considering how the left is trying to broaden the definition of that particular heinous act for their agenda as well. Admittedly I haven't been around as long as some of the others here but I've never seen this kind of mass mental breakdown across an ideology in my life. I'm hoping that I never see one that surpasses it, either!
ReplyDeleteYou're right that people like him don't see a difference between normal evangelical voters and the Religious Right as well. Thing is, if you look at younger Christians in particular you can see that the Religious Right doesn't have the hold they think it does. Most younger Christians (and this is in rural Georgia mind you) tend to vary from aligned with the public to stronger opposition to abortion and they support gay marriage as a matter of political policy - whether they believe it's a good policy for the church varies. A lot of them also believe the left's narratives on racism, too, so I'm sure they'd be surprised to discover that isms and phobias are the sole reason they believe what they do. Well, if the left wants to keep sh*tting the bed and going scorched earth on everyone who doesn't pretend that their collective sphincter isn't a luxury chocolate factory who are we to stop them, huh?
- Daniel
Daniel, It is the same impulse as rapists. They feel powerless so they've decided to control other people to make themselves feel whole. And yeah, I've never seen a period like this in my life. There have always been little Nazis out there, but nothing like this current crop of whiny little b*tches.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Christians, I'm seeing evidence (polls and voting patterns) of younger people being much less rigid in their Christianity, at least on the "hot button" issues.
In terms of the left, I'm totally fine with the left doing their best to drive those people away. That will forever keep them from becoming a functional majority because their math about minority birthrates is wrong.
Welcome the New Year! May it be more current than the last!
ReplyDeleteThe left's final saving grace is that they so successfully co-opted the term "liberal" such that many on the left maintain the notion that anything of the right is necessarily opposite. Even though they find the current maelstrom of irrational hate in their own parties objectionable, they still refuse to dismiss their parties and instead think their work is to reform them. They don't seem to realize they missed the boat on that by decades.
I don't see these would be reformers succeeding any more than the would be reformers on the right ever did. The difference will be that while the parties on the right ignored and hoped those people would go away, the parties on the left are quite deft at expulsion.
tryanmax, I like to keep my years current. ;)
ReplyDeleteI think the leftists who are being hit don't know how to handle it because it's the first time they've been outside the hive and they don't know how to act against the collective.