Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Iowa Stubborn

There is some solace in the fact that Iowa usually gets it wrong.  But Ted Cruz is one frightening guy-- razor smart , nihilistic, and God-obsessed, and supported by the majority of Evangelicals in Iowa including men of sizable influence like Steve King and Bob Vander Plaats.

Iowa Republican politics makes it clear that their Evangelical Christians hate gay people, they hate women's rights, they hate science, and they hate atheists. They hate me.  And they are scary, scary people, because they are organized, they are concentrated, and they punch above their weight.

 Here's one theory: 
When you’re told by your pastor that all the people outside of your ideological tribe are utterly wicked and deserving of eternal torture, that’s how it becomes a sin to compromise with your opponents politically and work together for the common good. Because the point is not to find common ground with your opponents. It would be “unloving” to condone anything about their ideology since they’re going to hell. They need to be utterly defeated and brought into submission so that they can be saved. 
Everything about secular liberalism must be utterly antithetical to the Christian gospel and profoundly offensive to God. It has to be, or else secular liberals wouldn’t be worthy of damnation. So everything about liberalism is put into binary opposition with “God’s truth.” To believe in climate change is to believe that God is not in control of the environment. To believe that the government should provide for the poor is an emulation of atheist communism and a usurpation of God’s sovereignty. To promote “political correctness” is to silence the courageous proclamation of “Biblical truth."
Of course, if a more representative state like, oh, I don't know, CALIFORNIA? was able to vote early in the primary season, things would look different.  1 out of 12 Americans lives in California, which is not a majority-white state.  But instead, we give IA and NH, small states unrepresentative of the US at large, the first bite at the apple and the winner is....

Ted Cruz.

We'll see what happens next.


5 comments:

JCF said...

I don't think Cruz gets anywhere near the White House. Rubio, I'm more scared of: he's slick, and can SOUND slightly reasonable, even moderate (Pssst, he's not). Trump is a wild card, politically (heinous re immigration)---and the least temperamentally-suited person to run seriously for the Presidency in probably several generations.

[Not touching Hillary vs Bernie. Am already seeing WAY too much intra-party squabbling between (mainly) the supporters of the two.]

Needless to say: if you're LGBT, or merely don't loathe LGBTs, VOTE DEM!

Leonard said...

Absolutely! Curz and Rubio are capable of mass-murder of LGBTI...either by default (not prosecuting hate crimes) or simply inciting mob violence...these are very emotionally disturbed people we are dealing with...I think Trump, although he too is dangerous, is less dangerous to LGBTI human beings.

I will stay with Hillary (and I think she is prudent enough to not pursue the impossible but work on improving the real)

8thday said...

What is the difference between saying that "Iowa Republican politics makes it clear that Evangelical Christians hate gay people, they hate women's rights, they hate science, and they hate atheists. They hate me. And they are scary, scary people, because they are organized, they are concentrated, and they punch above their weight." and a pastor who says that liberals are "utterly wicked and deserving of eternal torture" ?

I find both to be incredibly bigoted, uneducated, extremely polarizing statements. I wish we could move past all the hateful, intolerant rhetoric into some meaningful dialogue.

JCF said...

Um, doesn't your second statement(a pastor who says that liberals are "utterly wicked and deserving of eternal torture") confirm IT's statement?

The Left dislikes the Right, and the Right dislikes the Left: true enough. I believe there's a qualitative difference, however, in that Right dislike of the Left tends towards the coercive and violent. [See re state power to outlaw abortion clinics, and open carry! See re the Malheur Wildlife Refuge] I don't know how we get to "meaningful dialogue" as long as the Right resorts to might...

8thday said...

I don’t believe that one pastor speaks for an entire religion or its adherents any more than one president speaks for an entire country or its entire population. And I don’t know how we get to meaningful dialogue as long people use inflammatory speech and continue to label and stereotype people rather than taking the time to understand them or make any effort to see things from a different perspective other than their own, self-serving view.

I will close by stating that I know very little about Iowa or its politics but I know they had gay marriage before either California made theirs final or New York State. They can’t be all bad.