Barack Obama Lectures his Own

Barack Obama Lectures his Own

Honest to God, we need a long meandering religious rant from Barack
Obama about as much as we need people blaming
it all on Bill
Clinton. Mother Mary, that's Sean Hannity's line!

And last time I looked Harry Truman didn't build a Democratic Party infrastructure;
neither did Jimmy Carter or any other president in between. Oh, that's right,
there wasn't another Democratic president between Carter and Clinton, let alone
someone who won two terms. If you want to blame anyone let's get a picture of
Terry McAuliffe up on the range and do some target practice. That said, no one
could have been more clueless about McAuliffe's disastrous reign than me. I
actually thought he was helping the Dems! But when you look at the \”three
state strategy\” of the DNC prior to Howard Dean, well, was I clueless or
what? And as regular readers know, I've never
been a fan of our
man Howard, until recently.

When it comes to religion, I'm spiritual and religious. Many modern women like
me have REAL issues with the church today. That's what has driven me to meditation.
I've talked to other women and I know I'm not alone. Who wants to be lectured
every Sunday about family and family values? Who wants to be lectured about
tithing? Who wants to be lectured and made to feel guilty about a choice you
know you simply had to make? And if you're not married or having kids, wow,
shame on you. Why aren't you doing REAL woman's work? As for the silence of
evangelicals on the environment, well, God's planet doesn't matter because the
Rapture is near. Hallelujah! Hypocrites, all of them, except for the wonderful
Nevada
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, everyone say AMEN. Oops, that's right,
she actually respects gay priests. Reserve a place in hell.

But it's always nice when a Democrat hoists the entire Party up on his personal
political petard. It's especially nice in an election year.

Hey, Barack, why not just say IT'S ALL ABOUT ME? Hmmmmm?

Democrats, for the most part, have taken the bait. At best, we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that – regardless of our personal beliefs – constitutional principles tie our hands. At worst, some liberals dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word \”Christian\” describes one's political opponents, not people of faith. Such strategies of avoidance may work for progressives when the opponent is Alan Keyes. But over the long haul, I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people, and join a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy. (snip) This is why, if we truly hope to speak to people where they're at – to communicate our hopes and values in a way that's relevant to their own – we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse. … Senator Barack Obama

\”Abandon the field of religious discourse\”?

Barack, babe, you've got to be kidding, hon.

The Democratic Party is tripping all over themselves to prove they can out
God the Republicans. And we wonder why single women don't vote? Because there
are a lot more single women out there for the Democratic Party to court than
there are religious and faith-based people who want to vote Democratic. Here's
an email I sent recently that I'd like to share regarding this very issue. I
hope you find it instructive.

I was a single woman my whole life, until about 3 years ago, which is a long time. I am child free by choice and happy about it. Through the years, I've had opportunities to do surveys and talk to thousands of women about dating, relationships and marriage, with politics and liberation always mixed in. The one thing I've been told over the years is that women aren't going to vote for fat, balding men. Duh. Women also don't have a desire to vote when the political parties aren't talking about their issues, like pay equity. It's really simple. War doesn't move single women and neither does family and education issues. But tell that to political parties who only concentrate on \”family values\” or pandering to the \”family values\” crowd. What good does that line do single women? In addition, they (which until 3 years ago included me, because I was a devout bachelorette) want to see more women talking about our issues on TV and radio. Oprah isn't popular by accident. Katie isn't at CBS on a whim. Randi Rhodes doesn't get half the credit or support she deserves. But the bottom line is that political parties are so busy concentrating on family and \”family values\” that the single woman is left out. A woman is supposed to GROW UP and get married and have kids. Well, most single women may want that but they aren't there yet and that's why they're single. The ones who don't want it are really out in the cold. So what do the political parties have to offer them? \”Family values\” when a single woman is struggling in her own SINGLE life doesn't cut it. For the life of me I can't figure out why everyone is so clueless about it. It's so obvious.

As to Barack's comment about being afraid to offend, I'm not afraid of offending
anyone. So I hope I have everyone covered here, particularly Senator
Obama.

But I especially want to offend the idiots in the DC Democratic crowd who decided
to adopt the term “creation care” to target environmental issues
in the faith-based
population. Creation care? Give me a break. We're adopting the evangelical
network's phrase now? Get a clue. If we're going to get people involved
in the environment, you DC Democratic wienies, we have to scare the crap out
of them. That's why Al Gore hates the phrase \”global warming,\” and
chooses climate crisis instead. How do I know Gore hates it? He said so. \”It's
too benign\” were his exact words in the conference call I was on, because
benign won't get it done. Hey, but let's not listen to Gore. After all, what
does he know about climate crisis? Yeah, baby, let's re-invent the political
wheel one more time.

But Alan Keyes?

Why in the name of America's fruited plains is Barack Obama launching his stand
on Alan Keyes? Get over it. You won.

For that matter, why is he making his stand on some Rovian caricature of the
Democratic Party? Run, it's godless liberals, save the children!

Now, I'll admit, sometimes when you duke
it out over religion and faith online you're going to get into it. That's
what discussion is about: batting back and forth issues and opinions. Get a
spine. Besides, if you know anything about The Founders you'd understand that
we jumped the religious shark in this country a long time ago and I say that
as a religious person.

\”… But it does me no injury for my neighbors to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.\” – Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was so disgusted by the religious hypocrites of his time he crafted his own Bible, using only Jesus's words. Now that's a book to live by.

But Barack Obama
serving this sanctimonious drivel up to the masses in a keynote speech crafted in this manner is nothing short of giving
aid and comfort to the political enemy. You're telling me he couldn't have talked about Democratic Party values without lecturing those of us who actually believe? What is he trying to do, out Lieberman
the good Senator from Connecticut?

And I, for one, certainly don't need the likes of Barack Obama telling me America
is religious, let alone spouting statistics at me. I read. Barack,
meet Kevin Phillips.

In other words, if we don't reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, Jerry Falwell's and Pat Robertson's will continue to hold sway. More fundamentally, the discomfort of some progressives with any hint of religion has often prevented us from effectively addressing issues in moral terms. Some of the problem here is rhetorical – if we scrub language of all religious content, we forfeit the imagery and terminology through which millions of Americans understand both their personal morality and social justice. Imagine Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address without reference to \”the judgments of the Lord,\” or King's I Have a Dream speech without reference to \”all of God's children.\” Their summoning of a higher truth helped inspire what had seemed impossible and move the nation to embrace a common destiny. Senator Barack Obama

It's not anyone else's fault that Barack
Obama doesn't have the balls to speak out about his faith. Oh, except Barack Obama. That's what he gets for listening to consultants, which is what the netroot leaders have been saying long before I went to blogging.

But progressives being afraid to talk about their faith or religion? I've been doing it for almost 10 years and no one has ever tried to stop me.