Give Me That Old Time Religion.....

I have been writing this in my head for the last few days. It has been hard to get here on the k+b because I do not understand it. It all started with this Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times sent to me, and posted on by B. Day.

The overall premise is that right wing politics has become religion to its followers.

"Perhaps the single most profound change in our political culture over the last 30 years has been the transformation of conservatism from a political movement, with all the limitations, hedges and forbearances of politics, into a kind of fundamentalist religious movement, with the absolute certainty of religious belief."

NOT ,so much, Jesus ♡ Sara Palin, but politics, right wing politics, as " immutable truths that cannot be negotiated, compromised or changed." American Politics is ALL about compromise. That is the way the whole complex sausage factory is set up. This committee does "A", the House does "B", the Senate does "C" , then all the powers that be sit down with Lyndon , have a bourbon and branch and come up with a voting rights bill. That is the way it has always been done.

But, if you see your politics as religion, if you see yourself as doing the bidding of the Almighty god of tax cuts, then compromise - sausage making - becomes heresy. Your immortal soul is in danger if you do not protect capitol gains. This is not my usual hyperbole, there are people , powerful GOP politicians and pundits that have adopted this as their main religion.

A very personal, probably overly personal example of this from the facebook. Worlds collide on that website like no other place in most folks lives. An old friend of mine from college was going off on some President Obama hating rant, and getting very nasty and personal. ( it is VERY surprising to me , how many folks that I have known for such a long time have gone over to the other side...) He called me , and others, " close minded for not listening to his point of view". Went on and on about it. I asked him " does my strongly disagreeing with you on issues make me close minded" His answer was " YES ". His way , their way, is the ONLY way... " If you are not with us, you are against us" mentality.

How does the left, a progressive world view - kum-bah-ya-can't-we-just-all-get-along deal with this ?? I know I am way way left of the political mainstream, but I don't see most of the other side as evil, crazy, misguided, selfish as hell, but not possessed by demons. There are symptoms of this everywhere on the right today. The glee at Chicago losing the Olympics as the most recent example. Glen Beck as the modern day Amiee Semple McPherson. I do not have an answer for this, which is I guess why I had such issue with writing this.

It goes back to the loss of " WE" I have been writing about. I can only win if you lose. Where does this take us? In the late 60's when America was going through such horrible turmoil, there was still the reality of the 7:30 news. Love it or hate it Uncle Walter gave us the facts. THERE ARE NO FACTS any more, truth was the first casualty of this new religious war. The birthers/deathers/Beckers make their own truth, and they believe it with the passion of a brand new Baptist. Can our country survive if there is no US to fight for in the U.S. ???