Rachel Maddow Lays Waste To The GOP’s Bogus Obama War On Religion

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 04:37 pm

On Meet The Press, Rachel Maddow debunked the Republican claim that Obama has declared war on religion and exposed the secret conservative agenda against contraception.

Here is the video courtesy of NBC News:

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Transcript from Meet The Press:

MR. BROOKS: But you can’t–what, what the government is telling them–the, the Obama administration had a perfectly available option to say, “OK, you’re not going to provide contraception, but do it as other states like Hawaii do it, just tell people where to go. That way we square it with, with what you want to do, with your convictions, and we’re realistic.” But the government in, I think, in an act of bureaucratic greed said, “It’s our way or the highway.”

MS. MADDOW: The, the, the idea that, that, that the Catholic Church is being forced to do something that as a church it does not want to do is a misnomer. The initial exception in here is that the Catholic Church that–somebody that is providing the service of being a church, that’s operating from the church, they’re already exempt from this. The question is, as the congressman says, when you want to become a health insurance provider you must follow the rules of providing health insurance. And in this country, that means that you have to cover contraception, and 80 percent of Americans agree with that.

MR. CASTELLANOS: This is–this…

MS. MADDOW: This fits into–you guys want to make this only about religion, but listen, Mitt Romney is campaigning…

MR. CASTELLANOS: No, it is–no, the administration made this only about religion.

MS. MADDOW: …Mitt Romney is campaigning saying that he would like to end–he…

MR. CASTELLANOS: Ask the bishops.

MS. MADDOW: …he would like to end all family planning support at the federal level. He would like to eliminate federal–Title 10. Rick Santorum says that he would like states to be able to make contraception illegal. You can try to make this an issue of, oh, Democrats hate religion, but the fact is churches were exempt from this from the beginning; this is about providing health insurance. And the Republican Party is…

MR. GREGORY: Let me…

MS. MADDOW: …waging war on contraception at this point in a way that the–where the–and that’s where the discussion is going.

The truth is that Republicans are worried about Romney’s ability to motivate their base, so they are pulling a page from the Karl Rove playbook. Republicans are using, “Obama’s war on religion to scare social conservatives to the polls.” George W. Bush won reelection in 2004 based in large part on the fact that the Republicans got initiatives on the ballot in 13 states banning gay marriage.

Imaginary threats to religious freedom are nothing more than a Republican get out the vote effort.

As far as who is talking about a war on religion is concerned, Newt Gingrich said on the very same episode of Meet The Press that, “It’s not just an economic election, you know, he’s basically declared war on the Catholic Church, and that’s the language of Archbishop Dolan of New York. And I think you’re going to see a very severe reaction to the idea of a radical Obama administration..”

Mitt Romney
mentioned it in his (lie filled) Nevada victory speech last night, “President Obama orders religious organizations to violate their conscience; I will defend religious liberty and overturn regulations that trample on our first freedom.”

Rachel Maddow told the truth. It is the Republicans that have created this war on religion. (After all, isn’t creating wars both real and imagined what Republicans do best?) Social conservatives are using this fantasy war on religion to cover on their real intentions when it comes to contraception. The Republican Party has latched on to this because they see it as a way to rally the base while at the same time playing into the notion that Obama isn’t a real American. (Of course, Obama hates Christians. He’s a Muslim).

This war on religion song and dance is nothing new. Republicans dream up an “issue” like this one in every election cycle, because history shows that when they have a lackluster candidate, and no motivating issue, their base stays home. The war on religion is designed to scare the Republican base into voting this November.

The war on religion gambit is nothing more than a get out the vote strategy undertaken by a desperate political party that will say or do anything to defeat President Barack Obama, but as Rachel Maddow showed it isn’t going to be easy to keep up the facade through Election Day, and fool the American people into voting for a candidate who wants to take away their contraception.



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