Bob Vander Plaats is in violation of the biblical dress code
We have seen again and again the Republican insistence that if something doesn’t work, you must not only try it again, but you must double down. In other words, if you were anti-abortion, be even more anti-abortion next time around; if you anti-gay, be even more anti-gay. Even losing again does not convince them that maybe it is the message that is at fault. Cognitive dissonance allows for no self-examination.
On Monday, Iowa’s Steve Deace was talking to the Family Leader’s Bob Vander Plaats about the necessity of opposing marriage equality. Vander Plaats, who has previously said that “You cannot run away from the heart of God and expect God to bless the country,” told Deace that Republicans are hurting their election chances by not standing firmly enough against gay rights.
Never mind the recent disaster in Indiana, which left Indiana with the most gay-friendly laws it has ever had
on its books, all because the Republicans running the Hoosier state listened to extremists like Deace and Vander Plaats.But Vander Plaats insisted of Republicans that “They’ll never win again without this base.”
What is funny about this claim is that the last time the Republicans won a presidential election, it was in 2004, with a candidate, George W. Bush, who, defying his own party, favored civil unions for gay couples, and a vice president, Dick Cheney, who said, in Iowa of all places ”freedom means freedom for everyone” to enter ”into any kind of relationship they want.”
And here’s the telling detail: Barack Obama’s opponent in 2012, Mitt Romney, opposed gay rights across the board – both marriage and civil unions – and lost.
It doesn’t look like opposing gay rights wins you elections – not national elections, at any rate. It can’t, when the majority of Americans favor marriage rights for gay couples.
It’s simple math.
Republicans can win locally with this form of extreme bigotry, and rhetoric to match (and voter suppression and gerrymandering certainly helps), but they aren’t getting back into the White House while frothing at the mouth like rabid dogs. Not without turning the electoral system on its head so that the minority of votes triumphs over the majority of votes – a sort of “anti-math” to go with their “anti-Christianity.”
Nothing is less appealing to voters, especially young voters, than this level of extremism and exclusionary rhetoric.
But conservatism’s far-reaching cognitive dissonance prevents them from seeing the unpopularity of their course, and they are left to find other excuses for their defeat, like the alleged mainstream media betrayal of 2012. Never mind that to the extent the mainstream media told the truth about them, it was precisely due to their outrageous extremism.
It was so egregious that it simply could not be ignored.
The base, as Vander Plaats says, may love it. Fine. The rest of America does not. The base doesn’t win nationally. The Republican tent is too small, and there are not enough narrow-minded white people to carry the day.
As reported here earlier, more Americans are leaning Democrat today, and people like Bob Vander Plaats are one of the reasons why. A Republican candidate, say Ted Cruz or Rick Santorum, can support the base, but in so doing, he loses the majority of Americans.
Until Republicans abandon this unbiblical culture war of theirs, they will never sit in the White House again. Bob Vander Plaats can say God will not bless you if you run away from his heart, but by cherry-picking the Law of Moses to limit it to opposition to gays, Vander Plaats is himself running away from God.
And the results should not come as a surprise to him. The voters have already shown that they understand hypocrisy and lies when they see it. And God, if one exists, by definition must be at least as intelligent as voters.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
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I doubt they are planning to gain power by winning a fair election. This whipping of their extremist base into a murderous froth is part of a plan to take power another way.
Exactly. I am as suspicious as you that the RWers are working on this even now.
Not without turning the electoral system on its head so that the minority of votes triumphs over the majority of votes – a sort of “anti-math” to go with their “anti-Christianity.”
For instance, switching the electoral college system over to the divided vote used by Nebraska and Maine. I read that before the 2012 election that RWers were interested in making that the rule rather than the exception.
It would change the electoral vote count in the same way district gerrymandering has changed the political representation in Congress.
This man should be called Vander Pratt. Because this is what he acts like.
Their religious hypocrisy is appalling. How do "real Christians" put up with it? American Christianity is no longer a religion, but a cult.
A cult is a popular religion, while a cult is an unpopular religion. Whether it's a cult or religion certainly has nothing to do with the insanity of a group's beliefs. Mormonism certainly has some whacked beliefs. But because they are fairly numerous, run one state and have spread to the entire U.S., they are not openly mocked.*
If there were only a dozen and a half of a group whose beliefs include ruling your own planet (if you're a man; women get to be second-class after death, just as in their mortal form) they would be openly ridiculed by everyone.
* I mean, obviously I and others like me mock them, but they're not universally reviled as, say, the Manson family.
Cults are determined by a number of different factors, but since you are looking for a simple, definitive way of understanding how to tell if a group religion is or isn't, here is the test:
Look at the behaviors of those involved; it's all about their behavior, not about their belief.
If their behaviors are aberrant, destructive toward civilization as a whole, their belief system is fatally flawed and should be destroyed before it continues to spread. Civilization can no longer afford to allow the word "religion" to write it's own blank check to do whatever it wants or act in any manner religion "believes" knowing full well it is destructive to others who dwell on this planet. Bad behavior on behalf of a "belief system" requires swift punishment, not a hall pass...
The people selling this cult of hatred have sold their souls to Satan to reap the financial/power rewards. So send them your money and repeat their lies, theres a special place in hell for you.
There is a lot of money to be made by the promoters of right wing hate. Why would the right wing groups ever stop broadcasting their hate as long as they are being sent money?
I don't believe this for a second! Contrary to their belief, religious right don't rule, no matter how delusional they are about it!!
Greed used to be a sin.
Pride is a sin, too.
Pride as in: 'my god's better than your god.'
So if some Republican politicians move from the values of the Religious Right towards the values of Jesus Christ - more people will vote for Democrats?
Which people will switch their votes?
Albert Einstien knew his stuff when he said repeating the same action over again while expecting different result is insanity. The Christian Reich IS the definition of insanity. When one person is delusional it is called insanity, when many are delusional it is called a religion.
The GOP and religious right are in a death spiral. You cannot win the hearts and minds of people with nothing but hate and bigotry. It will take awhile, but as the teen - 30's demographic becomes the "establishment", what is today's ultra conservative dominance will wither away until there is nothing but the memory of a social bad dream. Ultra conservatism has peaked and the slippery slope is all that lies before it.
I cannot fathom the thinking and reasoning of this new extreme Repubs. that makes them tick(I know a oxymoron), as a Christian (whom by their narrow beliefs I will probably go to Hades).
I fear that they are pilling up an arsenal of hate, bigotry and intolerance In the middle east, and around the globe. They are then standing by with a torch to ignite the whole area. "I never knew you".-Matthew 7:23- Those who are lawless. I think this is where the separation of church and state comes in.
Read the whole passage. -Bible Hub.com/Matthew/7:23.htm