Wednesday, August 22, 2012

An Absolutist Agenda vs. The American Dream



Horrified by the rhetoric about "legitimate rape" coming from Missouri Representative Todd Akin I watched the reaction go from some tweets by pundits early Sunday afternoon to posts by bloggers later in the afternoon to New York Times and CNN by Sunday evening to leading the morning news shows on  Monday morning. And of course I had my own two cents to offer.From the blog that grew from a Facebook comment:
The "absolute standards or principles" Akin, Fischer and their allies advocate are their own literalist interpretation of the Bible and sexist interpretation of Christian theology. So convinced they have sole possession of the absolute "Capital T" Truth that they have no need of "Capital F" Facts, Akin and Fischer are exactly the kind of ideologues our founding fathers wrote the First Amendment of the Constitution to protect us from.

The "Christian Values" that undergird their platform are judgment, intolerance and condemnation -- a perverse hijacking of the justice, love and compassion proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth. The "American Values" they are fighting to defend have nothing to do with liberty and justice for all and everything to do with power and privilege for the few. And their defiance of compromise and collaboration makes them ill-equipped to govern at best and dangerous to the democratic process at worst

"To paraphrase Edmund Burke, "All it takes for absolutists to triumph is that the rest of us do nothing." We made our voices count in April when Planned Parenthood was under attack -- time to make them count again in August and speak out, stand up and counter the rabid rhetoric of the Akins and Fischers and all those confusing their Absolutist Agenda with our American Dream. Make some NOISE people!"
Read the rest over on the Huffington Post

No comments: