Whores of Babylon
by Mark Biskeborn | February 18, 2008
Bush led us on a righteous crusade, but most Americans now see through the smoke and mirrors. Now John McCain campaigns for more of the same.
Ironically, the fundamentalist Muslims who headed the 9/11 attack probably enjoy seeing how the fundamentalist Christians in America exploited our fears. In the aftermath of the catastrophe, we allowed G. W. Bush to erode our rights in exchange for his claims to security. Meanwhile, in the name of national security, he grabbed power far beyond the limits of our own Constitution. Has our society begun to resemble that of our theocratic enemy?
The archdeacon of the theocon movement that began with Nixon and strengthened with Reagan, William Kristol is close friends with Bush and avid admirer of John McCain. Dubya now passes the theocon torch to McCain who has begun to use Christian faith as a political springboard to demagoguery. He skillfully meshes his heroic POW experience with a religious re-awakening.
McCain has learned from Dubya that using religion in a political campaign works miracles. When talking up his POW calamity, he melds the heroic event to his religious devotion. In speeches, he often blends religion with military heroism, the perfect persona in the popular Americana, a powerful sales pitch for votes.
"We got to the point where we talked about the birth of Christ, and then sang 'Silent Night,' and I still remember looking at the faces of those guys – skinny, worn out – but most of them, a lot of them, had tears down their faces. And they weren't sorrow, they were happiness that for the first time in so many years we were able to worship together."
Take away the military-religious element from his identity, you take away an important part of his political base. Yet by campaigning down the same path as Bush, he loses all credibility. Many of Bush’s red states have turned black and blue as his supporters move on. The same will probably happen for McCain. Had W’s Iraq invasion proved successful, it might have bolstered an oil business agenda. At best, it was pipe-dreaming.
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