Is the Republican Party a "cult"?

[zanana]

I keep scratching my head over the way the American public has changed. With Bush polling so well these days, I think I've lost my trust in our ability to reason. It can't be that people have become less intelligent, and it certainly isn't because this country is in such fine shape. The only explanation I can come up with is a cult mentality that does not require common sense or intelligence, but does require blind faith in a charismatic leader. Bush's references to God have become bizarre, almost suggesting a personal knowledge of Him. Does half the country need to be deprogrammed?

[Loonman]

1. It's a criminal enterprise

I think.

[MisterP]

2. remember Condi almost calling * "my husband"?

one (R) ex-classmate of mine boasted that his family had a shrine (his word) to Poppy, Poopy, and Poop Head (Bush I, Reagan, and Bush II)

[Trailrider1951]

3. Hmmm, seems like it at times!

But, why do you believe those polls? The media and the bu$h administration lie about everything, so what makes you think that those polls are the least bit accurate?

[Wapsie B]

5. Neo-conservatism is a cult.

Old-line conservatism is a valid political viewpoint. But the old liners, the Rockefellar and Goldwater repugs have been out of power for quite some time now.


Welcome to DU Trailrider1951 !

[seemslikeadream]

13. Sure look like it to me

Welcome to DU
Trailrider1951 :hi:

[napi21]

4. Some factions are.

I googled the definition and here's what I found:

Every cult can be defined as a group having all of the following 5 characteristics:
1. It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members

2. It forms an elitist totalitarian society

3. Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma

4. It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds
recruit people

5. Its wealth does not benefit its members or society



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I don't know that I can say that SLL of the 5 above fit the very RW Pubs, but for sure at least some of them do.

[Joanne98]

6. That's them all right.

They're just profit- making greed pigs. I don't think they're even religious. They're just USING God as a marketing tool. Read Leo Strauss.

[Roaming]

7. I may not agree with President Bush, but as a Christian I definitely

feel I have a personal relationship with my God (Christ)... I don't feel that's bizarre; it's actually quite wonderful.

But you may be referring to some comments Bush has made about the war on terrorism (?)

[napi21]

9. Yes, I'm referring to the comment that he

consulted with a Higher father than his Dad. It sounded to me like he was saying God told him to go to war with Sadaam.

I also have a close relationship with my God, but I also believe he gave me a free will to do right and wrong. If I choose wrong, I will be punished. Somehow I can't believe he'd be telling me to kill people.

[sadiesworld]

10. He says he is God's messenger.

And I don't think he means it in some sort of general all-Christians-are-God's-messengers sort of way.

Does he believe it? :shrug:

I, for one, cannot decide whether it is worse if he actually believes it or if he is just saying it to fire up his non-moneyed base.

[jobycom]

11. I think you misread him

He wasn't implying anything bizarre about being a Christian, he was saying that Bush's attitude towards God is almost like Reverend Moon's, where Bush seems to feel a more direct association with God, a superior knowledge of God, and a special status over all humans and over all God's rules because of this relationship.

Being in Austin, knowing a lot of people who know Bush, I can tell you it's all an act. He's not a Christian, he just uses the words to manipulate people. He's quite a sleezebag. I have a brother just like him. He's dumb, but clever at manipulating people. He moves in with elderly women, convinces them that he is a bad man who is trying hard through God's grace to become a better person, if only anyone would give him a chance, and then he robs them blind. No telling what else he's done. He and Bush are the same, except Bush had a rich daddy.

[Alpha Wolf]

8. It's like that one Twilight Zone...

actually it's like almost every Twilight Zone-- where the person wakes up and the whole world is different somehow. It's all the same people, even his family, but they don't know him, or they are all acting strange in some way.

The really scary thing is that in some of those episodes, it always ends up that the one sane person is actually the insane person-- or at least the viewer is left with that possibility. You want some chills to go down your spine? Imagine for a moment that we have been the ones duped, and it turns out that Bush and the freepers are right. Excuse me while I get some whiskey and a bottle of sleeping pills...

G.K. Chesterton's book, The Man Who Was Thursday was like this too. These few guys thought they were the last hope for human kind and that everyone else had gone mad. (They didn't even trust one another), but in the end they discover that everybody else thought the same thing about them. It's a good read if you can find a copy.

[zanana]

14. Welcome, Alpha Wolf!

Yes, it does seem like we're living in an episode of The Twilight Zone lately. Now, there are two realities and you have to pick one.

[Alpha Wolf]

19. Thanks, but...

I have been here a couple of weeks now I think. I just don't get to post much.

[mojo2004]

12. Let's get real...

the difference between Republicans and Democrats are core beliefs and values. It has nothing to do with being in a cult or lack of intelligence. For instance, if someone believes a fetus is a baby, then no amount of debate is gonna change that. Republicans have the belief that you must get tough with people to get results, while Democrats have a more compassionate view. I know this is not a popular view, as it is much easier just to call them stupid.

[Alpha Wolf]

17. Interesting point mojo...

in fact, one of the most tell-tale signs of a cult is when its members truly believe that eveyone who is not in their group, or anyone who disagrees with their group is somehow "stupid" or "ignorant". It's everyone else who's brainwashed. Only they know the "real truth".

So I guess there might be a few conservatives that aren't dumb. Maybe one or two. But I won't give you anymore than that.

[seemslikeadream]

20. The religious right is most definetly a cult

and they have taken over the republican party.

Some folks at Cornel are keeping track of them.


"The mission of the National Reform Association is to maintain and promote in our national life the Christian principles of civil government, which include, but are not limited to, the following:

"Jesus Christ is Lord in all aspects of life, including civil government.

"Jesus Christ is, therefore, the Ruler of Nations, and should be explicitly confessed as such in any constitutional documents. The civil ruler is to be a servant of God, he derives his authority from God and he is duty-bound to govern according to the expressed will of God.

"The civil government of our nation, its laws, institutions, and practices must therefore be conformed to the principles of Biblical law as revealed in the Old and New Testaments."


www.theocracywatch.org

[karabekian]

22. so has ours

"The religious right is most definetly a cult and they have taken over the republican party. "

lol no more that the socialist enviromental, international justice groups have taken over ours....

[seemslikeadream]

24. I'm sure you haven't been to that link yet

or you wouldn't be laughing. This is no joke! I resent it being trivialized.

Biblical Law
The ultimate legal goal of the Religious Right is to make the U.S. Constitution conform to Biblical Law. Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel in 1989 declares it's time to get Jesus into the judicial mix.

"Now we're working to establish Liberty University School of Law, which will open its doors in August 2004. We are going to teach lawyers to think in a biblical, Christian world view."

The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004, introduced into both houses of Congress on February 11, 2004, "includes the acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law by an official in his capacity of executing his office." Katherine Yurica, author of the Yurica Report, reports on this bill that reveals the theocratic intentions of some members of the U.S. Congress. Among the sponsors of the bill are Rep. Robert Aderholt (Alabama), Rep. Michael Pence (Indiana), Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Sen. Zell Miller (Georgia), Sen. Sam Brownback (Kansas), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina).

Chuck Baldwin of Renew America calls The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004, "the most important legislation in the last fifty years."

From ConservativePetitions.com:

Not since the ink dried on the U.S. Constitution has our liberty been at such great risk. Last summer's travesty of justice against the Ten Commandments monument in Alabama was a direct assault on the Constitution's guarantees of freedom of speech, free exercise of religion and freedom from federal interference in matters reserved to the people and the states.
Your help is needed to stop black-robed tyrants from turning America into an atheist state that actively persecutes religious believers!

Below is info on the cosponsors of the House bill. Following that is the cosponsors of the companion Senate bill:

H.R.3799 Title: To limit the jurisdiction of Federal courts in certain cases and promote federalism. Sponsor: Rep Aderholt, Robert B. (introduced 2/11/2004) Cosponsors: 15 Related Bills: S.2082 Latest Major Action: 2/11/2004 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
COSPONSORS(15), ALPHABETICAL

In the House:
Rep Bachus, Spencer - 2/24/2004 Rep Cramer, Robert E. (Bud), Jr. - 2/24/2004 Rep Davis, Jo Ann - 3/10/2004 Rep Deal, Nathan - 3/18/2004 Rep DeMint, Jim - 4/1/2004 Rep Everett, Terry - 2/24/2004 Rep Kingston, Jack - 2/24/2004 Rep Miller, Jeff - 3/10/2004 Rep Pearce, Stevan - 3/18/2004 Rep Pence, Mike - 2/11/2004 Rep Pitts, Joseph R. - 2/24/2004 Rep Rogers, Mike D. - 2/24/2004 Rep Ryun, Jim - 3/11/2004 Rep Souder, Mark E. - 3/25/2004 Rep Wamp, Zach - 3/10/2004


In the Senate:
S.2082 Title: A bill to limit the jurisdiction of Federal courts in certain cases and promote federalism. Sponsor: Sen Shelby, Richard C. (introduced 2/12/2004) Cosponsors: 5 Related Bills: H.R.3799 Latest Major Action: 2/12/2004 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
COSPONSORS(5), ALPHABETICAL : (Sort: by date)
Sen Allard, A. Wayne - 2/12/2004 Sen Brownback, Sam - 2/12/2004 Sen Graham, Lindsey O. - 2/12/2004 Sen Inhofe, Jim - 2/12/2004 Sen Miller, Zell - 2/12/2004

The Institutes of Biblical Law

A Presbyterian Minister by the name of Rousas Rushdooney spearheaded the Christian Reconstruction movement when his book, The Institutes of Biblical Law, was published in 1972. A Constitution that conforms to Biblical Law will rely on the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament as its guiding source. Therefore, the Ten Commandments hold a special meaning. Religious Right lawmakers are trying to pass legislation in various state legislatures that would allow government posting of the Ten Commandments in public buildings.

One such bill, The Ten Commandments Defense Act is gaining sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-Ala.) author of the bill said, during an interview with TV preacher Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, "The Supreme Court does not always have the final authority over the interpretation of the Constitution."

www.theocracywatch.org

[jobycom]

15. No, it's a sin.

Republicans back a man who lied to kill 100K people in Iraq and has not given the same reason twice as to why he did it. No god would claim them as his or her followers.

These days when a Republican asks me to name something Bush has lied about, I ask them to name something he has told the truth about, and if they can think of anything I explain to them why it was a lie. Much easier.

[Lindsay]

16. I read a comment somewhere the other day

saying that the Republican party as a body had been taken over by a parasite, the Neocons.

I think there's another parasite...the far right wing "Christian" fascists. (I use the quotation marks because I think these people are far removed from mainstream Christians, as well as far removed from the teachings of Christ as I learned them.)

Both parasite groups claim to be Republicans. And as long as the party accepts them as such, the party is seriously infected. (I can only wish the infection is fatal.)

What it seems to me has been happening is that all factions...mainstream Republicans, Neocons, and "Christian" fascists...are using each other to gain power by outnumbering the left and center (and by cheating on those numbers). So far there has been no infighting, so they've been successful in gaining and maintaining power.

I do question how long that amity can last. Will the mainstreamers wake up and realized how awful the extremists are, and how bad for the country as a whole? Or will the country go under from the weight of the power of their control and willful ignorance?

[Rex]

18. Yes

nt

[OneBlueSky]

21. read this . . .

Blood Vote - The Consequences of Voting for George W. Bush
by John D. Goldhammer
CommonDreams.org
April 19, 2004

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0419-10.htm

(snip)

Voting for Bush II will support and perpetuate what amounts to a full-blown, political cult -a fanatical political predator with fundamentalist religious fangs and moneyed, special interest claws. The religious right's cult mind set has corrupted our country's current leadership, which has, in turn, further deformed an already dysfunctional foreign policy into an empire-building rogue state.

With characteristic religious cult missionizing, Bush II and his inner group of fundamentalist crusaders, who have commandeered Republican minds, are intent upon "blessing" the Moslem world with "Almighty God's gift of freedom" while fundamentalist Islam is equally intent on "blessing" the West with Allah's Islamic theocracy. Two ideological cults at war with each other-two sides of the same coin: lethal groupthink-outmoded, medieval, brutal and dehumanizing cult behaviors that could easily drag the civilized world back into the dark ages.

(snip)

We have a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the living room that nobody wants to look at: destructive cult / group dynamics that reinforce and spread beliefs that are far more devastating than any plague. No one wants to look at the religious face of this marauding beast because it has become politically incorrect to challenge or critique religious beliefs. Problem is, religious fundamentalism, whatever the packaging, is not religion. It is a group-inspired, ideological epidemic that thrives behind the mask of religion.

Nearly all religious cults believe they are the "chosen" people, that they have a mission to save (convert) every non-believer. As George W. prepared for the presidential election in 1999, he assembled a group of pastors for a "laying on of hands" and told them that he was "called to a higher office." Bush II and many of his closest advisors have been infected with a viral strain of Evangelical Christianity that believes the United States is indeed "called" to save the world. This egomaniacal "messiah complex" permeates the political atmosphere of the Bush administration, the "Bush Doctrine," and our "National Security Strategy." It is the same group fanaticism that fueled the incomprehensible savagery of the European Christians' Crusades during the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries.

- more . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0419-10.htm

[benburch]

23. No.

It is a criminal conspiracy.