From MsNBC:
Terrorist strikes on four American cities. Russia rolling into Eastern Europe. Israel hit by a nuclear bomb. Gay marriage in every state. The end of the Boy Scouts.
All are plausible scenarios if Democrat Barack Obama is elected president, according to a new addition to the campaign conversation called “Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America,” produced by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family Action.
Focus on the Family, for those who don’t know is the organization led by James Dobson, one of the people to whom John McCain outsourced his vetting of Sarah Palin as his running mate. He’s a Christian Dominionist in all but name. He hates gay people, Muslims, the federal government, abortion rights, the ACLU, and anyone who doesn’t suscribe to his peculiar vision of the world. That is, just about everyone here at this blog.
In short, he’s a dangerous demagogue, to whom millions of deluded people turn to for advice on how to raise their families, practice their faith and vote. He wasn’t crazy about McCain until the Palin pick, so that tells you something about how desperate McCain was to shore up the bloc of voters who self identify as Fundamentalist or Evangelical Christians.
And so this is Dobson’s in house contribution to the Palin/McCain campaign: fear-mongering predictions about the terrible things which he “knows” will happen to the world if, God forbid, Barack Obama wins the election. His “prophecies” if you will. Funny how that works isn’t it. No matter how poorly the Republicans have governed the country over the last eight years of the Bush administration, no matter much the country has suffered from the mistakes and lies and corruption of the Grand Old Party, things always are predicted to get worse should a Democrat get elected to office.
I have news for you Mr. Dobson. Your powers are weak old man. Not as many people are willing to believe the crap that you pulled out of your nether regions to attack Barack Obama. His message is one of change, and hope for the future. And all you can say in McCain’s defense is to predict a catastrophe? Trust me, we’ve already experienced the catastrophe of Republican rule. Just ask the folks who live in New Orleans, or the “Ordinary Janes and Joes” who have seen their life savings get wiped out by the collapse of the stock market, in lage part caused by Republican economics. Or ask the dead of Iraq and Afghanistan and the American military what our billions of dollars spent on Bush’s wars have created?
Preach your Jeremiads all you want Dr. Doom. No one but the most deluded Americans still think of you as a prophet, and that number dwindles a little bit more each day. And that goes for your “copy cat” political preachers, as well:
Steve Strang, publisher of Charisma magazine, a Pentecostal publication, titled one of his recent weekly e-mails to readers, “Life As We Know It Will End If Obama is Elected.”
Strang said gay rights and abortion rights would be strengthened in an Obama administration, taxes would rise and “people who hate Christianity will be emboldened to attack our freedoms.”
You know, people are just tired of this crap:
“This reminds me of when I was a school kid, when I had to go out in the hall and bury my head in my hands because of the atom bomb …”
We’re not as stupid, we’re not as ignorant, and we’re not as fearful anymore, Mr. Dobson. The “Big Lie” technique has been overused by you and your ilk for too long. Americans are becoming desensitized to the all the doom and gloom bullshit you spout. History cannot relegate you to its dustbins soon enough. Your vision of the world and your exploitation of people’s fears to feather your own pockets has done enough damage to our nation already.
I think universal gay marrage one is the scariest prophecy by Dobson, at least to his own followers.
Then again, they should all vote for Obama if they believe this crap, because it will just bring the Rapture that much sooner.
Heh. Really where is the logic?
Maybe this is an indication that the religious right are ditching rapture. The pro-nuclear war stance in the Left Behind series is obviously the reason so many republicans are ditching them. MOst republicans and conservatives are probably motivated by a need for security. Berserker pro-nuclear war philosophies will not go down well with these people. Tim Lahaye recently ended the “left behind” series and he also chastised Christians who said Obama was the antichrist. Yet another reason it may be a liability now is because the neocons are pushing id cards. If you recall the 1970s movie on the rapture, “A Thief in the Night,” postulated that the antichrist would force everyone to wear a bar-code. Now the cobeligerents of the religious right, the neocons are calling for everyone to carry biometric id cards, so we can trace people movements, in the war on terror. If they maintain the rapture myth, it will look like the religious right are serving the antichrist to those who have followed them for years and years. It would also make the ACLU look like the defenders of Jesus because they oppose biometric id. The typical right wing evangelical is over 50.
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We’re not quite there yet …
Daniel 7:7-8 “After this I was watching in night visions, and behold! A fourth beast, exceedingly terrifying, awesome and strong. It has immense iron teeth, and it was devouring and crumbling, and trampling its feet what remained. It was different from all the beasts that had preceded it, and it had ten horns. “
…
We know that the people who destroyed Jerusalem (the city) and the temple (the sanctuary) were the Romans. From this people shall come the “prince that is to come” or the Antichrist. We can expect then for the Antichrist to rise up from a fourth kingdom that will be the revived Roman Empire.
The EU is definitely becoming a world power of clay (diversity) and iron (power) with striking similarities to the fourth kingdom or fourth beast of Daniel’s prophecies. A world power of so many ethnic groups and representing so many states could easily become a very influential leader at the United Nations and the world. It’s possible that the U.N. is a beginning for this world government that will eventually be ruled by a revived Roman Empire and the Antichrist.
Another period in history of the Last days: the Inquisition
I still cannot comprehend why the right-wing Evangelicals and the US Catholic hierarchy have joined in a political force. Perhaps Election 2008 of Obama as president will also show this bond is broken. The Apocalypse and Israel must be a common cause.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
They’ve given up rapture, not abortion.
Dobson is no more nutty than Larry at NoQuarter.
I see pure, unmitigated FEAR when I see these people. They are not hopeful; they are not happy; they are scared out of their effin minds. And why?
I believe Jefferson said it best:
Now you’ll notice that Obama isn’t promising anything of the sort. But that’s beside the point.
best quote ever.
That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from MLK.
Now let justice be done.
scenarios of possible events under a Democratic government by citing the events which DID happen with the Republicans in power – the attacks of 9/11/01.
Pull tax-exempt status for religion and the game is over.
Simple Solutions To Complex Problems #424.
At this rate the bar is set so low, that even if Obama is a moderately incompetent President he will far exceed the expectations that these folks are creating for him. Just imagine if he end up being a great President!
actually, dobson’s dark fantasy seems surprisingly tame. it sounds like they still expect to be walking around free in obama-land. i would have thought their ultimate white christian nightmare would be a little more … well, nightmarish:
OMG–That’s so true!!! Hahahahaha. THAT is the ultimate fear. Obama’s gonna enslave all the white people!! Run!! Git yer gun!!! I almost fell out of my chair laughing!
Lord have mercy, I think we have a substantial portion of the population in dire need of mental health help. Really. These people need to calm down and get a life.
I wish more people would look at the Reconstructionist/Dominionist movement.
Here’s one good source that gives an overview.
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisrec.html
I don’t have any important observations to share since I’m still in the process of analyzing how authoritarian religion fits into the emergence of the right.
One aspect I find troubling is the ‘stealth’ strategy that Dominionists employ in pursuit of their political goals. It’s hard not to think of it as a sleeper cell strategy.
An important document that people should be aware of regarding this subject is the Integration of Theory and Practice: a program for the new traditionalist movement.
http://www.theocracywatch.org/yurica_weyrich_manual.htm
I think Weyrich & Heubeck’s manifesto illustrates that the goal of Dominionists isn’t a benign reform of institutions. Attacks against institutions associated with the left, such as education, science, unions, etc., are attempts to destroy these institutions rather than accomplish positive reforms.
Read Wilhelm Reich’s THE MASS PSYCHOLOGY OF FASCISM.
Thanks Bob, I appreciate your comment and I wanted to compliment you for contributions here. You’re one of the people whose posts I find very enlightening.
This subject is a little too big and it’s hard to corral. I’d like to get the topic circumscribed before attempting conclusions but it’s a big subject and there’s so little time.
I’ve been identifying myself as a Frankfurter for some time so Reich, one of the main figures in that school of thought, is someone I should read. I’ve now downloaded the work and wanted to advertise the fact in case anyone else wants to read it. It is available online.
http://www.whale.to/b/reich.pdf
I’m voting Republican because I want creationism taught in schools. I want children to know the universe is only 4000 years old.
I’m voting Republican because I want children to know that evolution is a secular plot and that we are not related to apes even though our
DNA is 99% the same.
I’m voting Republican because I believe in socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.
I’m voting Republican because I want a president who was censured by the Senate for “bad judgment” in helping get regulators off the back of Keating during the multi-billion dollar Savings and Loan scandal.
I’m voting Republican because I want a president who can’t tell the difference between Shia and Sunni to handle the complex situation in the Mid-East.
I’m voting Republican because I want a president who endorses Pastor Hagee who preaches that Hitler was good in bringing the Holocaust
down on the Jews.
I’m voting Republican because I want a president who is not going to raise taxes even though he wants to continue financing a trillion
dollar war in Iraq and makes a lot of campaign promises about new programs. In other words I’m voting Republican because I want a
president who spends a lot but doesn’t want to pay for it. That’s sound Republican economics.
I’m voting Republican because I want the USA to remain number 37th in healthcare in the world. I don’t want America infected by European ideas of healthcare as a right – I want it to be available to only those who can afford it at the present price-gouging rates.
I’m voting Republican because I don’t like all these immigrants in our country. What do they think this country is, anyway, a nation of immigrants?
I’m voting Republican because I want a vice president who believes in the persecution of witches.
I’m voting Republican because I am sick and tired of all these uppity people who don’t know their place anymore.
I’ve always thought the Law of Jante, which I first became acquainted with through my readings in Political Psychology, revealed much about human nature, particularly egalitarianism in it’s malignant form, which is best exemplified by the ‘dark populism’ of the No-Nothing party (American Republican Party).
Here’s the Law of Jante: