If you could turn stupid into a fuel, you could use Sarah Palin to leave the Solar System. Her appearance at Liberty University set a new standard for idiocy in a public figure. Before I quote her, I want to remind you that Thomas Jefferson was so dissatisfied with the New Testament that he cut out all the references to miracles and the resurrection, creating a new book we call The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.
He explained his rationale this way:
“Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being.”
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, April 13, 1820
He was actually hostile to several forms of Christianity. Of Catholicism, he said, “History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government,” and “In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.” In a letter to John Adams, dated April 11, 1823, Jefferson wrote “I can never join [John] Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did.”
Finally, as a prelude to introducing you to Palin’s comments, I want to introduce you to Jefferson’s thoughts on Christmas. Christmas, after all, is a celebration of the miraculous birth of Jesus. Here is what Jefferson thought about that subject:
“And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.”
-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823
So we are clear here, Thomas Jefferson revered many of the sayings attributed to Jesus. But he actively hoped that people would stop believing in the story that we all celebrate on Christmas.
With all of that as precursor, I give you Palin at Liberty University:
She told the audience of students that the U.S. Constitution was written by and for moral and religious people, and that nonreligious people probably were incapable of appreciating its principles.
“If you lose that foundation, John Adams was implicitly warning us, then we will not follow our Constitution, there will be no reason to follow our Constitution because it is a moral and religious people who understand that there is something greater than self, we are to live selflessly, and we are to be held accountable by our creator, so that is what our Constitution is based on, so those revisionists, those in the lamestream media, especially, who would want to ignore what our founders actually thought, felt and wrote about in our charters of liberty – well, that’s why I call them the lamestream media,” Palin said…
“Thomas Jefferson and his thinking, I believe that much of it fundamentally came from this area, having spent his summers here, having spent influential years here, two miles away from Liberty University,” Palin said. “Man, there’s something in the water, perhaps, around here – again you are fortunate you get to taste it.”
Palin said Jefferson would likely agree that secularists had set their sights on destroying the religious themes in Christmas celebrations.
“He would recognize those who would want to try to ignore that Jesus is the reason for the season, those who would want to try to abort Christ from Christmas,” she said. “He would recognize that, for the most part, these are angry atheists armed with an attorney. They are not the majority of Americans.”
Palin said there was a double standard that protected atheists at the expense of the religious.
“Why is it they get to claim some offense taken when they see a plastic Jewish family on somebody’s lawn – a nativity scene, that’s basically what it is right?” she said. “Oh, they take such offense, though. They say that it physically even can hurt them and mentally it distresses them so they sue, right?”
“But heaven forbid we claim any type of offense when we say, ‘Wait, you’re stripping Jesus from the reason, as the reason for the season,’ but heaven forbid we claim any type of offense,” Palin said. “So that double standard, I think Thomas Jefferson would certainly recognize it and stand up and he wouldn’t let anybody tell him to sit down and shut up.”
Here are a couple of other things that Thomas Jefferson had to say about religion.
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802
“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.”
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814
Also, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, served as a delegate at the 2nd Continental Congress, was governor of Virginia, a minister to France, our first Secretary of State, our second vice-president, and our third president. He even codified the rules of the Senate. But he didn’t write the Constitution.
That woman is so dismally inarticulate that I really can’t get past that to even examine the content of her speech.
Here’s the Cliff Notes:
Thomas Jefferson would agree that there is a war on Christmas and that it’s a bad thing, and that no one should say Happy Holidays under any circumstances. Also, too, my decision to display Jews on my lawn is the same as state-sponsered promotions of one religion over another, and they are equally protected under the Constitution.
Buy my book.
Got it – thanks.
And this is why, regardless of any other noteworthy or positive contribution that might have been made in the course of his life, John McCain will be forever damned because of Sarah Palin’s mere presence on our national stage. Were it not for him and his monumental blunder of a decision, so much of what we have suffered and continue to suffer might never have occurred. Long after McCain is nothing more than a memory and an epitaph, the virus that is the Palin wing of our politics will continue to wreak havoc, eat away at our national psyche and spread ignorance in this country; much like a runaway cancer.
If you have had the misfortune, like so many of us have, to talk with anyone who thought, “Sarah Palin would make a wonderful President”, then you probably hold the same high opinion of Mr. McCain.
I’m surprised ThinkProgress doesn’t have a whole “Palin” page.
Documenting her dangerous nonsense would be a horribly depressing full-time job.
She and Glenn Beck to me are the leaders of the lunatic fringe, and unfortunately have to be monitored.
Thanks for the takedown. Perhaps it was always such, scoundrels imputing beliefs to the Founders (TM) that are demonstrably untrue, but it is still gob-smacking. Jefferson would have no political home today, his views were far too iconoclastic. American Sphinx does a good job of describing his very unique thinking amongst the founding generation.
Are we going to do this every time this woman “writes” (and promotes) a book? Can’t the media just fucking ignore her?
Q1) Yes, I’m afraid so.
Q2) They could. But they won’t. She’s good for their business. That’s all that matters.
It’s easy to pick on Palin, but what she’s saying here is literally taken as gospel by most of the US evangelical right: that separation of church and state is a myth; that the US was founded as and remains an explicitly Christian nation; and that any and every attempt to enforce separation of church and state (which of course Palin badly mischaracterizes here) is a plot by godless atheists acting as knowing or (if they’re feeling charitable) unknowing tools of Satan. Who does walk the earth.
Everything is filtered through that lens. People in some parts of the country – especially but hardly limited to the rural South – hear that kind of stuff relentlessly from the day they’re born, from family, church, community members, and local media – and rarely see or hear any other views (which are also Satan’s handiwork).
The problem isn’t Palin, or Beck, or any of them. That’s a cultural phenomenon, one that’s been around for generations, and they have a right to their beliefs, however idiotic. But when they enter the political arena, they’re never challenged by a media system that refuses to call them on their bullshit. Instead it treats people like Palin as politically and culturally credible, rather than the reality-impaired (and often not very bright) zealots that they are. I’ve seen versions of this quote in several “lamestream” accounts in the last couple of days, and not one of them bothered to correct her on her obvious, gross historical inaccuracies. That’s the problem.
Media stenography is problematic in any circumstance. But it’s especially pernicious when at least half of the political spectrum in this country is occupied by people who are either lying or delusional, or both, whenever their lips move. Treating those lies and delusions as “another view” gives them potency far beyond what they’d have otherwise.
tl;dr version:
“Leading scientists today affirmed previous studies indicating that the earth is round. Republicans immediately denounced the findings, noting that any idiot can see that the horizon is flat, and that God made the earth flat and the sun revolves around it. Which side is correct remains to be seen.”
Separation between church and state helps protect the future of each. Fundamentalist evangelical leaders, the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, and opportunistic politicians like Palin who drive right-wing polemics straight into the middle of the public’s image of Christian monotheism are among those causing the slow but sure destruction of the popularity of their faith.
The next generations will not flock to the Christ presented to them by people like Palin, Ted Cruz, Timothy Dolan and Franklin Graham. That’s a pity, because many people have gained relief and help from their faith in Christ. Sarah’s killing the goose who laid her golden eggs, and many leaders of the Church are complicit in the killing.
Benjamin Franklin, on the other hand, was at the Constitutional Convention, and he had this to say:
Oh, and obviously Palin doesn’t know what’s inscribed on Jefferson’s tombstone:
Thought this was interesting: Ted Cruz gets elected by the people of Texas, then one year into his first term decides he wants to pull up the ladder behind him and repeal the 17th Amendment:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/ted-cruz-alec_n_4392721.html#
I didn’t know ALEC is backing legislation to repeal the 17th. I’m not surprised, though.
Yes, it’s one of the rightwing’s rallying cries. Doubt that even one of the morans has a clue why the 17th Amendment needs to go (or even what it is for that matter), but they’ll dutifully cheer whenever they hear one of their own promote the repeal. (It’s possible that they have this confused with the 14th and 15th Amendments.)
So rich when a grifter urges selflessness.
…and admirers of Ayn Rand nod enthusiastically.
Has anyone (other than maybe the Home Owners Assoc) ever taken offense at a nativity scene on someone’s lawn? Has there ever been any lawsuit?
This does sound like a “welfare queens”- type invention, doesn’t it? Nativity scenes on the grounds of public institutions financed with taxpayer money have drawn opposition, not displays on the lawns of private residents.
But Saint Sarah said it, so millions of morans believe it. Because she would never lie.
The other blinding stupidity from Palin is her apparent ignorance (else deliberately dishonest pretense otherwise) that — without exception that I’ve ever heard of — “angry atheists armed with an attorney” don’t sue over nativity scenes “on somebody’s lawn”; unless, of course, the “somebody” in question is a government body, and the lawn in question is public property, i.e. it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Honesty interferes with big-bucks grifting. Gotta gin up the rubes with provocative baloney.
Sarah might be a little surprised to see what the Bible actually says and doesn’t say about the birth and death of Jesus.
Like for example the story of his birth didn’t even make it into the first several gospels and the few references to it were written decades after he died. And most gospels make no reference to a virgin birth predicted by an angel.
http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Movies/The-Nativity-Story/A-Religious-Santa-Claus-Tale.aspx#
On another note, if I was a parent paying to send my kid to Liberty (OK I would never do that, but if I did…) I would be pissed they wasted my money to expose my kid to this moron. Who’s next? Ted Nugent?