With God On Our Side?
Paul Waldman
September 19, 2005
Paul Waldman is a senior fellow with Media Matters for America and a
senior contributor to The Gadflyer.
The anti-Americans in our midst are out in force again, saying
everything that goes wrong is America’s fault. They just won’t stop
running down this country, their hatred never far from the surface.
I’m speaking, of course, about conservatives.
A certain brand of conservative, anyway. Seeing the misery caused by
Hurricane Katrina, some on the right knew what was going on: God hates
America. Or at the very least, he’s really, really angry with us. And
you don’t have to go to the maniacal Rev. Fred Phelps of “God Hates
Fags” fame, whose latest project is www.godhatesamerica.com, to find
this kind of rhetoric. It comes from people with strong ties to the
Republican party.
Pat Robertson noted that “We have killed over 40 million unborn babies
in America,” consulted the book of Leviticus (or so he said), then
asked, “But have we found we are unable somehow to defend ourselves
against some of the attacks that are coming against us, either by
terrorists or now by natural disaster? Could they be connected in some
way?” Speaking of connections, some of that odd yet increasingly
prominent species, the American Christian Likudniks (Netanyahu wing),
thought Katrina was payback to America for allowing Israel to pull out
from Gaza.
Hal Lindsay of the Trinity Broadcasting Network knew what it meant when
the levees broke: final judgment for America. “It seems clear that the
prophetic times I have been expecting for decades have finally arrived,”
he said. “And even worse, it appears that the judgment of America has
begun. I warn continually that the last days lineup of world powers does
not include anything resembling the United States of America.” (Lindsay
has been predicting the arrival of the Apocalypse within a matter of
days for at least 35 years, so don’t get too nervous). Noted Republican
ex-con Charles Colson suggested on his radio show that God allowed
Katrina “to get our attention.”
Of course, this is nothing new. For years, conservative Christians have
been telling us that America is a veritable modern-day Sodom whose
desperate moral depravity all but demands another Great Flood to wash
the earth of our vile sins. We all remember how Robertson and Jerry
Falwell noted with approval that the 9/11 attacks obviously meant God
was punishing us for the prevalence of abortion and homosexuality in our
land. And it isn’t just natural disasters—elections that don’t turn out
the way they like can be signs that we have given God the finger, with
the inevitable consequences soon to follow (the Christian Coalition
called the election of Bill Clinton “a repudiation of our forefathers’
covenant with God”).
The idea that Bill Clinton was not a legitimate president—former House
Majority Leader ***** Armey used to refer to him in conversation with
Democrats as your president—was necessary for conservatives to attack
him while still feeling patriotic. Respect for authority is a key
underpinning of conservative ideology, which is one reason they are so
eager to call anyone who criticizes the president an America-hater.
L’etat, c’est Bush—as our national father, his authority can not be
questioned.
So the America-hatred is all supposed to come from the left. Google
“liberals hate America” and you’ll get over 31,000 hits (about 43 times
as many as for “conservatives hate America”). How many times has a
conservative charged that liberals are giving “aid and comfort” to the
enemy if they criticize the wise perfection of the Bush administration?
Oliver North said about John Kerry’s criticism of the Iraq war, “It's
not anti-war; it's anti-American.” The Wall Street Journal’s James
Taranto said United States senators who criticize President Bush’s
handling of the war in Iraq are engaging in “anti-American propaganda.”
Rush Limbaugh said of Democrats, “They hate this country.”
In fact, people like Robertson, Falwell and Colson are much closer to
being “anti-American” than any liberal who rails against the Bush
administration and its actions. After all, Bush’s detractors criticize
the American government, not the nation itself. There are few more
American acts than criticizing your government; after all, the
Declaration of Independence itself is mostly just government-bashing.
And if the ultimate source of our common identity is the Constitution,
it isn’t hard to see which ideological group has more reverence for
American values.
Yet you never hear anyone ask, why do conservative Christians hate America?
The conservative America-haters, while they might take issue now and
again with what the government does (when Democrats are in charge),
direct most of their contempt at American society—in other words, all of
us. Our values are debased, our behavior is sinful, and God himself has
an itchy finger on the lightning-bolt trigger and America is in his
sights. Just who hates America—the people who see terrorist attacks and
natural disasters made worse by official bumbling and demand that our
government keep us secure, or the people who see those things, nod their
heads, and say, “Yep, just what we deserve.”
Why don’t liberals call these America-haters what they are? Their
problem is that at heart, liberals don’t believe it’s necessarily
unpatriotic to criticize your country. And they’re so used to having to
defend against the anti-American charge that they’ve come to see it not
just as unfair to themselves, but inappropriate at any time.
So perhaps they should get over their qualms and start calling people
who seem to hate America for what they are. And while they’re at it,
they could even toss off a few such lobs at the Republicans. Why hasn’t
the administration given soldiers serving in Iraq the armor they need?
Because they obviously hate our troops. Why did they turn FEMA into a
dumping ground for incompetent political hacks? Because they don’t care
about America’s security. Four years after 9/11, George W. Bush seems
rather uninterested in catching Osama bin Laden. Is he in league with Al
Qaeda?
Unfair? Sure. But if Democrats start saying that sort of thing, they
might be able to force Republicans to negotiate a mutual disarmament on
charges of insufficient patriotism. At the very least, they could start
changing the definition of what it means to be “anti-American.”
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050919/with_god_on_our_side.php
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Bush is a Christian. Get over it!
"You don't have my permission to take my picture!" - Santa Claus
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