Newsweek political correspondent Howard Fineman reports the Democrats are about to declare a jihad on conservative Christians in the U.S.
They will do this, he says, in the name of tolerance.
“The theory goes like this,” he writes. “our enemy in Afghanistan is religious extremism and intolerance. It’s therefore more important than ever to honor the ideals of tolerance – religious, sexual, racial, reproductive – at home. The GOP is out of the mainstream, some Democrats will argue (this) year, because it’s too dependent upon an intolerant ‘religious right.'”
He continues: “This is an incendiary battle plan – essentially comparing the GOP right with the Taliban – designed to draw an outraged response from the president. Then Democrats would have Bush just where they wanted him: in a firefight at home.”
The Washington Times’ Gregory Pierce observes in his Inside Politics column that the New York Times appears to be following the script already – referring to Islamic radicals as “the religious right.”
That’s one of the reasons I hate political labels. They are always misused and abused.
Adolph Hitler, we’re told, was a right-winger. Why? He was a socialist from his early days of political involvement. He died a socialist. He created the National Socialist Party – the Nazis. Socialists, by definition, want more central state control over people’s lives. And that makes them left-wingers. But that is using logic. Logic doesn’t always serve the purposes of demagogues.
Do the political terms left and right have any meaning in an Islamic state? Not really. But if forced to categorize an Islamic state, like Taliban Afghanistan, it makes far more sense to label it “left” than “right.” After all, it was a totalitarian regime. Totalitarian regimes, by definition, maintain strong centralized control over people’s lives. That’s the same thing socialists do. In socialist regimes, people serve the state.
On the other hand, right-wingers traditionally oppose centralized state control. They tend to believe the state should serve the people.
But all this nuance is lost on people who throw terms around without regard for their actual meaning.
And that appears to be just what the Democratic Party is about to do with regard to Christians in America. There is no distinction, insofar as Democrats care, between Osama bin Laden and Jerry Falwell.
Never mind that Jerry Falwell never coerced anyone to think his way. Never mind that Jerry Falwell doesn’t believe in forced religious conversions. Never mind that Jerry Falwell is much closer in his principles to the founders of this country than are any prominent members of the Democratic Party.
This is nothing short of bigotry. And the irony is the Democrats are about to employ this tactic in the name of tolerance. Tolerance!
The good news is it’s going to backfire. I hope the Democrats try it. Because if ever there was a party that deserved to be discarded on the ash heap of history, it is the modern-day Democratic Party – clinging to socialist ideals that have been thoroughly discredited time and time again.
This tactic borders on treason. But treason is nothing new to the Democrats. We saw eight years of it during the Clinton reign. The Democrats as a party have no use for the Constitution of the United States. Their disdain for the founding documents exceeds even the contempt of the American principles exhibited by the Republicans – and that’s saying something.
The real question is: Where can Americans turn for an alternative?
Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dummer is not much of a choice.
For starters, conscious, thinking Americans can begin standing up and rejecting anti-Christian bigotry and hatred that will only serve to take America down. Rejecting the Christian ideals upon which this nation was founded will mean the end of the American experiment in freedom and self-government.
That’s right, I said it. America represents a still fragile experiment in liberty. It is still an unprecedented experiment – still young, by history’s standards.
It’s time for Christians to wake up and disengage from the Democratic Party. There is no room for them there. If Christians take just this first step, new choices, new political alternatives will be born.
More than 200 years ago, our founders courageously chose to break the bonds with a colonial empire. It was the first time in history a colonial people achieved their freedom.
It’s about time for Christians to stand up and break their bonds with the party of hate and anti-Christian bigotry.
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