Faith based governing

The other day Bill Maher riffed on Texas governor Rick Perry for his comments that there were apparently some problems we couldn't solve and should leave in the hands of God.  Perry called a state-wide day of prayer...for rain. 

That's just fucking stupid.

As Maher suggested--one of the problems here is that we humans are fighting to abandon responsibility for our actions--and this new breed of so-called "Christian" is on the front lines of this battle.  We're not responsible for pollution, or climate change, or driving multiple species on both land and sea to extinction.  And even if we are, it has to be part of "God's Plan."


Let me make something perfectly clear.  A religion based on the notion of a supreme monarch has no business dominating the political dialogue in what is ostensibly a democratic society.  Those that advocate governance by religious principles are innately hostile to democracy and should be treated as the enemies of democracy they are.  You cannot serve the King of Kings and the citizens of America at the same time.  Pick your loyalties.

This goes along with something else that has occurred to me.  If the purpose of government isn't to serve the people then what is it?  To serve itself?  Well, judging by the actions of some Republicans, this must be the case.  Didn't the governor of Florida sign a law that would drug test prospective welfare recipients--thus enhancing the income of drug testing clinics that he himself has a financial stake in?  Gee--nothing self serving about that.

The GOP calls itself "The Party of Personal Responsibility."  Except, well, it doesn't take responsibility for anything.  The massive deficit?  Initially created by Republicans via Bush's tax cuts.  They, in turn, blame Obama for the increased deficit, forgetting (or ignoring) that one must buy a ladder to climb out of the vast trench they dug for us.

Seriously... if tax cuts for millionaires create jobs--where are the jobs?  They've had 10 years and what do we see now?  We're still bleeding jobs, a circumstance not helped by fiscally decimating the public sector and sending all those folks into the streets looking for jobs.  Along with retirees being asked to stay in the job market even longer.  In some places they want to change the child labor laws to increase the hours that children can work.

Here's a clue, assholes.  What we want to do is decrease the number of people looking for jobs, not increase it.  And that's precisely what this will do.  And something tells me they know it.  Because the people are more worried about jobs than the deficit.  By taking this tack, the Republicans are ensuring that the job market will continue to deteriorate.  Deliberately, since they hope that it'll cause the voters to revolt and forget that they're the morons behind it all.

Let's hope it doesn't work out the way they want it to.  It all depends on the average American's bullshit detector.  And so far I've not been too impressed.

Okay, let's make another thing perfectly clear.  Everything the Republicans want is the opposite of what we should be doing.  This means that the neo-liberals in the Obama administration still attached to the supply side philosophy need to be kicked to the curb.  It's a failure.  We have ample evidence of this.  What the right might call "Obama's" failure is, indeed, their failure--since he's following the recipe they initially devised and cling to with the desperation of a drowning man.