“Moral Values”: feeding antagonism for political gain By Mike Whitney

“Moral Values”: feeding antagonism for political gain

By Mike Whitney

Al-Jazeerah, November 21, 2004

The “moral values” epidemic is sweeping the nation’s editorial pages like
Bird Flu in an aviary. Every pundit and columnist from Tom Friedman to David
Brooks has held forth on the new dichotomous state of America.
Excuse me, but was I snoozing when the revolution hit?
The “Two Americas” theory rests on the flimsy logic that the failed
election strategy of John Kerry has plunged us into a fundamentalist
maelstrom. No need to recap the grim details of the Kerry campaign, but
“out-Bushing Bush” proved to be a losing plan. Maybe, its all for the best?
Bristol-Meyers couldn’t possibly produce enough Valium to get us through
four years of listening to the agonizingly, pompous Kerry.
The Kerry campaign was hopelessly flawed from the beginning by his
stubborn support of the war. The devastation in Falluja proves that
“winning” is not possible. Even so, the margin of difference between victory
and defeat in 2004 was a mere 70,000 votes; a pittance in a population of
300 million. (136, 000 vote difference in Ohio) This minor triumph is what
Republican’s refer to as the Bush mandate.
Is this the basis on which the hypothesis of two America’s depends?
America has always had its zealots. From John Brown to David Koresh,
they’ve littered every backwater since the Pilgrims beached the Mayflower at
Plymouth Rock. The difference now is they’ve been emboldened by a President
who has dragged them into his political tent and helped them in their
cause.. The new fundies (fundamentalists) have an agenda and they’ve
brazenly taken it into the public arena. Gay marriage, stem cells and that
old chestnut, abortion, have taken center stage and are driving the
Christian base.
Bush of course, is just toying with them. He has no intention of storming
back to the 12th century. That “old time religion” shtick is just a touch of
Texas vaudeville. It’s simply another career-enhancing device by a snake-oil
pitch man. Just watch Bush prowling the stage at his political-revival
meetings, sleeves rolled up and arms flailing like a Baptist preacher. He
can play the seething Moses or the pious penitent without skipping a beat.
It’s all performance art for the enraptured, and it’s worked like a charm.

In a tolerant society, people can believe as they wish. The problem
arises, however, when intolerant people take power and begin to enforce
their own narrow point of view on the rest of us. This is what’s happening
with Bush. His Faustian bargain with extremists has brought about state
intervention in everything from contraception to regulating the microscopic
cells in a petris dish. These successes have only whetted the appetites of
church-state opponents. Their victories are merely prologue for future
battles that will further muddy the waters. And, their rage is no longer
directed at secularists alone. Now, even life-long Republicans like Arlen
Specter are on their ideological hit-list. They’ve already begun to devour
their own. Who’ll be next?
Thomas Jefferson’s “invisible wall of separation” is being dismantled
block by block. The thirst for power has Bush tilting towards constituencies
that eschew democratic thinking for religious authoritarianism. It’s a
perfect fit, but one that we were warned of by the founders of this country.
Consider the comments of Ben Franklin: “If we look back into history for the
character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have
not in their turns been persecutors.”
And from Thomas Paine this, “All religious institutions are human
inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and
profit."
From the famed Irish statesman, Edmund Burke, “The miseries derived to
mankind from superstition under the name of religion, and of ecclesiastical
tyranny under the name of church government, have been clearly and usefully
exposed. We begin to think and act from reason and from nature alone.”
And, finally, from Thomas Jefferson, “Question with boldness even the
existence of a God; because, if their be one, he must more approve the
homage of reason than of blindfolded fear…Do not be frightened from this
inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it end in a belief that there is
no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness
you feel in its exercise and in the love of others which it will procure for
you.”
Christians as persecutors? Religious institutions “enslave mankind”?
“Ecclesiastical tyranny”? “Question the existence of a God”? These are
hardly ringing endorsements of religion or of its insertion into government.
The founders of this country were shaped by the Enlightenment; a period
devoted primarily to reason, science and nature. Their skepticism of
governmental or religious power is evident throughout their writings. It is
a mistake to say that the prevailing force behind their philosophy was
Christianity.
Bush has disrupted this tradition. He’s been extremely adept at finding
the fault-lines in American society and using them to his own advantage.
Its part of his broader “divide and conquer” strategy. He has a visceral
understanding of how to improve his own situation by setting neighbor
against neighbor, and friend against friend. It’s a talent that has yet to
be fully appreciated. The “moral values” topic is just another way of
inciting anger, inflaming passions and exploiting differences. The topic is
little more than a sobriquet for bigotry and discrimination, but it’s a
valuable wedge-issue for the “Great Uniter”. Abortion, gay marriage, stem
cells and, of course, the war have ushered in a period more polarized than
any since the Vietnam. As long as these issues feed the ambitions of the men
on top, we can expect them to continue.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

Apartheid Wall


The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

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