Why don't Americans have Evangelicals shut up?

[damyanti]

Fair warning...serious RANT coming up!!!!!!

I used to love and admire American principles, or at least what I thought them to be. What happened to America? Most of the world never even heard of Evangelicals before, those of us that have, saw them as a small time loony rednecks...and yet in the last 8 years these loonies or at least imposers hypocritically calling upon their "values" to promote themselves have taken control of the entire country and by extension world politics.

Evangelicals, Talibans...there is no difference. Both groups are close minded, dismissive of facts and reality, war mongering violence proponents.

A reader left this comment on the newspaper site I like to frequent:

"Trust me when I tell you that Americans a) have absolutely no sense of humour about themselves or their country, b) do not realize how they are perceived in the rest of the world and c) although their country was founded by escapees from religious and political persecution they miss the irony that their government practices the very things that the founding fathers are against.
- Dawn, Toronto, Canada"

She nailed it to the point!


And another from the opposite side:

"I'm sorry, but you don't go to a party and insult the host. It is one thing for us to make fun of our own president, but it's another for a foreigner to do so on national television. He isn't a citizen, he isn't involved in the political process, and his comments were out of line. He is welcome to go home now- we don't need him here.
- Amanda, California, USA"

Why is it o.k. for Americans to insult other countries, to take self appointed prerogative to judge others, yet cant stand it themselves? I do agree with Amanda, it isn't fair or proper...it isn't fair or proper that Americans cant decide what kind of foreign policy they want. You are either part of the world community or you aren't...you cant have it both ways. You cant meddle into other peoples business, sometimes just for the heck of it, you cant effect our lives, often disastrously so - without anyone asking it of you - and then haughtily react to any criticism with a variation of "you have no say in our American matters".

The level of HYPOCRISY from the self appointed role model of democracy in the 21st century is astounding!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not trying to be belligerent here (!), though I am sure, a lot of people will take it like that, because in post PATRIOT Act USA no one is allowed to question anything or they are labeled unpatriotic and terrorist sympathizers. That has been Republican (and whether you like it or not, Republican and Evangelical loonies have become synonyms) defense every time they lost the argument based on reason, facts and even faith.

And what precisely is that I don't understand?

Its nice that you are patriotic...but how can you expect the world to take you seriously when you open your argument in any and every single debate with words "America is the greatest country in the world"? It isn't (!) - and yes, unlike you I can provide facts that are not abstract - but thats beside the point, there is a time and place for such sentiment, a political conversation isn't such time. You use that as your foreign policy doctrine and wonder why the rest of the World (even those who officially back you up) find you in such distaste?

We find the issues on which you judge your political candidates moronic. Values! What values?

Where does the Republicans have them and Democrats don't stand comes from? I wish all Democrats had the balls of Bill Clinton! Yes, he cheated on his wife; yes, he couldn't keep it in his pants. You know what, as far as political crimes go - if I were the mother who lost her son in Iraq,...I could live with BC getting a bj, but how this women go on every day living their lives with Bush still as president,...I cant express how much I admire them, they deserve to know the truth, they deserve respect and gratitude...and yet, the great American patriots resent them, they cant look them in the eyes, they practically spit in their faces. Bush lied and lied and lied, and he fuc*ed one thing after another...that is when he wasn't on vacation,... Clinton had a stress relieving orgasm while working, - its clear which is a private matter between husband and wife, and which is the impeachment worthy cause, no?

George Bush and Dick Cheney? Dick Cheney is pure evil. And George Bush? My God, if it weren't so tragic, it would have been the most hilarious joke ever.

The one person with whom Bush has the most things in common is Osama bin Laden. Both are useless waste of space, they think world owes them something just by being born, both think they are great, they are spoiled, rich, both insecure sociopaths suffering from "daddy inferiority complex", both with no regard for human life.

Apparently, you elected Bush for second term because you didn't want to change commander in chief during war time? The most disgusting argument I hear Republicans make again and again is...if you don't support the mission, you don't support the troops! How does that not make you angry? Isn't the right to question...to oversee your political leadership the most basic of American rights? Isn't the most basic right of every parent to know that their child hasn't been sent to death as a capricious act of a petty, little man? Isn't the right of every American to know that their budget and military resources aren't being abused for selfish goals of filthy rich elitist minority?

Why don't lies like that make you indignant enough to make sure you don't elect another one again? And yet, according to news reports, a great number of Americans is getting ready to vote for another Bush in skirt? Not much is known about Mrs. Palin, and yet what is known is enough to raise red flags.

Plain spoken? Ha, if you payed attention, anyone who knows her uses one common adjective to describe her - calculating.

Principled? Please, she changes wind as often as McCain.

Guts? Yes, it takes great guts to kill an innocent animal and then stand next to its bloodied corps, with your toddler, smiling and have your picture taken. Personally, it reminds me of pictures from Abu Ghraib, it shows propensity to pointless cruelty.

She is woman? Is she? So why does she behave like a man? If History teaches us anything, its that female conservative politicians do nothing for promotion of female equality, but harm it.

She is a mother of Down Syndrome baby? So what? Does that make her automatically compassionate? How much time is she spending with that particular child when there are no cameras rolling, can she even stand to look at him, I wonder? I applaud her stand that she has a right to career, and that that gives no one the right to judge her as a mother and a wife...thing is, I don't think she actually believes that she is being discriminated against, its just a standard hate speech...what I do find abhorrent is the way she drags that poor baby on every stage she is on, allows TV lights to be pushed into his face and strangers to touch and hand him down among the crowd...

I don't know whose decision it was that her 17 year old daughter give birth, but I would bet you anything that she forced, if not her daughter, then definitely her "slacker" boyfriend to marry for the sake of her political career.

I watched her interview...they show her a tape where she clearly said one thing...now, if she had said to the journalist "thats not what I have meant" or "you have taken out of context", but she actually said "thats not what I said, what I said is...". Such lying expertise, clearly she is ready to be the president.

Another thing I don't understand is...why do Americans hate intelligent people so much? What is so wrong about wanting life to be good for all people, and not just rich?

McCain spent his entire political career playing the PR game perfectly, changing things he stands for based on what was the most likely to get him elected, (and often doing the opposite behind closed doors). He callously left his crippled wife for rich beauty queen, whose father had money and connections to back him up. He is so rich, he has no idea how many houses he has (a silly point, perhaps, but very demonstrative).
Obama rose through life based on his own merits. If nothing else, He is an example to kids that education is the key and the way to success. He married the woman he fell in love with. He is an upstanding member of his community and an example of moral values and family life.
And yet, hilariously, he is seen as elitist and crazy liberal...while McCain who is divorced, opportunist and who cheated on his wife and the only thing of which he is an upstanding member is his "country club" is seen as "a man of the people". Explain that to me, because I just don't get it.

Evangelicals sore point are gays...its easier to unite people by common hate than it is by friendship...and yet, all the time you hear about one or the other prominent "gay hater" being exposed as homosexual. Then they go to some "brain washing" camp and claim to come back cured...and you buy that?

I fully support the right of every single group to have their own values and rules. Any church can refuse to to marry gays in the religious ceremony in their own church...but what sickens me is when they try to make their own values into the law and force others, by violent means, to adhere to their beliefs. Thats the kind of people I label as loonies and I find it hard to believe that anyone takes them seriously. What ever happened to separation of church and state? Denying them the religious ceremony of certain faith is one thing, but state registration...thats discrimination. Why the fear, are you so insecure with your own set of values?

Anti-abortion? Fine, campaign all you want, speak your mind, educate people to your way of thinking...but them trying to set up Supreme Court so as to overturn the decision to make it illegal...how dare they, who gives them the right to decide what other people do with their own bodies? I don't give a damn about the debate if the fetus is a living being or not...if something is growing inside of me, its my decision.

Creationist theory? What century do these people live in? Its utterly absurd that that is the relevant issue in the election campaign for president of 21st century superpower. You want to teach it as the only truth, fine...do it in Religion class or Sunday school. But School and Biology class is about science!
And school (Christian) prayer, in multicultural schools attended by children from different faiths is despicable.

Abstinence? It fuc*ing doesn't work. Bristol Palin...shes a "raised according to Bush teenager"...I rest my case. I wish Americans stopped being such ninnies when it comes to sex and used some reason and compassion when educating their children.

The amount of personal and individual freedoms Americans gave up meekly as sheep, under the pretext of national security...but which, if anything, gave you less security and enabled Bush and his cronies to use and abuse you, is really just sad. Why do you take that? Land of the brave, land of the good? It seems to me that the only thing "good guys" have been doing lately is taking it in the rear (usually, given to them by anti-gay evangelicals, lol).

What happened to ideas of honor and personal responsibility? They do stupid and evil things, they are exposed...and yet, nothing happens to them. They get promoted.

Isn't the basic Republican value small government that takes care of big government jobs and stays out of peoples private business? And yet, they have taken that upside down and none of you even blinked...they have ruined economy, their state decisions are as wise as if they were written by a drunk, they contracted jobs that only government can do to their privateer friends who made a lot of money and did a lousy job, but they want to govern every single aspect of your private lives...and you have no beef with that?

Every person has a right to decent medical care and should have an access to it.

No politician should ever be able to say or behave in a way that suggests that he owes no accountability to people who elected him and that it is unpatriotic to question him, and get away with it.

People who have trouble reading simple sentences shouldn't be allowed to make economy policies. To me, economy is one of the most important government issues, and yet they behave so laconically about it. It is a serious matter of which they are ignorant about, and instead of placing responsible and qualified people to handle it...they play with it, and in return with our lives. But what do they care, whats one house to John McCain?

War. To most Americans its an abstract idea, something that happens in lands far, far away. The closest Bush ever came to it is a game of paint ball. You have no respect for human life, unless its American...and even then, only if we are talking about a nice, Christian, middle class...everyone else...

I am not against all war...perhaps naively, I still believe that there are things worth fighting for. But whatever reason Bush and Cheney had for instigating this war their reasons were neither altruistic nor in the service of American people. And yet you still protect him!

Following American presidential race...its like watching a car crash.