President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

When the government denies majority rule, then the people have every moral right to take up arms and engage in violent resistance against said government.

 

When's the next GQP Jonestown rehearsal?

 

This is a good time to revisit the incredibly brilliant "Keep Your Personal Religious Beliefs and Your Bigoted Hate Psychosis Out of Our Legislative Process" speech by Michigan's Mallory McMorrow, a state senator, in April 2022. And if you've never seen it, watch it now. Watch it twice. It's that strong.

"My mom taught me at a very young age that Christianity and faith was about being part of a community, about recognizing our privilege and blessings, and doing what we can to be of service to others. Especially people who are marginalized targeted and who had less.

"Often, unfairly, I learned that service was far more important than performative nonsense, like being seen in the same pew every Sunday or writing 'Christian' in your Twitter bio. And using that as a shield to target and marginalize already-marginalized people. ...

"We cannot let hateful people tell you otherwise to scapegoat and deflect from the fact that they are not doing ANYTHING to fix the real issues that impact people's lives, and I know that hate will only win if people like me stand by and let it happen."

 

While I support her statements concerning acceptance and service to others, the statement "Keep Your Personal Religious Beliefs and Your Bigoted Hate Psychosis Out of Our Legislative Process." is a comment incredibly ignorant of political debate. A person's religious beliefs can inform their political decisions. Most people have political opinions that are based on some moral judgment. The concept that a political debate can be removed from any person's religious belief is absurd.

 

There is a certain terrifying earnestness to it, and it's not all religious doctrine. This is absolutely not an endorsement, but claiming either divine or secular moral authority overrides the will of the majority is not new and it is not specifically conservative. After all, the quote 'A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority." did not come from a religious figure, but rather Booker T. Washington.

I'm a decidedly progressive Christian, and it's something I really struggle with. Either Jesus is Lord, or Jesus isn't. He said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," not "I am a Way, a Truth, and a Life." Again, not an endorsement of fundamentalism, nor is it really even specifically Christian. Islam and several other religions have "exclusivity clauses" of sorts, and I think there is only so far you can go down the road of pluralism or secularism in any of them before you run into that.

The problem is the current political reality overwhelmingly rewards zealots, the kind of people from whom that road of pluralism is particularly short or entirely absent, who would easily sacrifice democracy and the rule of law for a fundamentalist utopia not because they want to oppress people but because they view it as a just reward for their commitment and self-denial and that if you just repented you'd like it too. I think shutting that off is the only off-ramp, and our system overwhelmingly props up the status quo and whoever is in power at the moment.

I think it was 10 or 20 pages ago where someone mentioned why Republicans can't have a backbone like Liz Cheney did, but here's the problem. Under the way the country has been run for at least the last 30 years, the only thing more useless than being in the minority is being out of office entirely. Liz Cheney's backbone is currently not worth a bucket of warm spit to herself, her party or the country.

 

It’ll be a Democratic victim, sadly and probably. They tried to kill Gabby Giffords at the local grocery store while she was doing a standout. You’d figure that’d be the wakeup call we needed, but I guess not.

 

I don't care. Why? Because, even as a Christian, I don't want anyone in power insisting that this nation is for Christians only.

We have seen what "Christians only" means in this nation. I reject that kind of thinking everywhere and anywhere.

Politicians are free to embrace their own personal religious beliefs.
In private, though. There is no place for religious dogma in legislative operations.
And Christianity is not the only religion that worships someone named "GOD."

And, most important, I don't have to give a FUCK about anyone's religious beliefs at all. Nor them against mine.

The MAGATs, of course, now insist otherwise.

 

Can the Dems at least hire Christie as their attack dog?

 

Also, I reject that, too. Personal beliefs often are admirable, but anyone's constituency deserves a much broader view. Every fucking day!

 

But I heard The Left is so extreme that it's to blame for the extremism of Trumpism. I'm confused.

 

This IS unintentional comedy, right?

Look at the crap Aileen Cannon is doing in Florida, and tell me how anyone can take what Elise Stefanik is attempting to say seriously. Come to think, can any of us take anything Stefanik says seriously?

 

Didn't know Kim Jong-Un led Mar-A-Lago.