Kathleen Parker: More Right Than Wrong
By Doug Mataconis | Related entries in Religion, RepublicansIt probably could have been expected, but the reaction on the right side of the blogosphere to Kathleen Parker’s column about the GOP and religious conservatives, which I wrote about yesterday and which Dennis wrote about last night has been quite blistering.
Jonah Goldberg essentially accuses his former collegue of bigotry:
I don’t know what’s more grating, the quasi-bigotry that has you calling religious Christians low brows, gorillas and oogedy-boogedy types or the bravery-on-the-cheap as you salute — in that winsome way — your own courage for saying what (according to you) needs to be said. Please stop bragging about how courageous you are for weathering a storm of nasty email you invite on yourself by dancing to a liberal tune. You aren’t special for getting nasty email, from the right or the left. You aren’t a martyr smoking your last cigarette.
The Anchoress makes essentially the same accusation:
Oh, no! Poor Parker has to bathe in Holy Water, to ward off the evil thoughts being projected her way by the Christians. Later she talks about having her “last cigarette,” because obviously, the Religious Right - all of whom look and act exactly like Carrie White’s mother - are going to destroy her for speaking out against what she perceives as the unhealthy dominance of religious expression within the GOP.
Parker may have a point in arguing that the Religious Right is a bit louder than it (or any distinct interest) should be in a political party - and that their exuberance may be off-putting to secularists and those who practice a quieter sort of worship - but she discredits herself, and her argument, in the way she makes it, which is by calling such people gorillas and lowbrows
You can find similar arguments from others on the right commenting on Parker’s piece, but the one guy who gets it right is John Cole at Balloon Juice who reminds all of us of some of the greatest hits of the GOP God Squad:
- Justice (“Just Us”) Sunday
- Schiavo legislation
- Jesus is my philosopher.
- Michael J. Fox must be mocked for wanting stem cell research.
- The never-ending fake war on Christmas (Christmas keeps kicking ass, btw, and shows no sign of ending. Funny, that).
- Federal Marriage Amendment and the never ending gay-bashing as wedge issue.
- Evangelical support for torture.
- The ceaseless idiocy about displays of the Ten Commandments.
- Pharmacists for Life deciding that they get to choose whether or not you need your prescribed medicine.
- School prayer arguments.
- Demanding that intelligent design (aka creationism) be taught.
- Meddling in the FDA.
- Abstinence only as the only sex-ed.
- The take-over at the Justice Department from the God Squad.
To which I would add the insane amount of support that Roy Moore, a man who not only flagrantly violated the First Amendment but also violated the orders of a Federal District Court Judge while sitting as the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, received from this particular wing of the Republican Party.
Cole goes on:
There is a not unsubstantial portion of the electorate who, while completely happy in a world where everyone can worship as they want, simply are sick and tired of the holier than thou pushing their views on us.
And, the more the GOP comes to be identified with the people that are doing it, the less electoral success its going to find outside the Bible Belt.
Kathleen Parker may have gone over the top in her rhetoric — she’s a columnist, they tend to do that sometimes — but the central point of her column couldn’t be more correct.
Modified from a post at Below The Beltway.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 and is filed under Religion, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 20th, 2008 at 9:45 am
The discussion between Parker and her critics demonstrates the major issue. The Republicans are having great difficulty of discussing the future of the party without using the same scorched earth rhetoric they use in campaigns.
If they keep tearing each other up like this, there is going to be a longer period the Democrats in power.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
That’s a great list. In particular, I resonate with the part about being tired of having these views pushed on me.
However, I have no doubt that any conservative worth his or her salt could quite easily come up with a “greatest hits of the secular Politically Correct” crowd. Nor do I doubt that it would curl my hair in a similar fashion. Things like public funding for piss christ, sending 6 year olds home from school for bringing a squirt gun for show and tell, and suspending a teenager for carrying rogue advil in her purse are just a trio that leap to mind within seconds. And that’s probably just some misdemeanor stuff in conservative eyes.
So let’s see who can come up with that list. And then we’d be off on another fun round of comparative political demonology, CPD.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Those are funny examples, Kranky, but how many of them relate to a movement to enforce sweeping change on the country’s schools, court rooms, bedrooms, marriage licenses, hospitals, pharmacies? A true comparison is going to have to dig a little bit deeper than well-meaning idiocy of the isolated incidents you mention. Probably more along the lines of the impact of PC and liberal ideology on newsrooms, college classrooms, etc.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I’d also add, that the Democratic Party isn’t held in sway to the silliness of a school who sends home a kid with a squirt gun or the people who think that’s the right thing to do, while the GOP is objectively being dragged down by its pandering to the stem cell/abortion/school prayer/commandments/marriage amendment crowd. As abrogations of my *freedom* go I’ll take higher taxes over lifestyle/marriage/right to die offenses any time.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I would also add: the reli-cons war on science in general, especially relating to global warming. To equivocate the consequences of the religious rights’ perverted stone-aged agenda to some of the silliness of the politically correct is short-sighted, and appologetic. The “god-fearing do-gooders” are doing real damage and not just to the GOP. The influence of voo-doo believers does not belong in the 21st Century. Period. Let’s welcome back scientific reason, and show these Neaderthal’s to the door.
November 20th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Kranky, I found one for you hot off the presses. Discrimination lawsuit forces eHarmony to offer a same-sex dating site. Talk about dangerous precedents. The WSJ story wonders if *…other services that target a niche clientele could be forced to expand their business models.* I would think the abundance of sites which do cater to same-sex dating would provide ample alternatives and I’m somewhat surprised that eHarmony caved instead of pursuing that line or a prudent man argument. I always felt it was bad business to shut out a whole class of customer, but since when is that illegal?
November 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am
Well, thanks for participating in the spirit I was thinking, blackout. As you have understood, I didn’t intend my quick list to be a substantive match, only a quick illustration of what is possible.
That’s a good example. Notice too the other problem with your example, which is that you can use a lawyer to bully someone and get your way. Most likely the creepy folks at EHarmony understood that it would be much cheaper to set up a few spreadsheets for gay folks than to fight the lawsuit. Notice now that it will be very hard for the same folks to sue eharmony if they only make a half-hearted token effort. Notice further that the same gay folks who sued who be far better served, as you have I think implied, by a dating outfit that is truly motivated to serve gay interests and truly understands their issues.
Let’s do some more suing. How about all those customers at eharmony who are discriminating by expressing all sorts of preferences? If equality is so important, don’t poor ugly fat people deserve dates with rich attractive ones? And what right does a homosexual woman, for example, have to deny a man the right to date her? Isn’t she discriminating?
After all, it’s what’s inside that matters. Shouldn’t we al be forced to behave as though that were the gospel truth? :-)
November 21st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Kranky, it’s even a little odder than I had time to post because part of the arranegement (and yes, this seems to have been a bid by eH to avoid litigation) involves their paying $50K to the New Jersey attorney general and $5K to the individual who brought the suit. Now, does eH have to offer this service nationwide because a gay man in NJ sued them? Because this involves teh internets we have some interesting issues with state lines, litigation from one state setting the agenda (I can imagine a countersuit from Utah or Kansas if gay-friendly dating pops up on thier eH site), etc. eHarmony did the expedient thing, which is too bad. I’m not someone who runs around shouting tort reform at the top of my lungs but I can see why some do. When it’s cheaper as a business to surrender your freedoms than to defend them, we’re jumping the shark.
This is exactly the sort of thing that fuels the outrage of conservatives, social and/or constitutional (and rightly so), and it’s an excellent example of why I may vote for more Democrats than Republicans but remain an independent. I mean, the absurdity. It’s like walking down a street with twenty bars, one of which doesn’t serve *your kind*, and insisting that you should be allowed to patronize that bar. I understand that we are a perverse people, but sheesh…
Any of the gay posters here want to weigh in? Maybe I’m pushing ideology at the expense of sensitivity?
November 21st, 2008 at 1:12 pm
You eggheads are being too easy on Christianity, which condemns us to etermal torment for succumbing to human frailties. In the name of God, Christians have murdered millions of people, infected minds with moronic lies and boring rituals and wasted billions of dollars on churches rather than supporting the poor. Worse, they’ve unleashed upon the world a badly written book, incorrect as either history or truth, and which glorifies an absentee and cruel god. I’m just a crusty ex-Marine and don’t go in for much high level debate. But I’m smart enough to know a con when I see one. Religion is a blight on humanity, worse than dysentery, because its victims remain unaware of reality and waste their lives praying to statues.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Pedro, religion helped save my wife’s life, so I’m a little more reluctant to indulge in blanket condemnation. I have strong doubts, but in a practical sense Christianity and its missions have also been responsible for some good. Meybe even a lot.
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