Here's who we've given power to for the next 4 years

Despite an increasing amount of evidence to the contrary, I simply refuse to believe that the majority of Americans are sitting around waiting for God's Anointed One, George W. Bush, to deliver the righteous to the rapture, so they can have the enjoyment of sitting in big comfy chairs with a big tin of Boy Scout fundraising popcorn, watching the unrighteous be consumed in His Holy Flame.



However misguided I think they may be, I believe that a fair number of Bush voters honestly and truly believed that his tough talk means he really IS "tougher on terrorists", or else that "continuity" is important at a time of war; i.e. don't change horsemen in the middle of the Apocalypse.



If the second paragraph describes you, here's the tradeoff you made, and these are the people who are in power and who have the President's ear for the next four years (via Corrente):

a number of evangelicals, inspired in part by minister Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" novels, have come to view politics as part of their religion. "There is a strain of evangelical Christians who believe it is political figures who usher in the Second Coming," he said. As such, Bush "is the spiritual and political leader of a moral revolution."



Though such views are a minority, there were glimpses of that passion on the campaign trail. Last month, at an invitation-only meeting with Vice President Cheney, a questioner rose and said: "I personally think, next to Jesus Christ, [Bush] probably took the greatest load upon his shoulders of any individual, so it had to be with strong backing that he has been able to stand for his testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ."



At another invitation-only event, a questioner asking about Bush's "faith-based initiatives" told the president: "I believe that the enemy that we need the greatest freedom from right now happens to be Satan, and it's the enemy that we also don't necessarily always see. There's so many people who are being attacked on every level."



Leaders of Christian political organizations have spoken of Tuesday's results as providential. "Only the Lord could have orchestrated an election in which the president got a wonderful majority vote and at the same time we had a basic Christian institution of marriage on the ballot," Tom Minnery, Focus on the Family's vice president of public policy, said on the group's radio show this week.



The organization's head, James Dobson, said, "I think God has honored" Bush because "the president did acknowledge Jesus Christ." The same program broadcast a statement by Dennis Prager, a Christian commentator, saying "civilization as we understand it was in the balance" in the election, and "a beautiful man has been vindicated."

I guess that means the Lord is guiding the hand of ES&S employee Joe McGinnis, whose hand was in the cookie jar in the form of being on the central tabulating computer in Auglaize County, Ohio, on October 16. This goes against election protocol, and so the county has been on administrative oversight. Of course such administrative oversight is being handled by Bush lackey Kenneth Blackwell, so it's not worth much, but in the context of the many other irregularities that have already come to light -- computers that can only store 3500 votes, software that goes to 32,000 votes and then counts backwards, computers that gave Bush thousands more votes than there were registered voters, well, gee whiz, I guess Our Father was one busy deity on November 2.



I don't know about you, but a deity who participates in election fraud is not one I would care to worship.



I'm not a Christian, so I have to thank Lambert for reminding us of just HOW far from the teachings of Their Lord the Christofascists have strayed:

1: Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

2: "Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

3: But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

4: so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5: "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

6: But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-6, Revised Standard version)