I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

Hello Readers! I'm sorry that I've been out of touch, but like most Americans I've been forced to find extra work these days. I hope it gets better for all of us soon. In the meantime, I promise to write whenever possible, so please visit whenever possible.

These are dark times for many of us, created by very bad people, so let's stick together and hope we can find our way out. Let's not forget that we voted for change, and that time will deliver it - no matter what the Republicans are doing or saying today. Good luck to us all - we all need it! Thanks - Michael

Today's post is an article written by David Edwards and Rachel Oswald from Raw Story. I hope they don't mind that I reprinted it, but I thought it deserved the exposure. I think it's a fantastic example of what many reasonable Americans are feeling right now about the far right. I hope you enjoy it too. Enjoy! Michael


Ex-fundamentalist Castigates Republicans for Being a 'Fifth Column'
David Edwards and Rachel Oswald
Published on Raw Story: Monday March 9, 2009

A former leader of the Christian Right has issued a truly scathing and blistering critique to the Republican Party, calling them "anti-American" and a "fifth column" in the country for their efforts to "sabotage" national economic recovery.

Frank Schaeffer, whose evangelical parents were a driving force behind the formation of the Christian Right movement in the 1970s and 1980s, on Sunday burned whatever bridges he might have had left with the GOP after he left the party in 2000 with a blog posting on The Huffington Post and in an interview with CNN's D.L. Hughley.

Calling Republicans "arsonists" who are trying to burn down the country, Schaeffer, author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back, said conservatives have no right to criticize President Obama for trying to clean up the mess that their party has created.

"You do nothing constructive, just try to hinder the one person willing and able to fix the mess," Schaeffer wrote. "Today, no actual conservative can be a Republican. Reagan would despise today's wholly negative Republican Party. And can you picture the gentlemanly and always polite Ronald Reagan, endorsing a radio hate-jock slob who crudely mocked a man with Parkinson's and who now says he wants an American president to fail?!"

Schaeffer also criticizes the Religious Right, the very movement, that he helped to found, for being anti-American by hoping the country fails "in order to prove they were right about America's 'moral decline.'"In his interview with Hughley, Schaeffer added his voice to the din that has risen up in the last few weeks to criticize Rush Limbaugh.

"I think when you look at a guy like Rush Limbaugh today, what you're seeing is the lid off. This is the raw, naked true face of where Republicanism is. And be my guest, if people want to vote for that, fine," Schaeffer said. "We just had eight years of this that drove us over the cliff and you want to keep going over the clip, fine, But as far as I'm concerned, the greatest miracle, speaking of God because I'm still a religious person, that has happened in any lifetime, is the election of Barack Obama. "

Schaeffer told Hughley that the "educated class" has left the Republican Party. "Either the elected people fall into one of those two categories. Either they are pandering to the religious right -- I don't know what they believe, of course. I can't get into their head. They are pandering to the religion out right or they are pandering to the neocons to whom every war is a good war. And there is very little room in between."

"Today you have about 20 million people who buy all of Ann Coulter's books, watch Rush Limbaugh. Send money into the televangelists. It's all the same people," explained Schaeffer, adding, "It's not a big percentage. It's just a loud percentage. This is the drunk on the subway making trouble in the car for all of the people on the subway. There are 100 decent citizens on there, there is one ass in the front that's molesting women. That's the Republican Party now in terms of the loud car." CNN has the full transcript here.


I hope I speak for millions of Americans when I say THANK YOU Frank Schaeffer for speaking out against the extremism that exists on the right today. You are a blessing to all fair-minded Americans who believe that President Obama deserves the chance we gave him. He needs time - and support - to repair the damage caused by the party and the politics of destruction.

Monday's Rant Via Raw Story - Michael