A must-read LJ post by Elizabeth Moon

[kitsap_charles]

Read this post. Now.

This is what frightens me the most about Huckabee, Romney, and all the bible-thumping Nehemiah Scudder wanna-bes: they LIE. By word and deed, every last one of these Pharisees wants to rip up the Constitution and replace it with their narrow-minded screeds.

Does it frighten you, too?

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Would love to see the raw vote numbers on the Iowa caucus. If the numbers are what I think they are, and current trends hold, we have little to fear. That doesn't mean we should let up! Ms. Moon is totally right.... no theocrat deserves office; it'll destroy us. The fact that we've gotten this close really cheeses me off.

Results

[kitsap_charles]

From the Group News Blog:

Total Voter Turnout (approximate)
356,000

Percentage of total vote
24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)

Democrats turned out in record numbers, particularly young voters and first-time caucus-goers, and a significant number of them supported Obama. It says a lot about Obama's appeal, particularly when you consider that more women supported him than Senator Clinton (33% vs 31%).

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

They wouldn't be Nehemiah Scudder wanna-bes if they weren't lying piles of mule fritters. Frankly, I'd love this to be a christian nation, then there really would be no child left behind, people would not be dying because they can't afford proper nutrition and health care, and who has the most money would not influence government decisions.

[katieelizabeth.livejournal.com]

My word...I've met Elizabeth Moon...she came into the store I worked in one day and we stood and had a long conversation about fiction. The next day she brought me a signed copy of one of her books. I had no idea she was on lj.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah.

Worries me too that 10 years ago I would have been a staunch Huck supporter.

And all politicians lie. It's just that this lot is lying about unacceptable things and we're onto them.

There is no place for me in a theocratic America. I don't ned society to hold the closet door shut for me anymore.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I am either missing her point, or it is something that I just can't believe in. I am firmly convinced that men (and women) of religious faith can be good office holders in the USA. I read her saying that you are living a lie if you run for office and have a religious conviction. And yet, she starts out admitting that such men have served this country well in the past.

I have seen Huckabee, and it only confirms my opinion of him, based on his actions in Arkansas. I have a better understanding of Romney, and like him. We never got a good look at what Nehemiah Scudder looked like when he was running, or his personal skills, just his hypocrisy. Not sure that I could make that comparison.

[kitsap_charles]

I agree that people of religious faith— Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Pagan, and so forth by the hundreds of creeds— can be good office holders in the USA. What Ms. Moon is saying, I believe, is that if you profess to have a religious conviction, but your actions are thoroughly contrary to the tenets of that faith, then you are living a lie and have no business holding any position of public trust. Likewise, if you aspire to public office, a judgeship, or military officer's rank, but place the tenets of your particular faith ahead of your sworn oath to protect and defend the Constitution, then you also are living a lie and have no business holding that position.

Many men and women of deep, abiding faith have held— and do hold— office, judgeship, and rank; they understand that their faith is their own business, but that their sworn responsibility to the Constitution comes first.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can wholeheartedly support that view. Thanks for the clarification.

We will survive as we have before

[mba500.livejournal.com]

As a nation we are under threat of being run over by idiotic zealots with actual power of doing something about their even more idiotic vision.

However as a nation we have withstood even greater idiots. In the 1850s we had President Pierce which by all accounts is probably the worse president in history and who contributed to the eventual civil war. Yet we survived and were able to get over it. Curiously many generations down his great, great 5th generation grandson (through Barbara) is now W. I am confident we will survive this one as well.

The founding fathers genius is that they created an internal check and balance system so that the country would always try to find its center, I belief next national elections will do that.

Re: We will survive as we have before

[kitsap_charles]

Yes, as a country we survived the Civil War— but at a terrible cost in lives, treasure, and institutionalized hatred whose echoes still resound in too many hearts and minds today.

I am hopeful, but by no means confident, that as a country we will survive this kakistocracy. But at what cost, and for how long?

Re: We will survive as we have before

[mba500.livejournal.com]

You got a point as President Pierce cost us a civil war, 500,000 dead soldiers, untold misery and probably setting us back 40 years.

Hopefully it will not be this costly, this time around.