The campaign for the presidency is over, Barack Obama won, and an anxious world waits on the threshold of an expectant and enduring peace if the problems he inherits can be corrected.
(PASO ROBLES, Calif.) - Now that the election is over, the Party can be perceived for what it is, a reign that falls mainly on the plain people; i.e. its base that consists of traditionalists, evangelicals, the super-rich, and wannabes who try to be like others if only in their imagination.
Traditionalists come from families who have voted Republican for generations, still do, and always will. Evangelicals fall easily into the traditionalist-mold because they tend to believe Evangelists who pretend to speak for God, but who often misinterpret the New Testament and embellish their preaching to suit their purpose. Rod Parsley says it is God’s will that American-Christians destroy Islam, and that may explain the Iraq fiasco.
Traditionalists and evangelicals are a category of voters viscerally imprinted by time or religious-conditioning that produces in them irrational opinions which if they are not always correct are nevertheless wholeheartedly believed by those who obediently accept their givens without questioning their truth or viability.
Wealth and influence is the engine that drives the Republican Party. But when $5,000,000.00 invested in-tax-free bonds @ 5% will return $250,000 a year in usable money to the investor, why are some not satisfied with anything short of hundreds of millions of dollars? Some people come by their extreme wealth innocently as part of an aristocracy and its meaning of noble-character, “possessing high ideals or excellent moral character,” and noblesse oblige, “an honorable and generous way toward those less privileged.” Many nouveau-riche and wannabes, however, resent the graduated income tax as being proportionately unfair to them and consider it socialistic.
Success may be perceived as a sign of God’s approval by those who enjoy it. God, presumably, can express His disapproval also as in the instance of Katrina when Republicans ignored reality in favor of letting God handle the details, forgetting that God’s gift to man of a brain is conditional upon it being used, a truth the Administration dropped to the detriment of New Orleans.
Extremism invites it own reaction, Republican-Evangelicals are as radical as the enemies they choose to confront to prove Christian dominance. The Axis of Evil was an excuse to insist Iraq, Iran and No. Korea do as Bush says. Diplomacy could have avoided unnecessary sacrifice. Instead Iraq was invaded and is occupied, North Korea was condemned then struck from Bush’s list of terrorist nations, but only after Bush kept his promise, and Iran is willing to talk any time Bush is ready, but he won’t. In retrospect, the presumed threat from these nations appears more ephemeral than real. But what about Europe?
The Cold War is over, Geo. W. Bush said so. Russia and the United States have cooperated in many areas since, but that hasn’t stopped Bush from arbitrarily putting anti-ballistic missile-sites in Europe, an unnecessary defense against God knows who, without consulting Vladimir Putin who takes exception to Bush’s rude and irresponsible conduct. Putin is countering by playing Russia’s Western Hemisphere cards in Venezuela and Cuba that gives the whole the appearance of a game of International Monopoly.
Ethnic cleansing is nothing new to Europeans as Georgia, a small offshoot-nation of the USSR with two autonomous Moslem regions within its borders, may be trying to prove. Both regions incline toward Russian-rule but Ossetians, living peaceably under the eye of Russian peace-keeping troops,. suddenly and brutally were attacked by the U.S. backed President of Georgia. Russian forces responded in kind, and the war soon was over. Recently, a team of fifty unaligned-monitors investigated and concluded that Georgia started the conflict. Yet the U.S. accused Russia of a disproportionate response that caused Putin to assume a defensive posture toward the west. Might all of this have been orchestrated by the Religious Right to help John McCain get elected? God forbid!
The campaign for the presidency is over, Barack Obama won, and an anxious world waits on the threshold of an expectant and enduring peace if the problems he inherits can be corrected. America doesn’t need enemies, it needs friends and it ought to assure the nations of the world of its sincerity by removing from Europe the anti-ballistic missile sites already installed, withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and return Iraq to its full sovereignty, and establish friendly relations with all nations of the world. The return on such a minimal investment would be enormous, so the sooner the better.
The greatest threat to America is from within, not without. The Republican Party, with its Evangelical Holy See, operating as a permanent political-majority is over. The people have taken back its destiny by denying Evangelicals and traditionalists the power of misguided persuasions that would return America to the Middle Age when religion was deadly.
The United States is a Secular Nation based on Separation of Church and State. Our fore-fathers wisely declared its Religious and Territorial Independence in the same century as the last so-called witch was condemned, convicted and killed by Puritan-Christians in Salem, Mass.
------------------------------------------------Kenneth G. Ramey was a 79-year old "writer without a Website" who is generating excellent, provocative articles on the subject of religion and world affairs. We are pleased that Ken's "lone wolf" presence as a writer in the world has been replaced by a spot on our team of writers at Salem-News.com. Raised in Minnesota and California during the dark years of the Great American Depression, Ken is well suited to talk about the powerful forces in the world that give all of us hope and tragedy and everything in between. You can write to Ken at: kgramey@sbcglobal.net
Let’s leave it at that.
The Republican ReignSalem-News.com