Poor Baby Bobby

Bobby Jindal wants you to know the evil Obama Administration hates America.

Today the American people, whether they know it or not, are mired in a silent war.

It threatens the fabric of our communities, the health of our public square, and the endurance of our constitutional governance.

It is a war against the propositions in the Declaration of Independence.

It is a war against the spirit that motivated abolitionism.

It is a war against the faith that motivated the Civil Rights struggle.

It is a war against the soul of countless acts of charity.

It is a war against the conscience that drives social change.

It is a war against the heart that binds our neighborhoods together.

It is a war against America’s best self, at America’s best moments.

It is a war — a silent war — against religious liberty.

This war is waged in our courts and in the halls of political power. It is pursued with grim and relentless determination by a group of like-minded elites, determined to transform the country from a land sustained by faith — into a land where faith is silenced, privatized, and circumscribed.

Wow, that’s really awful. What is the awful terrible government doing to oppress religion?

First, the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate. The Obama Administration has taken the position that private, for-profit companies cannot claim a religious exemption from including birth control as part of their employee benefit packages.

Second, the HGTV Cable network — HG stands for “home and garden” — dropped plans to produce a program hosted by twin brothers David and Jason Benham. The brothers were to have helped poor people turn a “fixer upper” into a nice home. Then it came out that the brothers and their father, Fiip Benham, had a history of right-wing extremist activism that includes lots of loud hate speech aimed at homosexuals and those who support abortion rights. HGTV dropped plans for the program, no doubt to protects its politics-free brand. This episode proves, Jindal said, that “The modern Left in America is completely intolerant of the views of people of faith. They want a completely secular society where people of faith keep their views to themselves.”

It would probably surprise HGTV that they are representatives of the “modern Left.” But no one is stopping the Benhams from saying what ever they like.

And finally, Jindal is still angry about the “Duck Dynasty” guy, who suffered no ill effects from saying stupid things that pissed off a lot of people. I think Bobby feels left out he missed being fed to lions in an arena.

21 thoughts on “Poor Baby Bobby

  1. Jindal has a point. The Left has yet to come up with a moral framework for why we push for the things we do, and to unabashedly promote it. This is the kind of thing Lakoff talks about all the time. By our silence, we cede this crucial argument to the Jindals of the world (and every other right wing politician), who’s not afraid to push the Right’s moral framework, and who completely believe in it.

    I’ve said this many times, and Lakoff has too – until we on the Left can passionately and unashamedly articulate our own moral vision for the country, expect tough sledding in any political fight. It’s not what most people hear.

    Lakoff would say that we talk endlessly about the details or merits of this or that policy, all the while not addressing the deep moral framework that is embedded in every human being. That’s really what’s at issue, and the Right understands this.

  2. moonbat,
    “I’ve said this many times, and Lakoff has too – until we on the Left can passionately and unashamedly articulate our own moral vision for the country, expect tough sledding in any political fight. It’s not what most people hear.”

    How about “The Golden Rule?”
    We Liberals want to do/for unto others, as we would want done to/for ourselves.

    Our Conservatives follow “The Gilded Rule:”
    Do unto others first, what you think/imagine they want to do to you!

  3. Gulag, I like what I call “Spock’s Rule”: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number. I don’t remember what episode of Star Trek his screenwriters first had him utter this.

    Who knew that something as trifling as a childhood TV series would contain such obvious wisdom, that has been almost completely lost in our time. Everyone back then believed stuff like this, to the point where something like Jindal’s utterances would be regarded as nonsense.

    I’m reminded of that great parody, Galaxy Quest and their “historical documents”.

  4. Well, you’ve got to keep in mind that Jindal is addressing the graduating class of Liberty university. They’ve already been fully programed. So what Jindal is doing is just validating their intellectual bondage in exchange for a couple of bucks. It’s not like any ideas of worth are being imparted into fresh alert young minds.
    When you think about it how much value can be in a speech that’s given in a negative vein. Rather than delivering an uplifting and inspiring speech Jindal is burdening their spirit and their mind with a message to them of being victims of oppression.
    That’s right, Bobby J…Just saturate their minds with the shackles of victimhood…it’s probably the best way to send a child off into the world in search of happiness and success… because they’ll never find it if they are looking for it through eyes that see themselves as a victim.
    WWVD…What would Vishnu do?

  5. HGTV needed to cancel the show after they found out the true character of the one brother because I think many of their present top hosts are gay. I am sure the crazy rightwing extremism of one person could have made life very miserable for many people at HGTV. Live and let live is not a motto rightwingers live by.

  6. “America did not invent religious freedom, religious freedom invented America.” Bobby Jindal

    This is a great one-liner. And completely untrue. Let me quote some Thomas Jefferson. (I know, some of my friends knew I would trot out this quote. But as it’s the finest historical proof of the state of religious intolerance in opposition to religious liberty in early America, I will post it for those who have NOT read it.)

    “the successful experiment made under the prevalence of that delusion on the clause of the constitution, which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity thro’ the U. S.; and as every sect believes its own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians & Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes.”

    The next line is carved in marble and read by millions at the Jefferson Memorial, but damn few who read it know Jefferson was talking about the clergy when he wrote…

    “And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

    So Jefferson reports that just before he was elected president, 1800, the clergy were trying to twist the first amendment into a ploy to the ‘establishment of a particular form of Christianity’. In context, Jefferson is referring to a plan to elevate one dominant religion to be endorsed by or at least tolerated by the government as the ruling theology. This is what the clergy was trying to do in 1800 and it is only a cosmetic difference to say that in 2014, a dominant religious philosophy, stripped of a particular religious affiliation does not violate a separation of church and state.

    It’s a historical fact that Jefferson was opposed by many of the clergy and publicly denounced from the pulpit. Early American churches were NOT the authors of religious freedom – they were fighting for religious and political dominance, and they fought dirty. To continue with Jefferson..

    “But this is all they have to fear from me: & enough too in their opinion, & this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets against me, forging conversations for me… which are absolute falsehoods without a circumstance of truth to rest on; falsehoods, too, of which I acquit Mazzei & Bishop Madison, for they are men of truth.”

    But enough of this: it is more than I have before committed to paper on the subject of all the lies that has been preached and printed against me…”

    The greatest fault of Liberty University is not that they advocate a conservative viewpoint. They subscribe to and spread a view of history which is false – untrue – contradicted by the evidence. I know that Christianity has been and can be a force for good, for Justice, for opportunity, because at times it has been. But what Jindal is suggestion is pure BS, and if the school was half of what it should be as an institution of higher learning, they would be the first to call the Governor for his fiction.

    PS – Bonus quote – “”The advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from [the clergy].”

    Thomas Jefferson to Levi Lincoln, 1802.

    PPS – For those who would put the Ten Commandments in front of the courthouse..

    “Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.”

    Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814.

    (doug, stepping of his soapbox, aware he overstayed his welcome.)

  7. HGTV canceled a show when one of their proposed hosts was found to have insulted a sizable portion of their [target] audience…

    How leftist!

  8. I misread “a war against the propositions” as “a war against prepositions” and thought dude, if anything is in trouble here it’s clearly pronouns.

  9. I am with Swami, Doug. You saved my intellectually lazy self from some serious key stroking. Thank you for providing that information.

    Regarding Bobby Jindhal. As with David Brooks, I have a hard time believing that he could actually believe such nonsense. He was a Rhodes scholar. As Swami noted, he is just “catapulting the propaganda.” Some right wing luminaries earn the big bucks by writing carefully crafted nonsense to a specific part of their political base. The validate and intensify what is often already there in force. Victimhood is important because it removes the necessity of restraint.

    In the case of Liberty University, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. The young zealots already believe that they are the army of God, and the sole hope of the world. They are actors in a great Biblical drama. That’s who they are, or who they wholly and deeply yearn to be. Jindhal just follows the recipe, turns up the the heat, and collects his 35K speaking fee. I suppose it’s nice work if your conscience can handle it.

  10. Jindal is addressing the graduating class of Liberty University

    Where the shared belief is that “religious liberty” = the right to bully others in matters of religion, and the gummint must back you up in it.

    Or else tantrums. And sometimes domestic terrorism.

  11. Liberty University is the birth place of the militant Christianity that pervades today’s politics. Falwell with his “moral majority” delineated the battle lines that are in place today. It’s a simple exercise in logic and implication.. If you’re not in the moral majority then by the logic of default you would have to be in the immoral minority. And if you voice objection to being classified as immoral by not accepting their view, then you are accused of trampling on their religious liberty.

  12. If anybody wants to get a clearer understanding of what the result of a constant messaging that your religious liberty is being denied, then take a look back at Jonestown. “They’re coming with flame throwers, drink your kool aid!”
    That might seem like an extreme statement, but if you analyze what transpired at Jonestown.. the bottom line is that they believed their religious liberty was going to be taken from them.

  13. The next line is carved in marble and read by millions at the Jefferson Memorial, but damn few who read it know Jefferson was talking about the clergy when he wrote…
    “And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

    Doug.. As a child I was a stamp collector and I specialized in collecting American stamps. In 1960 the Post Office issued a series of 6 stamps called the American Credo series that featured quotes by six famous Americans. One of those six stamps in the series had that quote from Jefferson that you posted above.
    Years later while researching the tyranny of the church on line I remembered the quote in essence, but not in the exact wording and with only a vague idea of the context in which it was delivered. So I typed the quote as best I could remember it into the Google search window.. and to my surprise it returned a result where the top link on the search page was to Regent University. That beady eyed imp Pat Roberson had hijacked Jefferson’s quote to beguile the stooges who attend his university into thinking that Jefferson was endorsing Christianity. So goes the we’re a Christain nation meme!
    When you study Jefferson’s quote you have to ask.. What tyranny existed over the minds of men at the time other than religious tyranny.. I’m sure some would give Jefferson’s quote a cursory glance and assume he was making a reference to George III’s tyranny over the lives of men if they didn’t know the context in which it was delivered.

  14. You know, the thing about Duck Dynasty (which my brain always wants to finish with “…in the 24th and a half… CENTURY!”) – did *anyone* call for *anything*? Or did the network suspend him to win a news cycle’s worth of publicity to cover their butts just in case it generated a lot of offense?

    The HGTV issue reminds me of a joke news article I saw where a new SCOTUS judge was to be selected and a bunch of “Christian leaders” were demanding to know the new nominees record on… poverty. Because you know, Jesus talked about poverty more than any other single topic, and by golly, they needed to know that this was a good justice who understood what was really important to Christians!

    I’d like to see some honor for feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless/clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned. I’d like it if Christianity was well known for those things.

    But I’m not sure I’ve seen prominent Christians talking about that.

    As for birth control – time was, the “papists” were the red headed stepchild of Christianity in the US (in spite of being the largest single Christian denomination). It’s amazing how a minor Catholic doctrine has become so *incredibly* important.

  15. “They want a completely secular society where people of faith keep their views to themselves”

    If only little Bobby had substituted “people of faith” with “phony hypocrite flag waving politicians of faith” then yes as a secular progressive myself I would say he would be right!

    Is it just me or does twitter make everyone in public life seem like 9th graders? #whogivesaflyingfuck!

  16. But I’m not sure I’ve seen prominent Christians talking about that.

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure you haven’t either! 🙂 But.. supporting Israel, or bringing your tithes and offering into the storehouse.. Yep, plenty of that!

    I kinda like Joel Osteen’s pitch…”Remember, you’re a child of the king, and you have God’s DNA”.

  17. “I don’t get the twitter thing either”

    I must have partially read Maha’s mind, she has a story up about twitter??? The problem is who really does give a fuck, these people are tweeting pictures of food, random thoughts about who gives a rats ass, I was reading TPM today and every damn story had a tweet reference, like I said reminds me of 9th grade except when you’re in 9th grade you can be excused for acting like a immature punk!

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